MAKING CODE VISIBLE: ONLINE EXHIBITION

 1. Unseen Oil on linen 90 x 80 cm 2015

2015-2022

This online exhibition of selected paintings starts with  Unseen (above), painted in 2015. Unseen is one of my first paintings where I depict binary code as part of an overall image. In this case a colourful string of zeros and ones repeatedly instructs the word LIFE. This string of visualised code extends from a branch of the tree, depicted with a colourful array of roots. The tree could be a tree-of-life, offering another kind of 'code'. Like many of my paintings a cosmic-like background helps to create a sense of flight.

Unseen was the source of inspiration for a collaboration with Brisbane-based internationally known jeweler Margot McKinney. The small series includes a fabulous necklace that follows the graphic lines of the tree, and zeros and ones. Square cut and round gems 'form' the binary code. A series of gorgeous earrings were inspired by the spiral of binary code in Picturing the Posthuman (painting number 16). I like the fact that code has been extracted and aestheticised in my paintings and in jewels made from natural geologically formed gemstones.     

LIFE and War

The next 19 paintings start with examples of recent works, ending with other earlier paintings. You will notice that as I experiment with visalising and eastheticising normally invisible code, its relationship with militarised technology and militiarise-able civilian technology becomes more politically charged. In a world where notions of warfare now include information, cyber, hybrid, grey-zone, and network-centric warfare, the key role played by code and algorithms demands attention. 

Various kinds of violence now insidiously play out in networks, enabled by light-speed transmission and reception of signals carried by radio and microwave frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum. Signals are tentacular enablers and deliverers of codified data and instructions. 

Text Prompted AI Generated Images

This online exhibition also responds to recent hype surrounding text prompted AI image generation, using datasets of human artists' images scraped from the Internet. I offer my paintings of visualised code as a disruption and resistance to algorithmically generated image making. Painting is not reliant on digital or cyber technology, thus it has a capacity for independent critique, without feeding data back into the system. Interestingly I have discovered that one of my painting, in this online exhibition, has been scraped and used in a dataset - painting number 19 Coded Landscape. The binary code, 'instructing' the word LIFE, forms a landscape-like contour. It's kind of ironic that this painting was scraped. I add here, that the image scraped was a digital image of the painting, not digital artwork. 

A few issues relating to text prompted AI generated images [not I do not call it AI Art!] include:

1. That work created by human artists has been scraped with intent to build datasets, without consent from original artists. 
2. Currently, text prompted AI generated images appear very similar, exhibiting a banality that flags a creeping homogenisation of aesthetics. This is a quiet kind of violence. I am reminded of a statement made by Jean Baudrillard in Passwords (2003), where he describes a digitally coded destiny where it will be “possible to measure everything by the same extremely reductive yardstick: the binary, the alternation between 0 and 1”.
3. While AI generated images might be considered cultural activity, production or performance, it does not mean that all AI generated/assisted images are art. 

* Please click on the hyperlinked titles to take you to the relevant posts on this BLOG. 

2. Theatre of War: Techno-Seduction Gouache on paper 56 x 76 cm 2022

In Theatre of War: Techno-Seduction visualised code is used to used to expose connections between various elements of network-centric warfare - from satellites, to drones, to military AI legal tools, to human targets. 

3.  Interface: Being HUMAN Being   Oil on linen 56 x 112 cm 2022

4. Interface Gouache o paper 56 x 76 cm 2022 

5. Competition Continuum: War  Gouache on paper 56 x 76 cm 2021

6. ME: 01001101 01000101 Oil on linen 92 x 112 cm 2021 

ME: 01001101 01000101 is a self-portrait that poses questions about portraiture in the age of facial recognition. It also raises questions about identity and verification of identity. Louise Amoore’s concerns about “how algorithms are implicated in new regimes of verification, new forms of identifying a wrong or of truth telling in the world” 'speaks' to the role played by AI in image and identity verification. Could we, weirdly and dangerously, come to a time where verification of identity is only confirmed by a digital tick?

Louise Amoore, Cloud Ethics: Algorithms and the Attributes of Ourselves and Others, 5-6.

