BUSY

Prepared canvases

 

NEW PAINTINGS IN PREPARATION

 

Some new stretched linen stretchers arrived during the week. Very exciting...I have been itching to get back to my painting, after my recent exhibition COSMIC ADDRESS. The photo above shows a few of the stretchers with their preliminary foundations under way. They will change a lot over long courses of time!

 

Notice the concrete floor...lots of residual paint from years of me throwing it around...well not literally...actually...maybe sometimes!

 

It's been such a busy week since I posted last weekend. I have not thought too much about anything, other than getting what has to be done...done! Some things not pleasant and some things reasonably enjoyable.

 

So, this post is not a deep and meaningful one! Please check out last week's post COMPLEXITY for a D and M.

 

But, I would like to alert you to a few things:

 

NEWS

• Please view my recent Christmas Greetings and Studio Update HERE

 

Cosmic Ouroborus Oil on linen 120 a 150 cm 2012

 

• My post COSMIC OUROBORUS is still the most popular post on my BLOG. The snake eating its own tail weaves its magic! The painting of the same name Cosmic Ouroborus is above. You can read the post HERE

• I am planning to visit Abu Dhabi again next year. Returning after nearly 7 years...too long! My exhibition at the Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation in December 2005 was a very important and pivotal experience for me. I have been wanting to return to Abu Dhabi for a long time, but the GFC made it a tad difficult. My visit next year will not be to exhibit, but to reconnect with what's been happening in the art scene...which is a massive amount! Who knows where it might lead...

 

 

    Sap of Life Oil on linen 55 x 80 cm 2012

 

• I have made, for want of a better term, a Gift Gallery on my website...suggestions for gifts under $3,500 AUD [as of Dec 2013] If you are after inspiration for a Christmas gift for someone, or a treat for yourself, please check out my suggestions HERE                                Sap of Life [above] is one of my suggestions.

 

3 RECENT LANDSCAPE POSTS

 

Regular readers will know of my quest to untether notions of landscape from Earth-bound horizons. I have written about my ideas, with accompanying paintings, for a long time. But, there are three recent post I am particularly pleased with...can I say that about my own posts...well I have written it anyway! The three posts are...and I invite you to check them out. [Just click on a title and you'll be taken to the post]

 

KNOWING LANDSCAPE - ART AND SCIENCE

THE VALUE OF LANDSCAPE

DISAPPEARING LANDSCAPE

 

Until next week!

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

 

 

RETURNING 'HOME'

Returning Oil on linen 50 x 94 cm 2012

 

COSMIC ADDRESS finished yesterday and now I am back home...but not yet back into the studio. That will take awhile. Lots of emailing, following up, plus lawns to be mowed and other domestic jobs to catch up on. AND, writing a post for my BLOG is a priority!

 

The exhibition was great...a terrific success...on many fronts. I sold some paintings, held 4 different but very enjoyable functions/events and chatted to an amazing number of people. I'd estimate that around 280 people saw the exhibition over the 12 day period. I am HAPPY!

 

This is one comment from a visitor to COSMIC ADDRESS: What a wonderful delight to meet you today and not only view your most amazing three dimensional transformational cosmic paintings but also connect in such a deep manner on cosmological/spiritual expanding concepts and precepts.

 

Please take a virtual tour of some of COSMIC ADDRESS by watching the video below. It's a kind of returning to the exhibition.

 

 

 

 

RETURNING 

Returning [image at top] was one of the paintings that attracted many people. The beautiful green lured them 'home'. The concept of an 'address' in the title of my exhibition COSMIC ADDRESS got people thinking. An 'address' can mean many things. Even a place within! And, that's where we went last Thursday night when my friend Gabriele Engstrom lead a COSMIC SOUNDS MEDITATION with her wonderful Tibetan bowls. About 20 people came along. After a short 'cosmic' talk by me and an introduction by Gabriele, we dimmed the lights and people lay down on their mats. Very quickly the beautiful sounds of the bowls washed over us, their vibrations seeking to explore our inner psyches...or so it seemed. It was like returning to yourself, a returning to the cosmos...a returning 'home'. At the end of the 25 minute meditation Gabriele gently 'returned' us to the here and now. 

