SEEKING PERSPECTIVE

Seeking Perspective oil on linen 92 x 102 cm

LAST POST AND PHOENIXES

For those of you who read my last post Sometimes Things Just Do Not Work Out you will be pleased to know that my painting mojo returned. For those who have not read my last post, it was about a painting that was just not working. After some reflection, and a few weeks of  painting, it had to be wiped.

Seeking Perspective [above] is not the 'phoenix' of the painting I wiped out. The would-be-phoenix is resting. The wiped-out phoenix-in-waiting painting rests near my easel, as evidenced by the photo below...it's the red one on the left. As I work, keeping it in sight helps the percolation of new images and ideas. It's 'wings' are fluttering!

In response to my last post I received many comments about how interesting it is to see how an artist works. Thus, another reason for the photo below and the one at the bottom. The photo
below shows that I placed the 'failed' painting in sight of where I work. Other paintings are in the studio for all sorts of reasons eg: they need coats of varnish or the sides of the stretched linen need painting etc.

Can you tell my 'studio' is also known as a garage! I dream of.....

So, let's discuss SEEKING PERSPECTIVE.

In the photo below you can see me painting Seeking Perspective. The underlying coats of paint had been applied weeks ago. So, last week when I wiped out the other painting, I turned to this new one. Even while I had been working on the other one, this prepared linen kept drawing my attention. I should have decided to work on it first! As I have written before canvases, even blank white ones, speak to me. I should have paid earlier attention to the one that has now become Seeking Perspective!

 Me in my studio working on Seeking Perspective. On the right is Life Calling: Anyone There? On the left is the wiped out painting and behind it is Birth Of Light

TREE-OF-LIFE - PERSPECTIVE
My much loved age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life cascades across the canvas. Is it cascading across the vastness of outer space or is its existence an intimate microscopic world...or does it harken to something in between vastness and seeming invisibility? Perhaps, it exists in all perspectives at once?

The title Seeking Perspective can be interpreted a couple of ways. Maybe perspective itself is seeking, maybe it implies that perspective is sought?

With recent atrocities that have happened around the world, the use of the transcultural/religious tree-of-life has given me some solace. Indeed, it is a shared symbol across many cultures and religions and yes, it is closely shared by the three Abrahamic religions of Islam, Judaism and Christianity.  

The tree-of-life, as a symbol of all life, is a conduit for perspective itself to seek out new ways of 'seeing', at the same time as inviting...even demanding...us to seek these perspectives too. As the tree reaches into unknown spaces of close and far distance, especially in partnership with cosmology, we can 'slide' along the branches, revelling in 'in/sights' never imagined. Well, we can...if we go seeking! Are we brave enough? I think some are...and some are not. And, perhaps some deliberately 'climb' a 'tree' that has been poisoned.

Seeking Perspective's cosmic potential, draws the viewer across many dimensions. As I was painting, I imagined the red ball as Earth, maybe 'bleeding', maybe hot with potent potential, maybe just plain HOT. The tree-of-life provides vascular-like energy in 'empty' space, almost cradling 'Earth'. But, it may not be Earth at all. In a Multiverse...yep that's right we may exist in not one Universe, but many...maybe the red ball is our Universe?

Taking a cosmic perspective makes it abundantly clear that we humans, for the foreseeable future anyway, only have one home...Earth! It also makes war, killing, terrorism and fundamentalism of all kinds, seem pretty puerile.

You might like to read Team Humanity

RECOMMENDATION
I highly recommend the Boston Goble's Art Critic, Sebastian Smee's essay Confronting The Unthinkable In Goya's Art  Its trigger is the Goya exhibition at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, but Smee, with amazing dexterity, weaves contemporary themes into an analysis that prods re/thinking about our perspectives of humanity. It is a sombre read, but eloquently illustrates the power of art to provoke analysis.

Here's a 'close distance' photo of Seeking Perspective...in progress.

PANDORA
And, here's the link to the official notification that my BLOG, yes this one, has been selected for archiving [in perpetuity] on PANDORA, Australia's official archive of online sties of significance and long-term research value. Please click HERE I am really pleased to have my work acknowledged in this way.

Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com