PRESENCE

 The Presence Of Angels oil on linen 60 x 100 cm

I spend hours painting and I love it. What I love is that I can work at home, I don't have to dress up [in fact, I dress down *], I can take breaks to check emails or have a coffee and if a new idea pops into my head I can immediately sketch it, think about it and research any aspect of it. I get to imagine and even daydream knowing it is part of my 'job'! I love working alone!

But, my thoughts mean I am never alone. As I remember, fantasize, wonder, hope and imagine I am with others, its just that they're in my head! These 'others' can be people I know, love, would like to know, have read about and so on. I think about them in the context of feelings, what they have said, done and written or what they might say, do or write about. They or their activities are often the catalysts for my ideas. And, when I paint my much loved transcultural/religious tree of life my thoughts embrace the whole world and its humanity.

'The Presence Of Angels' [above] is an image which reveals clues and hints that Angels are present. I wanted to create an image which was suggestive rather than illustrative. I wanted to create an image where people would look for the clues and hints, and perhaps lead them to think about Angels as inspirations, impulses of thought and wonderings. I also like the idea that 'AH HA' instances, which I wrote about in my last post, are Angels knocking on our psyche to wake us up to change or the need for change.

As people look for clues and hints of Angels in this painting I like to think that this searching is done at both close and far distances. Viewers can move back and forth to see what this painting might disclose for them. The macro view may just reveal something which is not discernible when viewed up close and vice versa. Regular readers of my BLOG know that I am very interested in stimulating this kind of back and forth viewing of my paintings. Indeed, it is the way I create the image...I paint up close and then move to a distance to gauge with my eye, of eye ball and pupil, if the painting looks good and also if it has achieved what my mind's eye had envisioned in essence and aura.

This movement back and forth is a movement of perspective. It can be a literal perspective, but at another level the action could evolve into questioning our own perspectives of ourselves and others. As regular readers of my BLOG know, my interest in the macro and micro is really an interest in, and an investigation of, how to negotiate an increasingly globalised world in which we live locally. Maybe how we view art, and the resultant insights we may gain, gives us a way to find the new pathways...the new steps... we need to dance across the contemporary stage which exists between the local and global? If we learn these steps and become more flexibly adept at moving, or should I say sashaying, across the close and far distances of this stage, I'm sure new ideas, wonderings, compassions, understandings are [and give witness to] the presence of Angels.


*DRESSING DOWN
In the first paragraph above I mention I dress down to paint. I do look a sight! Well, on a busy day when I have to pick up children etc, I can change 3-4 times in the day, because venturing out in my painting clothes is not really acceptable. I call my painting clothes my 'eau de turps' clothes. Last week, though, I did decide to pick the children up from the train without changing. And, of course it was the one day when I subsequently did have to get out of the car. And, of course I ran into someone I knew, who did actually comment on the turps aroma. This plus the paint on my face caused my children to pray for the earth to swallow them up! My summer 'eau de turps' clothes are minimal because it gets just SO hot and humid in Brisbane. I wear a short indian cloth skirt which has a few holes in it and a sleeveless top with paint smeared all over it. In winter I wear my normal clothes underneath an excrutiatingly disgusting track dack suit. Needless to say I really enjoy dressing up when I go out...and needless to say I do not own or have the need for any power suits!


Cheers,
Kathryn