Who are you, Leonard Rubins?
I’m a persistent worshipper of earth-roots and things above the clouds. I’ve dedicated myself to an extraordinary mission - and the world knows not of this. I take my delight in the everyday freedom of the meta-creation, at the pleasure of the matrix of our universe. I create all the time, and when discussing my opus I claim that he, who creates is always right! In my images, I’m the director of my own imagination. When presenting the galactical spatial compositions, which always lie deep in infinity, I allow many stories of a single image to come to life at the same time. I’ve constantly been discovering new horizons, like in endless fractous images, but have also been able to embrace any level of a single unit-detail in a given moment. The details in my works are not there to recreate reality, which by the way is the most important element of my personal style.
Art can be almost anything: a word, an image, an act;
art is living and being here. Which element of your work represents
the “to be” and which element represents the “Creator as the Big Father-Mother”?
The man exists, and is therefore the Creator in constant emerging. And I, a man, am constantly declaring myself. I create what I am. But bear in mind, that requires a lot of deep courage. The final product, an image born out of my darkness and light, is merely an atom of inner visions. From colour to composition, from the Sun and light to the universe, darkness and emptiness. All these elements tell me stories and reflect on me. This gives me strength and takes it away at the same time. In this I pass away and am reborn constantly.
You’ve been entering through the doors of the unknown and the inconceivable, and above all the man’s own unknown existance. To be a man, a part of the divine scheme, to have a divine touch - that is the desire and the need of anyone who sees your images. Leonard, have you found the answer in your images?
I’m through with acts and displays of transitory actions. A monologue cannot bring life into an empty heart. The answer is somewhere
out there, in my dream world. It dwells with unknown people and friends,
which I’ve been addressing and looking for with my images.
The present time, a mirror image of the renaissance, is the time of innovation and rapid progress. The technology, especially the cybernetics, has been presenting us with completely new expressive methods, views and dreams as well. The fact they cannot understand the work and creation has been leading people to a more simple conclusion; it’s all garish and daub. Wasn’t Leonardo da Vinci perceived exactly the same way? Do your images represent the eyes of future?
New
things are coming. They always have been and always will, that’s inevitable.
Today, time is passing faster than yesterday. I strongly feel all earthly
material things, voluntarily harnessed into the vision of eternity.
As each new day passes and stars light up the sky, everyday my images
awake. I’m a dreamweaver who has been linked with the computer for quite
some time now. I’m extremely interested in all that’s out of the ordinary
and special in its own unique way. But all new things are not inspiring.
Some time ago I decided to start using the computer instead of my hand
tools, air brush and paper. The Artpen has become my creative hand tool.
I believe in the harmony of "gods of technology", the human
inventiveness and the artistic creativeness.
I have to mention the word »daub« which signifies hot emotions without
the counterpoise of a cold mind -that’s why the rationalists have been
so eagerly avoiding and fearing it; giving it a negative connotation, because they are not able to understand why it has been poking them
in their deficitary neuralgical point - is a completely harmless and
not enough narrative word for me to be occupied by it. The sentiments,
torn out of the emotional context and outside the intimate sphere, are
irrational and therefore cannot be logically understood. We can sensually
approach them, but that’s not the same by far. I’m absolute in my solitude
and, if my creation presents me with such questions, couldn’t give less
about them. Again: he who creates is always right! Observers are not
able to appraise the sincerety of the artist’s experience simply by
observing his work from a far.
Leonard Rubins is offering me a hand, a memory of spiritual
experience and dreams of the universal light. You’re a very daring person
and you know the future is on your side. Have you found peace in your
images?My soul knows no peace. I would very much like to be the person I’ve not been able to be yet! But who am I and where I'm going? Why I’ve been addressing myself and you with my images. One wise man once sad, that our true peace is not of this world, and the matrix of our universe has not been scheming with its own creation. The “IT” is my life and death in one. Should I express myself in a mystical way? "Gloria Dei intacta est" (the greatness of the Creator is untouchable). Hence the "formula": Gloria Deo, et in Domino inferi, et in Terra Vita hominibus. ...Om shanti, shanti...
Your website has many
sections. One of them includes a section for the mysterious comprehension
of the Creator. You’ve been living in a real world, wrapped in the leaves
of colours and mystique, the never completely understood divine plan.
Has Leonard Rubins found the meaning of his own life through symbolism?
There’s no sense in living if you’re afraid to look into the darkness
and transitoriness, if you’re not worthy of the light and freedom beyond
the rainbow. The gates of eden are closed to beings with empty hands and cold
hearts. And there’s no way back home for them, until we learn. I've been timelessly
capturing the extent of my own desires by wanting to spread my wings,
to rise high. Thus I find my meaning and take the way of the Light.
.... And in spite of it all, I'm merely an extraordinary expression
of an ordinary man.
Besides telling stories with your images, you’ve also
been designing stamps, book covers, websites, etc. The essence of your
work is equally effective on stamps, book covers and your website still
under construction (www.star-borne.com). Are you driven by the thought
of a better world and future?
May I say- I am dreaming of a green planet and the islands of Light. Life always has and always will find its way of expression. Some way or the other. I respect that. Sometime and somewhere each living being turns everything over and becomes a part of the whole.
You’ve been creating in famous small village Vrba in
Slovenia. You and your big family have been living a full and happy
life, full or artistic creation.
Yes
and no! That’s everyone’s ideal.
Yet I wonder what I would have done to have a bag full of dollars, to
experience Great Southern lands and Bora Bora. Still, my life is
full when passing through dark forests or climbing on tops of mountains,
coming near to mountain ghosts, yearningly.
But how cruel becomes the wisdom when it brings no profit to the wiseman?
Iam finding the answer everyday in my own life by the warm embrace of
my life on our planet.
Thank you for your answers, Leonard Rubins. Let our planet become a nice home to all the visitors of this exibition, but above all let it fulfill your great desire - to SEE and EXPERIENCE the WHOLE planet.
Interviewer: SONJA KORANTER, novelist and poet.
Post scriptum: Artist is always searching for a good place for making exibition.