Form and Content: The Shape of Discourse #13, The Dalai Lama, Tibetan leader, peacemaker 1995

Morgan O'Hara made this sparse artwork called 'Form and Content' using ink on paper. That single dark splodge in the middle of the page, I wonder how that came about? Maybe she was listening to a recording of the Dalai Lama speaking, and she tried to capture the essence of his words in a single go. One movement, like a calligrapher or someone doing tai chi. It must have been a very quick process, a flurry of action, before the ink dried on the page. What was she thinking? Was she trying to capture the sound of his voice, the feeling in the air, or the energy of the room? Maybe it was all of those things, mashed together into one inky mess. I imagine it relates to other automatic drawings, where artists let their subconscious take over. Think of the surrealists, or even Cy Twombly! It's like she's saying that art is about feeling, and about being in the moment.