7. GOD? Oil on linen 41 x 51 cm 2019 

8. HUMAN Oil on linen 31 x 36 cm 2019 

9. Drones and Code: Future Now Oil on linen 40 x 56 cm 2018

10. Manhunting Gouache on paper 56 x 76 cm 2017

11. Fake Tree Oil on linen 25 x 35 cm 2017

12. Data Heaven Oil on linen 100 x 120 cm 2017 

Code 'instructs' the word DATA in the storage centre of the fake cloud. Predominantly painted in night vision green the painting 'speaks' to surveillance and digital data storage - even after mortal death.

13. Combat Proven, Long-Range, Long-Dwell Gouache and watercolour on paper 56 x 76.5 cm 2016

14. I Am A Posthuman Gouache and watercolour on paper 42 x 30 cm 2016

01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110000 01101111 01110011 01110100 01101000 01110101 01101101 01100001 01101110 00101110

The code above appears in my new painting I Am A Posthuman. It actually 'forms', or maybe 'performs', or otherwise 'instructs' a structural element to the 'figure'. You can guess the translation for sure!

15. A Human's House and A Posthuman's House Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 12016

16. Two Humans Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2015

17. I am Am I? Gouache and watercolour on paper 30 x 42 cm 2015

18. Picturing the Posthuman Gouache and watercolour on paper 30 x 42 cm 2015

19. Coded Landscape Gouache on paper 15 x 21 cm 2015

20. Where There's Life There's... Oil on linen 92 x 102 cm 2015

Where there's life, there's hope or code?

Cheers,

Kathryn

FAKE EYES: IN THE SKY

Fake Eyes-In-The-Sky Oil on linen 30 x 45 cm 2018

EYE IN THE SKY

An airborne drone is sometimes called an 'eye in the sky'. In fact, there is a movie called  Eye In The Sky . Starring Helen Mirren the movie presents various dilemmas associated with targeting and attack decision making by remote drone operators and other defence personnel. 

What sort of questions are posed by calling an unmanned air vehicle, which is remotely piloted and weaponised, an eye in the sky? Firstly there are questions about attributing the machine with animal, human or a non-human, abilities ie: seeing. Can a drone really see? Is imaging technology really representative of an eye, or a set of eyes? Is machine vision, in terms of autonomous reviewing of image data collected by a drone feed, another kind of seeing? What are the existential implications if we ascribe human abilities to increasingly autonomous machine systems? Do we inadvertently relinquish something?

I have previously written about the  the word 'vision' used in terms such as 'drone vision' and 'machine vision'. Vision, when associated with human vision, is not only about seeing, but also dreaming, imagining and visionary thinking. For example,. I 'see'pictures in my head when i read a book, even a non-fiction book! Can a drone dream, imagine or come up with some kind of visionary idea? The answer is no. Can machine vision, tasked with reviewing image data, imagine or dream? No, it scopes rather than sees. If anomalies are detected does machine vision then imagine outcome scenarios of what might happen, like a human would imagine? 

BLINDNESS

Ascribing human abilities of seeing and vision to the machine may, paradoxically, blind us! That poses the question, if a drone can see, is drone blindness also possible? This, I think, really penetrates the question, can a drone see, because blindness is about not seeing rather than being turned off or being dead. Human blindness does not exclude other kinds of vision - dreaming, imagining and visionary thinking. That a drone cannot dream, imagine or come up with visionary ideas indicates a kind of blindness that raises further questions about ascribing human abilities of sight and vision to the machine. 

There must be alternative words to describe a drone's imaging capabilities and machine vision capabilities - the one I have come up with is scoping. Scoping does not indicate abilities to imagine or dream, but it does indicate abilities to target and attack. 

Fake Eyes-In-The-Sky

In my painting Fake Eyes-In-The-Sky two fake eyes hover, each painted with small 'pixels'. The red and green colours indicate night scoping and infrared technologies. Drones are not 'eyes-in-the-sky, they are scope-in-the-sky! Each fake eyes' pupils are centred in a scope's cross hairs. These eye-drones are clearly scopes, camera and/or weapon, their signals aimed at the tree-of-life, a white beacon in the distance. 

