MYTH

Towards The Past and Future Gouache on paper 21 x 29.7 cm 2013

 

I am re-reading a wonderful book I bought and read in the early 1990s. It is Joseph Campbell: The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers. The book is a transcription of a series of conversations which took place between the two men in the years leading to Joseph Campbell's death in 1987. Joseph Campbell 'was the world's foremost authority on mythology', a scholar with deep insights into the interconnnections between mythologies and how they might 'speak' to contemporary society. For more information, please visit the Joseph Campbell Foundation website HERE 

 

Regular readers will know of my long and deep interest in perspective and the potential to develop skills in seeing multiple perspectives [even simultaneously]. Coupled with this is a keen interest in cosmology and the new insights, and perspectives, humanity gains from the unveiling of distances that seem to be getting both smaller and larger. By taking ourselves away from, and outside, Earth- bound perspectives we have an opportunity to 'see' ourselves and humanity in new ways. As I have written before, for me, the most significant realisation is that we all share the one home...planet Earth. In fact, for the time being, and probably into the unforeseeable future, Earth is our only home. There is nowhere else to go! For humanity to survive, and for Earth to provide a continuing and sustainable home, we all need to work to-gether. My recent short story Stirring The Star Dust is an allegorical story about this very issue.

 

So, back to Joseph Campbell. Apart from many many profound observations and insights, I was struck by an answer Campbell gave to a question asked by Moyers.  

MOYERS: What kind of new myth do we need?

CAMPBELL: We need myths that will identify the individual not with his local group but with the planet.

Remember, this conversation ocurred in the mid to late 1980s. We now have people like Prof Joel Primack and his wife Nancy Ellen Abrams calling for the same thing, but from a perspective that is steeped in contemporary cosmological research, as well as an understanding of story, myth and the arts. I have previously referred to their recent book, which I have read, keep beside my bed and highly recommend, The New Universe and The Human Future: How a shared cosmology could transform the world. Currently environmental issues, already apparent in the 80s, are now manifesting in noticeable outcomes that threaten food production, climate, water quality and quantity and more. It seems to me that Campbell's call for myths that vision us as dwellers of Earth, and not just by nation, region, religion or race, is vital.

 

 

Seeking The Past and Future Gouache on paper 15 x 21 cm 2013

 

The basic premises, or resonnances, of age-old symbols can be visually re-articulated to 'speak' to us today. As regular readers know, this is what I search to do in my paintings, particularly with my much loved transcultural/religious tree-of-life. More recently I have been stirred to paint the ouroboros, the age-old symbol of a snake eating its own tail. This symbol was used by the ancients to visually describe the Universe, as they understood and observed it. Today, modern cosmologists also use it to visually describe the Universe and the relationship between the quantum and cosmic worlds ie: as we understand and observe. For more on this aspect of the ourboros please check out my previous posts COSMIC ADDRESS and SNAKES EATING THEIR OWN TAILS 

 

Symbols can speak across time, history and space. It is up to us to listen, ask, seek and explore. Imagination is a key! Why? Because, imagination draws upon human race memory and sensation, not just individual impulses. Imagination can stir the past, present and future. It agitates and stimulates. It is a gift to humanity...a gift of the stars maybe? If you believe we are all, like everything else in the Universe, are made of star dust...remnants of the Big Bang...then imagination is definitely a key! 

 

You might be interested in a 2009 post I wrote called FAITH IN IMAGINATION

 

All Of Us Gouache on paper 15 x 21 cm 2013

All of Us inspired me to paint Eternity's Breath

 

I've just reworked my COSMOLOGY GALLERY on my website. Please click HERE to see it.

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

TOWARDS A COSMIC LANDSCAPE

This Is A Landscape Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2001

 

 

I was rummaging through my map drawers, where I keep my unframed works on paper, and found this painting [above] This Is A Landscape which I painted in 2001. When I painted it I remember my intention was to be more obvious than obvious, by writing 'This is a landscape' across the entire page. The words give form to the 'landscape' between the tree trunks.

 

Regular readers will know of my interest in untethering notions of landscape from Earth. In 2001 I had not really formulated my ideas, but I remember wanting to disrupt landscape. I wanted to question our complacency towards landscape painting, to unsettle the ubiquitous traditions of landscape, to postulate whether we humans find vulnerable sanctuary within landscape. 

 

When I lived out west, in Goondiwindi, there was an expectation that I'd paint landscapes. This expectation irritated me a bit, because city dwelling artists were not expected to paint cityscapes. Some did and others...most....did not. It seemed such a simplistic attitude. Yet, the 'regional artist' label hung heavy with expectation around my neck. I was angry with landscape!

