Eureka Geller - Artist

Uri Geller: the Painter
















Geller in his New York studio, 1974


An article by Uri Geller on painting.

Healing Power of Paintings
Healing Art is a way to relieve tension and get rid of stress by looking at special paintings. There is a lot of information in paintings that cannot be expressed by words and that kind of information is considered to influence one's state of mind.

Kiyofumi Aoshima, a manager at a fitness club says: "Our members' (customers') reaction changed when we changed paintings on the wall. "The club now hangs "healing art" paintings on every floor. Each painting is chosen specifically for a specific purpose by a healing art specialist.

Blue Abstract Paintings Can Calm You
Rooms used after exercise and rooms for relaxation have blue abstract paintings which remind you of water and universe. They used to display paintings of wind surfing. After they started to display healing art paintings, a customer who comes to the club to overcome his depression says he's been feeling cheerful, and a stressed-out customer says that he now can relax more. They now have a vibrant abstract painting in the instructors' room in order to make them want to work hard. In the counseling room for psychosomatic patients, they display a painting which is supposed to ease tension.

Hiromi Shibuya, an owner of an art gallery says. "People unconsciously get influenced tremendously by paintings." He says that harmonious paintings that remind you of universe or the earth are suitable for workplaces because you can imagine universe and the earth in your mind and it can make you feel relaxed and give you drive to work hard.

Van Gogh Can Make You Depressed
On the contrary, opinionated paintings like Van Gogh's can make sensitive people feel depressed. Mr. Shibuya says "In workplaces, you must display paintings that make you feel alive."

Ryoji Tokuda, Chairman of Japanese Healing Art Society, Deputy Director at Hasegawa Hospital, says "Human mind is susceptible to non-language information. When you look at paintings, you get influenced psychologically by something that comes out from behind the paintings." For a long time Doctor Hasegawa has been experimenting an art therapy in which he cures his patients by letting them paint what they feel inside. He says paintings by patients with mental suffering show the pain and suffering of the patients. Paintings by Edvard Munch are artistic but are not suitable for workplaces. Doctor Hasegawa says that paintings can cut both ways so we can use paintings to motivate people.

Corporations Are Interested in Healing Art
Some hospices are already using healing art to heal patients' hearts and some corporations are experimenting with healing art to create better workplaces by displaying vibrant paintings in their conference rooms in order to inspire their employees, and by hanging relaxing paintings on the wall of their interview rooms to ease the tension. Mr. Shibuya says, "Paintings can are a kind of medicine that works on people's mind. When they are used appropriately they are useful, but when misused, they can cause a side effect."

"This is a masterpiece, I'm convinced of it. It's absolutely brilliant - wonderful influences: Klimt, Dali, Picasso in the eyes, Mattise in the line. It should have fetched a fortune." - David Lee; foremost art critic and publisher of The Jacksaw - A News Letter for the Visual Arts







Uri Geller and David Hockney with bent spoon, circa 2005. There is no evidence that links any Hockney influence in Geller's works.




Geller the Sculptor:



For years, renowned psychic Uri Geller has captivated audiences around the world with mysterious feats of psychic spoon-bending, watch-starting, and clock-stopping.

Now, he has created an art car called the Geller Effect, a custom-built 1976 Cadillac decorated with some 5,000 pieces of contorted cutlery, attached to the car's body. Often imbedded with semi-precious stones and crystals, many pieces were once owned, used, or touched by famous personalities. The hood ornament is a rare rock crystal globe once owned by surrealist painter, Salvador Dali. Geller bent much of the cutlery with his legendary psychic powers, while the rest were manually shaped by his Israeli friend and sculptor, Avi Pines. The Geller Effect includes several original pieces salvaged from his 25 years of metal bending, plus a number from his personal celebrity collection. The word "peace" is incorporated into the design in several languages, including Arabic and Hebrew. Geller will drive the Geller Effect to Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran in support of peace in the Middle East.

In the 1970's Uri Geller was a "pupil" to Salvador Dali, who was a great mentor to Uri influencing his art style. Uri was also influenced by Peter Max, Andy Warhol, and Picasso who he also met.