That the tree provides perspective is indicative of hope. 

Fake Eyes-In-The-Sky is another dronescape, plus it is a cosmicscape. Apart from being an exploration of contemporary weaponised technology, it is also a landscape. 

____________________________________________________

My last post was called Seeing Through the Fake Window

You might also like to read The Drone: Do Not Embody

Cheers,

Kathryn

MILESTONES

Do You Know, Have You Met? Mixed media on paper 37 x 27 cm 1991

MILESTONES

My daughter is getting married next year. With the flurry of excitement about planning for a wedding I have reflected upon life's milestones. When I was pregnant with this daughter, my first child, I painted a series of works about her immanent birth - certainly a milestone! My maternal grand-mother, born in the nineteenth century, passed away - another milestone, a sad one -  shortly before my daughter was born, making many of these images a kind of homage to ancestry and the cycle of life.

You will notice that the pregnant figure in a few of the selected paintings seems to have multiple shadows, or iterations of herself. Maybe these are ancestral figures, maybe they are multiple aspects of the expectant mother, maybe a plethora of interpretations.... 

My last blog post Twelve Years Blogging - Twelve Paintings was an online exhibition of twelve paintings, one from each year since 2006, when I first started blogging. 

BUT, there was life and painting long before Blogspot! 

The selected paintings in this new post are from 1991, the year we bought our first mobile phone, I got a home computer, and had a baby - in the twentieth century!

Homage Mixed media on paper 37 x 27 cm 1991

COSMOLOGY

Regular readers will notice the cosmic appearance of these 1991 paintings. As you know, I still fly into the cosmos - and invite you to fly with me - in my work today! 

The babies, pregnant bellies and figures float against indefinite spaces, cosmological in possibility. In these spaces, circles and dots could be read as planets or atoms, star dust or thoughts. The tree-of-life also appears in these paintings. Here, though, the tree-of-life is linked to a familial tree, a more intimate one than the universal ones I depict in my later and more recent paintings. However, while intimate in intent in these 1991 paintings, the tree-of-life positioned in cosmic-like landscapes is never without universal potential.

Children Mixed media on paper 1991

1991

If you think about these 1991 paintings and my recent dronescape paintings, you can possibly see where my concerns about the future of humanity, in the age of the drone and the algorithm, spring from. I will leave you to think about that...but...the first Gulf War erupted in August 1990 and officially ended in February 1991, a few months before my first child was born. This war, however, never really ended, it just morphed into ongoing conflict, with battlefields existing in real and virtual spaces. These distributed battlespaces blur the lines between military, counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism and security activities. War is now a hybrid of conventional and unconventional warfare, the latter appropriating civilian technological systems and platforms to perpetrate new modes of war, such as cyberwar. Airborne drones were used in the first Gulf War, for surveillance - they were weaponised in the second Gulf War, and continue to be used in declared and non-declared war/battle situations.  

So, in the years since the birth of my first child, the world has changed.

A Pure Life, Haunted Mixed Media on paper 1991

THEMES

It is interesting to me, and I hope for the reader, to identify elements that continue to appear in my work over many years. Even though subject matter has changed, underlying themes have not. Some of these themes, such as cosmology, initially appeared before I had the words or terms to ascribe to them. 

As I have written this post, I am also struck by the links between my recent work dealing with the apparatus of war and conflict in the twenty-first century, and a personal life milestone that occurred in 1991, the year War did not really end. 

But, back to these 1991 paintings. They are joyous images. I am glad I still have some, especially as we are about to celebrate another joyous milestone.

Cheers,
Kathryn

Where Are You? Mixed media on paper 1991

TACTICS

Tactics oil on linen 70 x 100 cm 2017

I wrote another post called Tactics very recently. You can access it HERE  . 

Tactics, above, is the same painting I previously discussed. However, a few weeks ago I decided to add clouds. The white clouds give more clues to the drone's tactics of camouflage and subterfuge. They alert us to a 'droning' of the sky, where new layers are artificially created by pervasive technology, its apparatus and signals. Indeed, the white drone seemingly attempts to mimic a cloud! 

