Friday, December 31, 2010

STIRRING THE SENSORIUM

Into The Sensorium Oil on linen 30 x 30 cm

I am writing this on New Year's Eve, and like many people am pondering upon and wondering about the decade past, and the new one which is about to commence. Also, as I write this much of Queensland is flooded, with many towns evacuated, farms water sogged with submerged crops, mines full of water and/or cut off by flooded roads. I have just heard from a friend of mine that Rockhampton airport is closed and will not reopen until well into January. For many people this New Year's Eve is devastating, and my thoughts go out to them.

The beginning of a decade is like a doorway into possibility. When I was a child, my brothers and I would talk about how old we'd be in certain years into the future. I remember at the ages of around 12,10 and 8 in the early 70s, we thought 1990 was just SO far into the future and we'd be SO old!

NEW PAINTINGS
The painting above 'Into The Sensorium' speaks of that place, I imagine inside the vortex core, where stillness enables us to listen to things we did not know we could hear, see things we did not know could be seen and feel things we did not could be felt. Sensorium means 'the sensory apparatus or faculties considered as a whole' [Oxford online]. With this meaning in mind, I 'see' the vortex core as a place where sentience is about simultaneous knwoings, where we can absorb all and BE still with ourselves, and all of humanity.

Regular readers will identify my transcultural/religious tree-of-life motif which 'speaks' of life on Earth, and beyond to cosmological realms and spiritual worlds, both vast and intimate. The spiral of colourful leaves draws the viewer into the painting...the leaves are simultaneously moments and eons of time. I like the way they 'kind of' dance!

Into The Sensorium will be in my Februrary show 'Vortex: Seeking Stillness At Its Core'.

                               Glimpsing The Truth Oil on linen 30 x 30 cm

Glimpsing The Truth is again my vision of being inside the vortex, at its core. Yet, a bit like Dr. Who's Tardis, once inside the vortex core, one realises that size, distance and perspective are no longer relevant...or at least how we humans judge them with our limited line-of-sight. This painting refers to another recent painting called Multiverse, where I have painted a tree with intermittent small portal like 'holes' or 'vortexes'. Each one of them suggests the possibility of other universes and new dimensions. Glimpsing The Truth is like a close up of one of the small portals in Multiverse.

Whilst the idea of other universes 'out there' is exciting and stimulating, the search for 'universes' can also be about discoveries within our psyches and souls, both individually and as a human race. Indeed, a search within, reveals that size, distance and perspective have no limits, and thus might need to be conceptually and spiritually re-negotiated...and in doing so reawakened 


22 Feb-6 March 2011, Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthry Rd, New Farm, Brisbane

If you want to see more than one painting at a time, I am gradually uploading images for my exhibition at http://www.twitpic.com/e/v3x Twitpic reproduces images really well.http://www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com/


Cheers and Happy New Year,
Kathryn



Glimpsing The Truth will be in my February show 'Vortex;Seeking Stillness At Its Core' .

3 comments:

Audubon Ron said...

Happy New Year.

moneythoughts said...

Happy New Year Kathryn. I saw where you became friends on FB with a classmate of mine from high school. I suggested to her that she take a look at your work. Bonnie paints and I thought you and Bonnie might enjoy sharing.

I have been seeing lots of news about the flooding and I hope you are OK. I am not sure if it is in your region.

I like these new pieces in this post too.

Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox said...

HI Fred,
Happy New year to you too. Yes, Bonnie and I are now FB friends. Thanks for the introduction. The flooding is terrible...over 1,000,000 square km flooded and more to come as the waters move downstream into the Murray Darling System. So far Brisbane has been ok, other than some flash flooding. Glad you like these new works.
Cheers,
Kathryn