 

Gabriele and I are conducting a workshop combining a Tibetan Bowl meditation with drawing...yes actual drawing! It will not be a 'how to' workshop, but a stimulation of creativity to seek out inner symbols. Details below.

 

 

Cosmic Ouroboros oil on linen 120 x 150 cm 2012

 

SCIENCE AND ART 

Cosmic Ouroboros was another painting that attracted a lot of comment at COSMIC ADDRESS. People were intrigued by the background...and then very interested in the symbol of the ouroboros and how it has been appropriated by modern cosmologists as a visual descriptor of the relationship between the quantum and cosmic worlds. Many people with science backgrounds loved this painting. And, I loved them, because when a scientist 'gets' a lot from a painting which is essentially an artistic and symbolic expression of scientific processes, I feel connected...I feel I've done my job...so-to-speak!

 

And, my BLOG post for Cosmic Ouroboros is by far the most popular post on my BLOG 

 

This is another comment from a visitor to COSMIC ADDRESS: Fantastic exhibition! Truly amazing colours, most difficult part. choosing a favourite. So interesting learning more about cosmology, your knowledge is incredible.

 

Landscape of Everything Oil on linen 80 x 140 cm 2013

 

Landscape of Everything was one of the paintings that sold. It will be stirring the imaginations of workers and clients at a Brisbane law practice...

 

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

COSMIC SOUND AND CREATIVE WORKSHOP

Tibetan Bowls Meditation and QiGong lead by Gabriele Engstrom

and

Drawing inspiration with artist Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox

Saturday 9 November 2-4pm

Quaker Meeting House 10 Hampson St, Kelvin Grove, Brisbane

You will be taken beyond Earth-bound horizons channelling energy and inspiration from the Universe to awaken creative impulses to hear and feel new vibrations and to create drawings which reveal your core symbolism.

Yes, it’s a different kind of workshop!

Please wear comfortable clothes and a mat/rug to sit/lie on.

COST $50.00 per person.

Numbers are limited. Booking and payment requested by Tuesday 5 November

To book and pay click ‘Book Online’ at http://www.gabrieleengstrom.com then select COSMIC SOUND AND CREATIVE WORKSHOP to pay via PAYPAL.

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

COSMIC ADDRESS OPEN

Other Worlds Ahoy! and Landscape of Everything

 

 

My solo exhibition COSMIC ADDRESS is up and the doors opened yesterday 15 October.

 

Please click HERE for the COSMIC ADDRESS webpage.

 

I am really happy with how all the paintings 'speak' to each other!

 

I've had a busy couple of days already, with a steady stream of visitors. Lots of talking too!

 

 

 L to R: Cosmic Address, Other Worlds Ahoy! and Landscape of Everything

 L to R: Hope, Stormy Weather, Where? and Cosmic Ouroboros

 Towards The Past And Future and Eternity's Breath

 

 

 L to R: When It Rained On Mars, through the gap is Birth of Wisdom and Faith, Shadow's Secret and Other Worlds Ahoy!

 

 

 Landscape of Everything and Towards the Past and Future

 Are We There Yet? and Cosmic Address

 

 

L to R: Eternity's Breath, Hope, Stormy Weather, Where? and Cosmic Ouroboros

 

 

 

My post where I discuss Cosmic Ouroboros is the most visited post on my BLOG. You can read it by clicking HERE

 

Another popular post is my short story Stirring The Star Dust: A short story about digging. You can read it HERE

 

And, then there's my post stimulated by something motoring guru Jeremy Clarkson wrote. Intrigued? you can read Looking In The Rear Vision Mirror, Cosmically Speaking HERE

 

And then there's my recent post There's Something About Space where I launch into the new movie GRAVITY. You can check it out HERE

 

 

 

 

COSMIC ADDRESS

Earth Maybe Our Home, But The Universe Is Our Environment

 

15-27 October

 

Graydon Gallery

29 Merthyr Rd,

New Farm,

Brisbane,

Queensland,

Australia,

Earth,

Milky Way,

The Universe!