But, strategic tactics are not only evidenced in the actions and appearance of the drone!

The red cloud 'cries'. It cries tears of blood. But, like the 'tactics' of the tree-of-life as it sends roots and new shoots underground, the cloud's tears might also be a way to preserve life. By shedding tears of blood, LIFE can seep into the universal matrix, for resurrection at some other time or place.  

Detail Tactics 

Here is an extract from my previous post Tactics:

"The airborne weaponised drone is targeting the tree-of-life. The tree is isolated in a 'kill box', a virtual three dimensional graphic that delineates a zone around an identified target. Emanating rays above the tree-of-life indicate ongoing surveillance by another drone or maybe a control base of some kind. Whatever it is, the signals represent persistent surveillance by manned and unmanned entities. At the end of each white signal-ray, a small red box indicates potential further targeting.

BUT

The tree-of-life has sent its roots under the 'kill box'. A survival tactic subverting the digital reach! The tree's roots seek out places that a drone cannot penetrate - maybe literal subterranean places, but maybe spiritual realms? The tree succeeds in sending out new green shoots, to bring forth life. BUT, it may not represent human life - and - it may not be on this planet - or - even in the universe! This may sound loopy, but I am thinking of theories about multiverses, and I am also thinking about a future where humanity/life may have left planet Earth. Indeed, we humans are already planning settlements on Mars. But, Mars is still in our solar system. What about humanity/life in other solar systems, even galaxies? An extreme escape!"

Cheers,

Kathryn

IN THE CRADLE AND THE FUTURE

In The Cradle Gouache and water colour on paper 30 x 42 cm 2015

 

This new work on paper plays with the idea of the 'cradle of civilisation' which historically refers to the fertile crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where first civilisations appeared around 6,000 years ago. But, the 'cradle of civilisation' can be interpreted in other ways. One of these is to think about the human mind as a cradle...after all civilisation was determined by humankind's abilities to invent practical tools and systems, as well as aesthetic, intellectual and social ways of being.  To be civilised connotes many nuanced and sophisticated creative, intellectual, spiritual behaviours, processes, imaginings. 

 

So, my painting In The Cradle could be read as some kind of aerial map of river systems or it could be a kind of mind map. The branching tree line-work not only gives the impression of water systems, but also synapses in the human brain. As regular readers will recognise, the tree-shape references my much loved age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life and all that it means to humanity's past, present and hopefully into the future.

 

The three red dots are referential points or symbols of humanity. One dot is embraced within the branching tree-river-synapse. Another red dot is cradled by the arching line and the last dot sits at the end of this line. I see this as marking points on a trajectory...a trajectory for humanity. The last red dot sits outside the cradle of civilisation or even life, as if it is about to launch to something beyond. This could represent a post-human future where the cradle is no longer needed, where the signs of life, represented by the tree, are also no longer needed. Maybe this is heralding the transhuman future where humans and machines merge? I wonder what part, if anything, of the tree as a symbol of life, will remain?

 

The red dot at the end of the arching line does appear to have a choice though. It could continue on a trajectory that loses sight of the tree. Or, it could swing back and rejoin...obviously changed by its trajectory, but still connected to something familiar.

 

Regular readers will also recognise that In The Cradle is another of my cosmic landscapes. Yes, a landscape, but one untethered from Earth-bound horizons, thus taking in the universe as our vast environment. By doing this, the cosmological perspective is offered as a way of viewing humanity and its future.

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LIFE CALLING. ANYONE THERE?

Life Calling. Anyone There? Oil on linen 70 x 140 cm 2014

 

 

 

Life Calling. Anyone There?

 

What does this mean?

 

Regular readers will know I like to be ambiguous by implying multiple possibilities.

 

It's all about perspective...multiple perspectives, even experienced simultaneously!

 

 

One possibility is that 'life', in my painting's title, is humanity calling out to aliens living in other parts of the Universe. Indeed, the search for alien life is a serious investigation. It's actually got a name SETI [Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence] and there are various scientific research centres around the world, eg: the SETI Institute in California, USA. Please put some time aside to visit the SETI Institute's site to read about its activities, its history, the history of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and more. The Carl Sagan Centre sits under the umbrella of the SETI Institute. Its focus is on astrobiology, the study of life in the Universe. Its research seeks to understand the concept of habitability, on our planet and elsewhere in the solar system. [Carl Sagan Centre] If a planet's habitability seems to suggest life supporting systems, then there is the potential for not just simple life forms, but also intelligent ones...ha...like us...or even less/more so...or differently so!

