To 'transcend,' is to go beyond, to rise above, or to become something more.
Within each of the paintings in this new series, an area of spacious light lures the viewer on a mystical journey ‘beyond’. A pilgrimage that transcends the material realm of form - of things, emotions and thoughts, to the formless dimension that is our essence.
Passage Beyond, 101 x 101 cm, Mixed Media and Liquid Chrome on Canvas
This body of work illustrates a mythical 'Hero's Journey', through stormy seas and swirling mists into the unchartered terrain of our inner landscape. A pilgrimage across trepidatious peaks, through dark valleys and then to finally return home transformed.
As those of you who are familiar with my work can see, this exhibition is very different to the paintings I was creating before now. Since my last exhibition here at Yering Station, I have personally traversed some of the ‘rugged terrains’ faced by many of us over time.
Ancient Resonance, 152cm x 122cm, Mixed Media on Canvas, 2019
As a personal background to this series of paintings, this had been perhaps the most challenging chapter of my life. Just as two of my closest friends lost their battle with cancer, a day apart, my intimate relationship also dissolved. My whole world of ‘what I had come to know’ crumbled. Waves of grief, intense loss, confusion and fear, cracked me open, leaving me raw and vulnerable. Just as I had encouraged others to ‘lean into’ their unpleasant feelings, over the last 15 years of working as an Art Therapist, I knew that I must now ‘walk my talk', so to speak.
So I vowed to make it my spiritual practice to embrace all of the feelings that every part of me wanted to run from. I retreated into my studio sanctuary to express, create and explore these emotions. In the meditative process of creativity, I was able to easily connect with the wisdom, peace and stillness within and as though watching from a birds eye perspective, I marveled at how the fear, confusion and pain began to soften and dissolve with my continued presence. From somewhere deep inside, I was reminded that this period of such enormous pain was in fact a priceless gift that would catapult me into a new expanded experience of life.
Resounding through the Mountains, 101cm x 101cm, 2019
I know that you can all relate to what I’m saying.... sadly none of us escape these moments in our lives when we are brought to our knees. And while the passage through the suffering is unique to us all, it is uncomfortable to look at. We’d rather distract, avoid or numb ourselves to the pain - rather than to befriend it.
Yet just like in the mythical stories whereby the horribly fierce dragon is in fact kind and loving, and the gruesomely ugly giant is simply there to help, it’s when we hold that hand of the suffering, and surrender to its call, that the transformation, healing and rebirth to a new and improved self can occur.
It is my hope that this series of paintings inspires an experience of peaceful rest that transcends the struggles of everyday life. At it's highest function, I hope that this exhibition calls us to remember the stillness at our essence, below the realm of form, and when viewed as an object for meditation, that these paintings gently remind us to quiet the mind, transcend mental identification with the external world, and to connect to the still presence within.
Like a Drifting Cloud, 101 x 101cm, 2019