Laurence “Larry” Mosca Speaks The Language of Love though His Art
This can be seen in his latest body of work titled “Expressions of Love”. Fifty paintings in various sizes featuring birds and landscapes in acrylic will be exhibited at Horizon’s Art Gallery from March 22 to April 2.
Mosca said this body of work is the most he has ever done for an exhibition. The inspiration for his work has always been nature and his love for the wild.
“No authority, no rules, no nothing, no something or other that people put on you to live up to, no expectations, no must, no should; nature accepts me as I am and that’s unconditional love,” Mosca said during a recent chat with the Kitcharee.
“I am unconditional love. I am nature. Once you drop the conditioned mind, cultural conditioning, traditional conditioning, indoctrinations, beliefs, concepts, opinions… one becomes natural. To be simple is to be natural. Only then, is unconditional love understood,” Mosca said.
Mosca said love is the ultimate panacea for all society’s ills.
“The theme of love is because art is created by love. The message to the viewers is a greater awareness for the sacredness of nature. People think that the sacred is something, somewhere else. Again, because of religion and its ludicrous beliefs. But I insist that the sacred and the holy is here and now. God IS this nowness. You are in God’s presence now, and don’t realise it because their beliefs say God is an entity, a being, and in most religions, a male! But this is ludicrous! God is what is! Consciousness, energy, existence,” The artist noted.
Mosca began his interest in nature at an early age. His father, being a hunter, had many books on birds. A few of those books, Mosca shared, were illustrated by Don Eckelberry, a renowned artist and ornithologist from New York.
“Eckelberry hosted an art seminar at the Asa Wright Nature Centre in Arima in 1975. I applied for a scholarship offered by the Centre to be tutored with Eckelberry for one month. I submitted my work and won the scholarship.
“The seminar was the launching pad for my career as an artist, specialising in birds. The following year, 1976, I had my first one-man exhibition. I must have had over 30 exhibitions over the years. I also exhibited in England and Argentina.
“But something deeper drives me. And it is the realisation that all of life is one. There are no divisions in existence as the religions want you to believe. It is because of divisions, and the factors that create divisions, that conflict inevitably must arise,” Mosca said.
“I spent one month at the Nature Centre with Eckelberry and others who attended the seminar. Birds were caught in mist nets and brought into the studio to study, draw and paint. Eckelberry was just awesome! He had a profound influence on me particularly as I was worshiping his work in books previously.
But the artist also admits that understanding of oneness brings tremendous implications. “It ends conflict in oneself thus ends conflict without. Compassion, empathy, love arises. The observer and the observed are one. It is this understanding that connects me with nature and thus is the impetus that manifests the art,” he said.
It took Mosca about six months to accumulate this body of work through painting every day and working on several simultaneously. He said art is a form of meditation. “In fact, any activity whereby we transcend the ego or self is meditation. Dance, music, whatever format, the doer is not. In dance there is no dancer, only dance. This is what meditation means, to transcend the ego or the conditioned mind. Prayer is rooted in duality, meditation is rooted in love, oneness.
“This may be my 50th exhibition! I don’t know what’s next. I am terribly simple and enjoy simple things. I am certainly not ambitious and have no desire other than to be ordinary and simple. Then nothing is ordinary or simple. We are surrounded by sheer magic and mystery. Our greatest crime is to take for granted what is. That’s why I insist the veils of conditioning must be removed from our eyes.”
The virtual opening takes place on March 22 at 6.30 p.m., Horizon’s Art Gallery’s Facebook page, with special guest Michael Phillips. For further information, call the Gallery at 628-9769 for details.
Laurence Liberato Mosca was born and grew up in Port of Spain. His mother is of British background and father Italian.