 

Another possibility is that 'life', in my painting's title, is not actually humanity calling! It might be extraterrestrially intelligent beings ie: aliens calling out, seeking a response from other intelligent beings. Who knows?

 

But 'life' in my painting's title could just mean LIFE of any kind, simple, complex, physical or not? Surely the impulse of... and for.... life is a kind of resonating communication of rhythm and imperative force...across the universe [and possibly the Multiverse]?

 

Life On Earth

While scientists search for signs of life, from the simple to the more complex, in the Universe, we humans could be accused of not listening to 'life' here on Earth. I wrote in a recent post TEAM HUMANITY:

 

War and conflict rage in various locations around the globe, causing death, mayhem, social destruction and more. Innocent victims are caught up in the horror, loosing life and limb, fleeing homes and seeking refuge in other places. Long term effects are equally as deplorable and damaging.

What can we do?

It seems blame, reprisals, sanctions, increased surveillance and threats are what 'we' do. It seems that escalation is the currency of the moment. A pervasive fear exists. Politics fails to offer hope.

There's a loss of faith in the human race...surely humanity can do better than this?

With increased technological abilities to communicate and observe I wonder if we are really 'hearing' what we are 'listening' to? What is fear obscuring? What is loss of hope camouflaging? Does the fast paced and insidious nature of technology really help us listen in a way that allows hearing? Indeed, conflict is often the result of feeling unheard. It makes us alien to each other, until we don't even know ourselves and the 'alien' lurks within.

 

Life Calling. Anyone There? Oil on linen 70 x 140 cm 2014

So...to the painting. 'Life' is represented by the two trees. Yes, they are my interpretations of the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol. The trees are connected by floating leaves. These are 'signals' of indeterminate nature...possibly? Yet, despite Earth-like landscapes, the viewer should not assume that either the foreground or the planet, are Earth. Indeed, the connected trees-of-life may represent communication between other life forms 'out there' on two other planets.

 

Yet, I've often written that I see landscape as a metaphor for the human psyche. The two landscapes in Life Calling. Anyone There? could be aspects of the human soul or the alienated 'self' attempting  reconnection in ways that go beyond technological imperatives, hence the suggestion of random leaves from the tree-of-life. The trees seem to sing into the wind, sending a lilting lullaby into space. The wind takes the lullaby to places known and unknown, seeking reconnection.

 

While life still calls...there is hope.

 

And, landscape is untethered from Earth-bound horizons, both physical and not!

 

 

 

Here's me chatting, very briefly, about Life Calling! Anyone There? This was recorded at my exhibition Untethering landscape, mentioned below.

 

 

UNTETHERING LANDSCAPE

 

2-14 September

 

Please check out all the details on the exhibition's page HERE

 

 

 

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Please check out my last post

 

CELEBRATING 8 YEARS BLOGGING

 

My last post was a celebratory one!

This August I have been Blogging for 8 years, posting once a week.

Please click HERE to read my post:

8 YEARS BLOGGING ANNIVERSARY

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

 

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

I am on Instagram @kathrynbrimblecombefox

 

 

 

 

ARE WE THERE YET?

Are We There Yet? Oil on linen 80 x 140 cm

 

On long trips young children are inclined to ask, 'Are we there yet?' more than once or twice! Indeed, my own children, on long drives to and from Goondiwindi*, were inclined to ask this question a lot. One daughter more so than the other two. She did not like to sit still for very long. She'd start asking within minutes of leaving on a four to five hour drive!

 

I remember asking the same question of my parents too. Like my daughter I did not like to sit still for long periods of time. That was back in the days when time seemed to travel so, so, so slowly...when a half hour math class seemed an excrutiating eternity and a whole year was beyond that!

