Thank Goodness [It's Raining] Oil on linen 92 x 207 cm
To grok is to intimately and completely share the same reality or line of thinking with another physical or conceptual entity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok
Regular readers will know of my concerns for the planet, particularly with regards to water and soil. Since I started this BLOG in 2006 I have often written about my concerns, plus the paintings which I call my 'quiet activism'. My more obvious visual statements are made using small $ signs and words to create ambigious 'landscapes', which pose questions about how we 'value' our land, and its life giving and sustaining qualities. In Australia and elsewhere we are witnessing a rush to extract huge amounts of minerals and coal seam gas. Like many others, I am not anti-mining per se, but I am anti rushing into extraction activities without a scientific analysis of the risks to water, food production etc. There are enough scientists, and others with experience, calling for caution to indicate that there are risks...and major ones.
Earth For Sale Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm
This painting is created with small $ signs.
But, this post is not about mining or coal seam gas or farming. Rather, the paragraph above is a short backdrop for new readers.
TO GROK?
To grok is to intimately and completely share the same reality or line of thinking with another physical or conceptual entity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok
As I ponder the environmental dilemmas confronting the world today, I can't help but think about the manner by which we are connected to land. Yes, we use it, move around upon it, photograph and paint it, some watch it from satelites, we dig into it, we manipulate it for all sorts of reasons. However, I sense we largely see ourselves as separate from it. We are observers, witnesses, users, particpants upon. Yet, what if we saw ourselves as part of the landscape, enmeshed with its ebbs and flows, absorbed into the one pulse of life? What if we were to grok with the land, the Earth?
I suspect that early humans did not differentiate themselves from the land, their environment. From the distance of thousands of years into a future characterised by dilemmas of survival, our forebears' attitudes seem highly evolved.
Heaven and Earth Oil on linen 90 x 200 cm
How can we return to a early humankind relationship with land, in a way which is reconcilable with their future...the one we now inhabit?
SYMBOLISM
I'd like to suggest that the answer lies with potency of symbolism. And regular readers will know what I am going to write next. Yes! The age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol holds clues, I'm sure, to how we might re-imagine our future relationship with Earth and land...and given modern understanding of outerspace...with the cosmos as well.
I am sure there are other age-old symbols which have the kind of potency that can propel re-imagining forward, as it speaks to the past. However, for me, the tree-of-life holds so much endless potential to re-awaken human race memories of connection and rapport with our environment, its physicality and its spirit. The vascular quality of the tree, speaks of systems...and systems keep us and the planet alive. I'd suggest that systems also ensure the propulsion of the Universe...and possibly the Multiverse! We may not understand, or have even identified, some of these systems, but we know they must exist. As I have writen before I have faith in complexity!
Radiance Oil on linen 92 x 208 cm
Mountains and Metaphors Oil on linen 80 x 200 cm
PAINTINGS
The paintings I have uploaded for this post are a selection of 'landscape' paintings since 2006. All, but the one immediately above and Earth For Sale , depict the tree-of-life totally absorbed...grokked...into the 'scape'. It is THE energy at the same time as being THE 'scape'...one influences the other to manifest. The tree, as a symbol of life, is simultaneously a symbol of us and our environment, here on Earth and within the Multiverse.
In Mountains and Metaphors [immediately above] the moutains are symbolic of overcoming adversity. In Earth For Sale small $ signs create an ambigius landscape. The $ signs are only discernible when viewed up close. I am asking 'Have we noticed?' Have we noticed how we 'value' our land?
Into My Galaxy Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm
Majesty and Order Oil on linen 36 x 36 cm
The Beginning Of Everything Oil on linen 90 x 180cm
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Kathryn
1 comment:
Lots to think about.
Grok? When you use a term like that, what is the first thing you think I think of? That’s right - sex. I’m assembled that way at the factory. So, after I got over the initial first DOINK, thinking, imagery thing, I looked up the word. There are several derivations to include where the observer becomes the observed.
So, not sure if you have seen these programs on what would happen to the earth if humankind was suddenly and completely wiped-out? If my recall is correct, b/c you know, I always have grok on my mind, I think the entire man-made planet would disintegrate into rubble in less than 100 years and return to its natural state. Rain, wind, sun, natural fires, vegetation and animals would compromise, degrade and erode everything but plastic water bottles. Just think, our one true legacy is a plastic water bottle. Unimpressive isn’t it?
In the end, mother earth gets her way – she always gets her way. And in the end we all are headed for one really huge grokking as we lay/lie (whatever the English rule is on the use of that word in this context) six feet underground – hopefully not anywhere near a methane coalbed. You know what will happen then. If that coalbed blows up, we get grokked again and the smoke cloud will waft our remaining particles to another country.
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