 

OPEN DAILY 10 am - 6 pm

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

COUNT DOWN

Towards The Past and Future Gouache on paper 2013

 

 

Count Down has begun for my exhibition COSMIC ADDRESS! The doors are open from Tuesday 15 October... 3 weeks away. The exhibition will end on Sunday 27 October. 

 

I rather like the term 'Count Down' in reference to an exhibition called COSMIC ADDRESS.

 

Let me explain...as well as I can.

There are a few things that have lead me to wonder...and wonder.

 

One is this most fascinating article A Jewel At The heart Of Quantum Physics by Natalie Wolchova in Quanta Magazine . It is about the fact that Physicists have discovered a jewel-shaped geometric object that challenges the notion that space and time are fundamental constituents of nature.

 

The geometric object is an amplituhedron...yes an amplituhedron!

 

Here are a few quotes, but please read the whole article and the comments it has attracted.

 

.....the new geometric approach to particle interactions removes locality and unitarity from its starting assumptions. The amplituhedron is not built out of space-time and probabilities; these properties merely arise as consequences of the jewel’s geometry. The usual picture of space and time, and particles moving around in them, is a construct.

 

And: 

 

But the new amplituhedron research suggests space-time, and therefore dimensions, may be illusory anyway.

 

And:

 

Beyond making calculations easier or possibly leading the way to quantum gravity, the discovery of the amplituhedron could cause an even more profound shift, Arkani-Hamed said. That is, giving up space and time as fundamental constituents of nature and figuring out how the Big Bang and cosmological evolution of the universe arose out of pure geometry.

 

Ye gads! Holy mackerel! Hey what!

 

Where does all of that place a COSMIC ADDRESS?

 

 

Shadow's Secret Gouache on paper 2013

 

 

I did say there were a few things that have made me wonder...

 

SIMULATION

The next is  Prof Nick Bostrom's idea that we are living in a simulation, somehow determined by a post-human project/'life' of re-'living' humanity's history. But, there's more, the simulation includes the creation/re-creation of the Universe...even the multiverse. So, it's a pretty stupendous simulation! These poor post-humans essentially have no life of their own...they just recapture memory...certainly not a pathway to Utopia one would think?! Could be more Kafkaesque?

 

LIVING INSIDE A COMPUTER

So, we maybe living inside a computer? But, then again we may not? But if, indeed, we are living inside a computer it would have to be a really magnificent computer and probably not recognisable as a computer to us, otherwise we'd detect the subtext, the guile, the subterfuge...wouldn't we? But, as the Professor writes, if someone did detect something, the post-human simulators could eradicate the memory of detection, wipe the slate clean...and the simulation would continue.

 

But....maybe the Professor's postulation is a sign of the simulation itself...maybe an undetected leakage from the post-human future or maybe a deliberate play...a teasing loop?

 

And...maybe... the discovery of the amplituhedron, and it's indication that time and space are illusions, is evidence that the simulation postulation is indeed plausible?

 

So, if we are living in a computer simulation, it would be fair to say that we are, in French philosopher Jean Baudrillard's seductive terms, fatally mediated. Because, if we are living in a simulation based on 'memory', the world has already come to an end. Our fundamental destiny is not to exist and survive, as we think: it is to appear and disappear.**

 

 

Cosmic Ouroboros  Oil on linen 120 x 150 cm 2012

 

And,

 

When I was very young, laying awake at night or gazing out the school bus windows, I used to wonder if Life was orchestrated by someone or something that moved us and everything else around like pieces of a board game. I remember thinking that whoever/whatever was in control would have to think of a lot! But, I also thought it would be great fun...