 

 

Photos of me [aged about 6] and my brother Wilfred in the back seat of our car. From memory a trip to Brisbane from our home at Dalby to visit our grandparents. In the 1960s this took about 4 or slightly more hours...an eternity! You can tell Wilfred is a lot happier than me! In fact he looks quite mischievous. 

 

But, the question Are we there yet? has a much wider amplification into various human endeavours and activities, from literal travel to individual self improvement and beyond to 'enlightenment' and spirituality. The question implies a destination, whether it is a geographical location or a hoped-for outcome or a state of being or a spiritual 'place' [literal or within the psyche]. But, does it also perhaps imply an inability to make the most of the present? I remember distracting my impatient daughter by drawing her attention to all sorts of things, from grazing cattle and horses, kangaroos hopping beside the road, pretty clouds wafting across the sky. She would spend a few minutes watching and thinking, before again asking...'Are we there yet?'

 

* Goondiwindi is a small rural town on the border of Queensland and New South Wales, Australia.

 

 

ARE WE THERE YET? OIL ON LINEN 80 x 140 cm

 

So, to my painting Are We There Yet?.  I wanted to create an ambiguous landscape...and regular readers know this is something I like to do. I wanted a sense of flying, as if the viewer has reached the outer edge of a planet....which could be Earth, but maybe it is not? Hence my title...Are We There Yet?...suggests that perhaps we have travelled to another planet...perhaps in those round blue balls? Maybe we have just left Earth for a very long trip and this painting is the last fly-by? Or, maybe the landscape is a metaphor for our internal 'landscapes' of psyche or soul?

 

I thought about this painting after reading various articles, including a very recent one in National Geographic Most Earthlike Planets Found Yet: A "Breakthrough", about discoveries of planets that, maybe... just maybe, could be like Earth. There are a couple of implications stemming from the suggestion that these planets may support life. One is that they already have life in some form and the other implication is that humanity could find another 'home' on these newly discovered planets. Each of these implications have a myriad of others!

 

In the event of Earth's destruction, possibly orchestrated by aberrant individuals or groups, or as a result of our sun's slow and increasingly heat fuelled demise, or a wayward meteor causing nighmarish destruction of our life sustaining environment or indeed humanity's destruction of our life sustaining environment, we [humanity] may need a new home. Imagine remnants of humanity travelling on space craft to planets, possibly 1000s of light years away. New life would be born during the trip to the promised land. Imagine how many would be asking 'Are we there yet?' or 'When will we get there?' But, maybe scientists will send a special mix of human DNA, which upon some pre-determined trigger, forms into humans? But, who would ask the very human question 'Are we there yet?'

Indeed, as we seek to know more about our Universal environment, I think there is perhaps an equally vast internal one to explore as well.

 

As I look out my office window, it all seems so fanciful and impossible. It is a perfect Brisbane autumn day. The sky is a gorgeous blue and the sun settles softly on leaves and flowers. Birds are chirping and a soft breeze gantly drifts through my window tickling my cheeks.  Yep, I've just returned to the present after travelling in my imagination to distant futures and celestial destinations!

 

You will notice the small blue tree...my reference to the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol. As regular readers know, it is a dominant visual guide in my work. I like it because it offers wisdom. I love t because it symbolises life across eons of time, cultures and religions.

 

A recent related post and painting is ON MY TRAVELS I SAW

 

 

BITS AND PIECES

•  COSMIC OUROBOROS is the most visited post on my BLOG
• Since my lucky experience with social networking working at its best ...when Deepak Chopra retweeted Nancy Ellen Abrams tweet about my painting and post COSMIC ADDRESS...it is now the 6th most popular post on my BLOG...even though it was only written in March this year! Very grateful. You can follow me on TWITTER HERE
• COSMIC ADDRESS is the title for my next exhibition  15-10-13 to 27-10-13 at Graydon Gallery, Brisbane. I am really excited about this show.
• My last post LET THERE BE LIGHT is a small online exhibition of selected 'light' inspired paintings. I link them back to my website where other details, including pricing, are listed.

