This painting is called 'Beyond' and it is one of my paintings in the Doggett Street Gallery Christmas Exhibition opening this Friday night @ 6pm. All the details are in my previous posting.
But, what was I thinking about when I painted this image? The tree-of-life is an important symbol for me and I have previously talked about the various aspects of its transcultural/religious power which excite me. It is easily identifiable across the world and thus takes people beyond simple comments about colour etc etc to places of similarity and story telling. I have experienced this in the Middle East at my exhibitions in Dubai and Abu Dhabi...more particularly in Abu Dhabi.
However, apart from the tree-of-life's potential to bring people togther it also has an affect on personal hope. I see hope as a seed...like a thought is a seed. After all, hope normally comes because someone thinks about something they want. But, is hope enough? Where does faith fit in? Is hope just hope without faith?
I recently had an insight...well it was for me.
Faith is very closely accompanied by the thought 'I expect...'. However, if the verb turns into a noun ie: an expectation, power can be lost because there is a tendency to dwell on or fall in love with an expectation and these can ultimately cause anxiety. With anxiety what happens to faith because surely faith can only exist without questioning [which anxiety implies]? So, the trick must be 'to expect' but not to have an expectation which you carry with you in your thoughts all the time.
The tree-of-life in terms of an individuals life can be like a map of our thoughts, hopes, faith and expectations. Each branch and twigg representing a moment or time of growth, activity, seeds sewn with some harvested and others not.
Beyond 25 x 25 cm [unframed] oil on canvas, $360
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