 

But:

 

Back to COSMIC ADDRESS:

If time and space are illusions then a COUNT DOWN and an ADDRESS are actually illusions too! Why... because counting, in this way, is a 'measurement' of time and an address is normally a place in a geographic space. And a COSMIC ADDRESS is situated in time and space...seemingly so anyway.

 

The three paintings above will be in COSMIC ADDRESS.

 

 

** Baudrillard, J. Fatal Strategies, Semiotext[e], Columbia University, NY, 1990 P. 175

 

 

_____________________________________________________________________

 

 

COSMIC ADDRESS:

Earth Maybe Our Home But The Universe Is Our Environment

Solo Exhibition

 

BRISBANE

15-27 October

 

Graydon Gallery

29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Earth, The Universe

 

Please check out  my

 

COSMIC ADDRESS PAGE

 

for all the details!

 

______________________________________________________________________
 

 

 If you have not already done so, please read my last post Putting On A Show

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7 YEARS BLOGGING BIRTHDAY-Online Exhibition

 Mountains and Metaphors Oil on linen 80 x 200 cm 2005

To read about this painting please click HERE and HERE

 

 

It is seven years this month since I started my BLOG

 

 

Art @ Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox 

FLYING SOARING...IRRESISTIBLY...We're all the same.

 

 Unlimited Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm 2005

So, I decided to celebrate by choosing a couple of paintings from each year since 2005...I know one year before I started the BLOG... but these paintings featured in those early meanderings.

 

If you are interested in purchasing any of the paintings please contact me through

this BLOG or my website contact page

Shared History Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm 2006

  

Sending Love Oil on linen 90 x 180 cm 2007

 

 

 Into The Symphony Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm 2008

To read more about this painting please click HERE and HERE

 

 Seeping Into The Intimate Vastness Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm 2008

 In The Garden Of  Eden Oil on linen 50 x 94 cm 2009

To read about my Adam and Eve series please click HERE

 

 

 Halo Oil on linen 82 x 182 cm 2009

 The Beginning Of Everything Oil on linen 90 x 180 cm 2010

 

 

Cosmic Dust Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm 2010

 

 Underground Currency Oil on linen 80 x 100 cm 2011

 Gate Oil on linen 100 x 100 cm 2011

 Perpetual Beginning Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm 2011

This painting is in the Brisbane Grammar Art Show 9-10 August 2013

 Meeting Place Of The Mind Oil on linen 100 x 70 cm 2011

 Eternity's Breath Oil on linen 85 x 150 cm 2012

This painting will be in my next solo exhibition COSMIC ADDRESS

Details HERE

 Cosmic Ouroboros Oil on linen 120 x 150 cm 2012

Cosmic Ouroboros is the most popular post on my BLOG

This painting will be in my next solo exhibition COSMIC ADDRESS

Details HERE

 

 Hope Oil on linen 80 x 140 cm 2013

                        This painting will be in my next solo exhibition COSMIC ADDRESS

Details HERE

 

                                   

Cosmic Address Oil on linen 90 x 180cm 2013

This painting will be in my next solo exhibition, also called COSMIC ADDRESS

Details HERE

 

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Brisbane Grammar School Art Show. I was invited to exhibit again this year. I have six paintings-4 oil on linen -including Perpetual Beginning above and 2 works on paper in the exhibition. Dates are 9-10 August at the BGS school. It is their Open Day on Saturday 10 August. Click HERE for details.

 

• The Seeing Stars Art Award hosted by the world's largest telescope the SKA [Square Kilometre Array] is being hung this week. The opening at federation Square, Melbourne will be Tuesday 13 August. My painting Where? is a finalist in the award. To see all the finalists please click HERE  Shall keep you posted!

 

• Tattersall'a Landscape $25,000 Art Award 2013. I have again been invited to enter a painting into this great art prize and exhibition. The award is announced on September 5 at Brisbane's Tattersall's Club. From September 9-20 it will be on public view at Waterfront Place, 1 eagle St, Brisbane CBD. Shall keep you posted!