 

Until next time,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

NIGHT TIME ELECTRIC STORM

Night Time Electric Storm [Across The Flat Plain] Oil on linen 55 x 80 cm

 

 

In recent weeks wild electric storms have sparked their way across Queensland. A couple of weeks ago, around mid-day, I was caught in a wild storm as I was driving along the very busy Coronation Drive, here in Brisbane. I, and many other drivers, had to stop, turn on our warning lights and sit out the storm. We had to stop because the rain was so heavy there was no visibility. The wind played havoc with nearby trees and anything laying loose on the ground. Thankfully only small hail stones fell from the sky crashing harmlessly into my car. Much larger ones apparently pummelled properties, gardens and cars in neighbouring suburbs. I was lucky.

 

Again a couple of weeks ago I was caught in another storm, but managed to shelter under a service station's roof. This time it was dusk. As the night sky enveloped, lightning spectacularly lit up the sky. From my safe haven, I marvelled at nature's electric 'personality'. 

 

For readers from overseas, summer-time storms are common in Queensland and Australia. Often they do not produce much rain, but they certainly provide a spectacle and unfortunately they also often cause major damage. If there is rain, it can fall very heavily, causing flash flooding in both city and country.

 

These recent spectacular storms have reminded me of the storms I witnessesed and experienced as a child on my parent's farm on the flat treeless Pirrinuan Plain, betweeen Dalby and Jimbour, on Queensland's fertile Darling Downs. My childhood environ was often referred to 'God's own country' because the rich deep black soil could grow anything.

 

The flatness of the landscape, with its endless horizons [regular readers will know I have written about these before] provided a broad canvas for nature's displays. These included relentless blue skies with wisps of white clouds floating playfully, greenish coloured clouds menacingly promising hail and causing my Father distress about potential crop damage, and night time magic whispering from the twinkling Milky Way.  

 

Another night time sky was a totally black one. Totally black because storm clouds swamped the glitter of stars and suffocated moon shine. However, storms accompanied by electic lightning, provided a 'show' unlike any other. Flashes of stark white light seemingly from Heaven struck the ground with a shocking immediacy that both terrified and astonished. Momentary silhouettes of familiar landmarks and shapes transformed the landscape into a beautiful but almost night marish setting.

 

As a child, I was never really scared during these wild storms, yet I knew people [and animals] who were/are. Dogs particularly hate wild electric storms of lightening and thunder! I've owned a number of dogs who vigourously welcome being allowed inside during a storm.

 

Night Time Electric Storm [Across The Flat Plain] Oil on linen 55 x 80 cm

 

My new painting Night Time Electric Storm [Across The Flat Plain] is inspired by my childhood memories and recent storm events here in Brisbane. It is also triggered by photographs my brother Wilfred Brimblecombe has uploaded onto his new BLOG  particularly those he uploaded on posts dated December 1 and 2 [Pirrinuan Tornado]. These photographs are of our childhood landscape and they stir sentient memories of the open space and endless horizons, that embraced those who lived there in an ongoing performance, which demanded 'audience' participation. Without barriers, such as hills and mountains, bushland and forests the open space enveloped us.

There was and is no escape. No hiding.

 

In Night Time Electric Storm [Across The Flat Plain] I have painted a wild electric storm that lights up a night sky, revealing a silhouette of existence on a distant horizon. The silos on the right, a sign of human productivity, yet seemingly insignificant aganst electrically charged nature. Anyone who has exerienced nature's 'whiplash' through storm, hurricane, tornado, flood, fire, volcano, earth quake is humbled. The weaving red line, which I was compelled to paint, suggests potency, fertility, fury, passion. It tells us that underlying energy forces exist. It also draws us into the scene inviting us to be part of nature's passion.

 

I like the way the lightning appears like upside down trees...regular readers will know why. The age-old trancultural/religious tree-of-life symbol is a major visual guide in my work. The lightning seems to re-energise life at the same time as tantalisingly revealing life's core secrets [momentarily].

