QUESTIONS

I Am A Tree Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm

I have been watching the world lately...as I am sure you have too. So much seems to be happening, so much that causes concern, disquiet and worry. Yet, from what I can discern, questions we may not have previously thought to ask, or be game to ask, are now being asked. Finally questions about the world's economic situation are probing underlying and exhausted paradigms, rather than only external symptoms eg: the S&P downgrade of the US has forced the navel gazers to look up. The dreadful riots in the UK have seen newspaper commentators, politicians and others analyse the 'sacredness' of welfare and the contigent erosion of self respect and responsibility...for all involved parties. Environmental issues are now world issues, where questions of responsibility for the future, and not just the foreseeable one, are part of the dialogue. And, so on.

Underlying all of this, I sense, are very deep questions about our identity as human beings. We are, in a way, asking ourselves, who are we? We are astonished by the UK rioters' behaviour, aghast at the greed of those who create ponzi schemes, bewildered by the inability of politicians to make statesman-like decisions, incredulous about environmental destruction for profit without scientific assurance of sustainability and so on.

As structures erode it forces us to question. When events happen, seemingly out of the blue [eg: UK riots, GFC] posthumous questions reveal that many of these events were inevitable. But, the questions also infer an underlying scramble to understand the human condition and ask, 'Who are we and where is compassion?' I hope we have the attention span required to ponder these questions deeply! Maybe art can help!

I Am A Tree

This is a short paragraph I previously wrote about this painting:

This next painting 'I Am A Tree' places the female figure at the centre. She is the site of all growth. She is the land, the sea, the sky. She is connected to everything, the Universe or Multiverse. She folds duality so that it is no longer recognisable as such. She embraces the vastness with intimate strokes of love and compassion. She is the horizon, as well as being that which exists beyond it...and this horizon may be within us. She is the landscape in its universal entirity, as well as its co-existing metaphor, the landscape of soul.

She is me, she is you, she is the feminine power that exists within us all...male and female.

And, regular readers will know of my thoughts on beauty, and its agency as a generator and holder of hope. Here's a short video where I speak about beauty. It is a segment from my recent talk at the C.J Jung Society of Queensland.

PARADISE
Countdown to my exhibition Paradise @ Purgatory Artspace, Melbourne!
The show dates are 8 Sept- 8 Oct.
Opening night is Friday 9 Sept 6-8 pm.
First Floor, 170 Abbotsford St, North Melbourne.

Check out http://www.artabase.net/exhibition/3275-paradise for more details and artist's statement.
Also check out my online gallery
 http://www.visualartist.info/visualartist/artist/subpage.asp?ex=gallery&I=1690&sub=5777&artistId=1292&PageId=1690

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com