 

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

 

 

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

 

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

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

SNAKES EATING THEIR OWN TAILS

 Cosmic Address Oil on linen 90 x 180 cm

OUROBOROS HISTORY
The age-old transcultural/religious symbol of the snake [or dragon, lizard] eating its own tail is called the ouroboros. From ancient Egypt to the present day, across not only time, but cultures and religions, the image of a snake consuming its own tail, constantly renewing itself, has symbolised life and the Universe. With each era and culture, ouroboros stories and visual representations have 'spoken' meaningfully to people in the context of their social, religious, scientific and cultural milieus...their cosmology.

CONTEMPORARY COSMOLOGICAL OUROBOROS
Contemporary signification of the ourobors as a meaningful symbol of the Universe actually comes from cosmologists, those scientists who study the Universe, its past, present and future history; its quantum and cosmic extremes.  Nobel Prize for Physics winner 1979, Prof. Sheldon Glashow first suggested the ouroborus as a visual descriptor for the relationship between the quantum and cosmic worlds. Lord Astronomer, Prof Martin Rees has also used the ouroboros for the same purpose. Plus, Prof. Joel Primack and his wife Nancy Ellen Abrams [philosopher and lawyer], also use the symbol to describe Universal scales and humanity's place within them. This article by Prof Primack explains Glashow's ouroboros and more. I highly recommend Primack and Abrams book The new Universe and The Human Future: How Shared Cosmology Could Transform The World

This article gives you a good overview of ouroboros history.

UNCANNY
What interests me is the recurring signification of the ouroboros as a visual representation of the Universe. Art historian Aby Warburg and psychologist Carl Yung, amongst others, explored the recurring nature of symbols across time and cultures. I understand why. The uncanniness excites me, and embraces me in a sense of companionship with time and all humanity. Relationship through symbolic references, which strike resonances at a core level, promise more than we can imagine. These relationships are with ourselves, others, nations...our histories and our futures...the Universe!

 Cosmic Ouroboros Oil on linen 120 x 150 cm

 

TREE-OF-LIFE AND THE OUROBOROS
Regular readers will know of my abiding interest in another age-old transcultural/religious symbol, the tree-of-life. I have been painting images, with trees-of-life, for many many years. I know the tree has a power that reaches beyond me. I know this because of the conversations I have shared with people of many religions and cultures...the tree needs no explanation, it just resonates at a seemingly core visceral level. Well...it does mirror our internal body systems!

The tree and the ouroboros have universal voices which can be heard... if we listen. Neither symbol, nor indeed other age-old symbols, succumb to fashion's insidious seduction into short term transience. Rather, they call to us from the depths of history, revealing their potency when asked...when we realise our imaginations are tired of transience. They extend their potent reach into the future as they trigger our imaginations for what might be. Their agelessness urges us to seek horizons beyond the short term, beyond the tenticles of fashion... and politics.

THE THREE PAINTINGS HERE
In all three paintings in this post I have combined the ouroboros with the tree-of-life. Yes, the snakes' bodies are trees-of-life. The snakes eat life to replenish life...symbolic of all life... 'speaking' about past, present and future...creating all dimensions...promising new horizons.

My newest painting Cosmic Address [top] suggests that an 'address' is both a place and a time. But, words such as 'place' and 'time' seem inadequate when thinking on cosmic scales. I suspect that the potency within symbols, such as the tree-of-life and the ouroboros, promises more. Are we game to expand our horizons to embrace our 'cosmic address'? Our future may depend on it!

 

Ouroboros Oil on linen 122 x 153

 

 

In 2009 Dr. Christine Dauber [PhD, B.A, B.A Honours [Art History] University of Queensland], wrote about my work. It must first be understood that Brimblecombe–Fox is not so much concerned with landscape painting per se, but in a Warburgian sense, searches for the universal connections, or common ground between people, races and religions. Thus, she uses the “tree of life” or “tree of knowledge” as a repetitive motif and in so doing, deploys its spiritual associations as a global referent.

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com