 

I remember having an exhibition in Brisbane in 1995 or 1995...can't remember the exact date, but my second daughter was still a baby...where the paintings were my early tree-of-life works. Golden Lives [below] was in the exhibition. Back then for me, the tree-of-life was more of a familial tree, rather than the cosmic/universal one I dance with now! The tree, or my motivation to paint it, was about family and connection across generations. Regular readers will know that my ideas were vastly broadened when I exhibited in the Middle East in 2005.  

 

 

Golden Lives Mixed media on paper 1993

 

But back to 1994/5. At the opening of the exhibition a person from a Queensland government Arts organisation kept referring to the trees as gum trees! He was not the only one. I was more than a little irritated! My Goondiwindi address seemed to stick to me like mud!

 

When I moved to Brisbane in 2000 I found there was no expectation to paint landscapes. The irony is that, without the expectation, I began to feel much freer to paint landscapes ...or my versions of them!

 

And now, after years of being immersed in landscape, literally and artistically, I am suggesting we need to untether notions of landscape from being Earth bound, because whilst Earth maybe our home, the Universe is our environment. Looking beyond Earthly horizons provides new and different perspectives, which may reveal new pathways for the future, act as catalysts for co-operation, provide alternative insights...and more.  A cosmic context is really very exciting...new horizons, frontiers and places to explore, at closer and farther distances of space and time. Landscape is no longer 'safe' or expected! I think it is now expectant! And, that's an exciting challenge for us.

 

 

Galactic Horizons and Beyond oil on linen 85 x 150 cm 2012

 

 

 

 

FROM MY BROTHER'S BLOG

'Solo Sunflower'

 

Absolutely beautiful!!!!!!!

 

Solo Sunflower photo taken by Wilfred Brimblecombe

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

COSMIC ADDRESS

Cosmic Address oil on linen 90 x 180 cm 2013

I love the idea of a cosmic address? Astrophysicist, Prof Joel Primack, and writer, Nancy Ellen Abrams, use this inspirational coupling of words in their book The New Universe and The Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World When I read those two words pictures sprang into my head and 'Cosmic Address' above is one of them.

The notion of a cosmic address propels you to perspectives way beyond your everyday street address, to horizons that make notation of one's country even seem myopic. If we all thought of ourselves as living at a cosmic address how would Earth and humanity be viewed? Just imagine taking yourself from inside your cells to the far reaches of outer space. Imagine viewing Earth from these intimate depths to the fulsome distances of space. These kinds of perspective are potentially full of knowledge, insight and awareness...if we're game to look up from our smartphones!

COSMIC VOYAGE ZOOM-IN
The video below is from Primack and Abram's website: It uses the age-old transcultural/religious symbol of the ouroboros [snake eating its own tail] as a guage/meter, while taking the viewer on a journey through cosmic scales. Regular readers will know of my interest in the ouroboros. Indeed, it appears in my painting 'Cosmic Address' above. My previous post provides more information on the significance of the ouroboros in my work and as a symbol representing the Universe.

COSMIC TIME TOO
Not only is a cosmic address about a place within the cosmos, but also a time within Universal history. Primack and Abrams make a very incisive argument that humanity is now placed at a pivotal time...a time midway through the life of our sun, the celestial powerhouse maintaining life on Earth. At some point in a few hundred million years the sun, as it builds to its cataclysmic demise, will radiate such heat that human life on Earth will be impossible. Humanity's future is probable extinction. But, the Universe will still continue, our Universal address will still exist albeit changed, but we may not/won't be home, literally or consciously. How can humanity A: ensure that the life of future generations is not made worse by actions and decisions taken now? B: come up with plans to possibly mitigate extinction? C: take advantage of any unexpected opportunities to enhance and/or save life? D: identify risk, even a small one, to Earth and humanity, from afar or from within?

COSMIC ADDRESS Oil on linen 90 x 180 cm
I wanted to create an image that appeared to be both intimate and vast, visceral and cosmic. The ouroboros, its body painted with another age-old transcultursl/religious symbol of the tree-of-life, represents time and scale, yet its circular shape is like a portal, a womb, an eye... The ouroboros seemingly floats in an energised space, that could be outer space or the interior of life's womb. Another tree-of-life grows from an 'horizon', pulsing with life and energy, like blood or those dark forces propelling universal space. The lightning at bottom left is a conduit heralding a new landscape, one untethered from Earth, but one that looks back at the same time as observing all perspective, temporal and spatial.

In order to help us vision our cosmic address I suggest notions of landscape need to be untethered from being Earth-bound. We seem to cling to concepts of Earth-bound landscape that, in terms of geographic locale, somehow identifies who we are and where we come from...even a sense of ownership. Yet, the future is calling us to consider our 'home' and identity, to not only be derived from locales such as regions, countries, nations or continents, but also as citizens of the Universe. This kind of expanded address-vision surely must help unite humanity to work together to sustain life and the planet for near and far future generations?

Please also read more about my ouroboros painting at Snakes Eating Their Own Tails

For more on untethering landscape check out my post Untethering Landscape

Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com