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

 

 



BIRTH OF KNOWLEDGE AND FAITH

                                      Birth Of Knowledge and Faith Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm

Birth Of Knowledge and Faith is one of 40 finalists in the 2012 Mandorla Art Award Perth, Western Australia.You can see the winning entry and two highly commended paintings on the Mandorla Facebook Page

Here's the Award brief, taken from the Mandorla website
The Mandorla Art Award employs a thematic spiritual inspiration that changes with each exhibition. These inspirations are defined by quotations from the Bible and all participating artists are requested to interpret these in their own way. The theme for 2012 is ‘born of a woman’, taken from Galatians (4:4).

As regular readers will know, the theme of 'born of a woman', was definitely something that would inspire me!

Galatians is in the New Testament and the quote 'born of a woman' speaks about the birth of Jesus [Christ], as the son of God, born to a woman of flesh and blood, Mary. My metaphoric reading of the extended passage is that the Christ entity/spirit is born within, and to, all of us... as faith. The process of 'birth' delves into the potency of the sacred feminine impulse which exists within us all, man and woman. I have previously written about the sacred feminine. Please check out ADAM AND EVE...AND THAT TREE-Online Exhibition

In Birth Of Knowledge and Faith I have referenced both the Old and New Testaments. How? Well, I was thinking about the two pivotal female characters of both texts, Eve and Mother Mary. As regular readers will know, I see Eve's taking from 'that tree', as the birth of knowledge...that the arrival of 'evil' is representative of the introduction of opposites and the resultant 'space' between them. It is in this 'space' that knowledge in all its extremes and forms is possible. Without antimonies, and the close and far distances in the space between them, there is no nuance...no knowledge...or the potential for it.  Thank you Eve for being brave enough to take from 'that tree'!

Knowledge and faith, go hand in hand. For me they are dance partners taking us on a journey through the close and far distances between antimonies, where we have potential to 'find' ourselves by experimenting; by finding out who we are not, in order to know who we are. I have previously written that I have faith in complexity, because if things were merely simple, lack of depth would destroy hope... and faith. Please check out FAITH IN IMAGINATION and MAJESTY AND ORDER

Here is my Mandorla Art Award artist's statement for Birth of Knowledge and Faith

Two transcultural/religious trees-of-life/knowledge emanate from a woman’s outstretched arms and feet. She is the ‘sacred feminine’.  In forming a circle she ‘sings’ and ‘dances’ her elemental grace of life continuance. More specifically I was thinking of two biblical women, one from the Old Testament and one from the New, Eve and Mary.

As Eve took from the tree she gave ‘birth’ to Knowledge in the spaces between antimonies. As Mother Mary gave birth to Jesus, the ‘Light of the World’, she also gave birth to Faith.

I imagine that as Eve took from the tree, the world cascaded into the colours and hues that allowed Adam and Eve to ‘see’ each other. I ‘see’ colour as representing Knowledge. In this painting the multi coloured trees and the ‘sacred feminine’ figure are surrounded by halo-like white light. The two trees also meet in a pulse of white. This white light represents Faith.

                                                          DETAIL Birth of Knowledge and Faith

Birth of Knowledge and Faith, also takes on a cosmic appearance, with the circle seemingly hovering in space. I was determined to make the painting look like the birth of the universe ...eliciting the beauty of the Big Bang...enticing us to place human history against that of the universe...and more. I was determined to create an image which 'spoke' of portals...because both knowledge and faith, together and separately, are 'portals' through which our psyches can travel, in search of spirit, meaning, hope. Portals are representative of birth canals, as well as promises of rebirth as re-entering takes us further into the complexity of life. I have previously written about portals...many times...but please check out BEAUTY AS A PORTAL

I was determined to evoke the concept of Mother...Mother Earth, Mother Nature...that eternal propulsion, the urge to create which exists within us all and everything, even as we know death is part of life. Creation and death are also dance partners on the 'stage' where knowledge and faith perform their ebb and flow steps. 

Birth of Knowledge and Faith is a painting which sits very comfortably along side a few others. Here's a selection:

Auroboros Oil on linen 122 x 153 cm

 Compassion Oil on linen 100 x 100 cm

    Cosmic Dust Oil on linen 120 x 150 cm

 Beyond The Dark Night of The Soul Oil on linen 100 x 100 cm and also HERE

Love Oil on linen 100 x 100 cm

Cheers,
Kathryn