TO GROK LANDSCAPE

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.

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2008/07/earth-for-sale-120-x-160-cm-oil-on.html

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

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/11/beginning-of-everything.html

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FOR EVERYONE: WORDS AND PANTINGS

BOOK UPDATE

Please check out Kris Wampler's great online interview about

FOR EVERYONE

http://kriswampler.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/interview-kathryn-brimblecombe-fox/

Plus

http://www.spbroundup.com/nonfiction/religion

and

http://bloggers.com/KathrynBrimblecombe

and

for book launch details, where to buy etc etc

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/p/my-book-for-everyone-words-and.html

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Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

DAMNED

Rain Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm

It is raining again here in Brisbane, just after major floods! I certainly hope we don't get a wet winter, then followed by a wet summer just like the one we've just had. The soil needs time to dry out a bit. Floods are not something we want to experience so soon! The painting above is called Rain. I am actually very happy with this work as it almost exudes wetness. Indeed, it involved a lot of water splashed, sprayed and dribbled, plus some small brush markings.

'Water: The Epic Struggle For Wealth, Power, and Civilization' by Steven Solomon

Despite many areas of Australia being currently replete with water...water is still a major issue here and around the world. I have just finished an amazing book called 'Water: The Epic Struggle For Wealth, Power, and Civilization' by Steven Solomon [Harper Collins, NY, 2010]. It is a meticulously researched world history of water from it earliest uses for irrigation in the ancient world, to our present day looming crisis. The latter is coupled with threats to food supply, as well our thirst for energy and climate change.  As Solomon says, The lesson of history is that in the tumultuous adjustment that surely lies ahead, those societies that find the most innovative responses to the crisis are most likely to come out as winners, while others fall behind. Civilization will be shaped as well by water's inextricable, deep dependencies with energy, food and climate change. 

The last paragraph of the book offers a profound call for people to take water very seriously, At the end of the day, how each member of the world community ultimately acts in response to the global freshwater crisis is not just a matter of economic and political history, but a judgement on our own humanity-and the ultimate fate of human civilization. As one scientist succinctly puts it: "After all, we are water."

Mining vs Farming

In my own neck of the woods ie: South East Queensland, Australia we are seeing major potential threats to water, plus food supply and quality, with the burgeoning battle between mining and farming. Regular readers will know of my concerns for water quality, supply and the accompanying potential degradation of prime food producing farmlands on the Darling Downs and in the Bowen and Surat Basins. The increasing presence of open cut coal mining, plus the frenzied activity surrounding coal seam gas extraction, pose threats to above and below ground water quality and supply. These mining activites also threaten soils, efficient farming practices, community health and social fabric. Ultimately the threats will not be localised concerns, as food supply, costs and quality will affect everyone.

Water management can make or break a civilization

The one overarching message I received as a result of reading 'Water: The Epic Struggle For Wealth, Power, and Civilization'  was that history has shown us that water management can make or break a civilization. This is followed and linked closely by food supply, which includes a plethora of issues from how food is grown, quality, cost and distribution. I am currently reading 'The Coming Famine: The Global Food Crisis And What We Can Do To Avoid It' by Julian Cribb [CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood Victoria, 2010]. This is a great book to read just after Solomon's 'Water', because the linkages between water and  food with economic, cultural and social health, and thus political stability are clearly apparent.

As a history student [I studied Ancient History and Art History at University], plus  a reader of history books, I have learnt that history is the last and most critical judge. So, politically it may seem expedient to fill government coffers, depleted by the GFC, with the money gained from mining exploration and export, but if it ultimately means we have no, or vastly depleted, food producing capacity plus poor water quality and supply, the resultant human loss and civil unrest, will make the expediency seem inhumane and politically naive...plus potentially worse. As Soloman wrote but a judgement on our own humanity.
 
Damned
Damned [below] says it all really don't you think!? Click on the image and you'll see I have created the dam with the repeated word 'damned'. Surely there is a way for mining and farming to co-exist? I am not anti mining per se, but a balanced and more scientific approach to analysis and risk needs to be undertaken.

Damned Gouache on paper 21 x 30 cm

More of my posts about water, food etc.

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2011/02/commodified.html

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/12/knowledge-and-cooking.html

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/12/oils-aint-oilsany-more.html

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/11/food-fantasy-in-future.html

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2011/01/underground-currency.html
http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/11/murray-darling-currency.html
http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/10/water-gallery.html

Cheers,
Kathryn
http://www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com/