ADAM AND EVE...AND THAT TREE-Online Exhibition

                                   In The Garden of Eden Oil on linen 50 x 94 cm 2009
                                                                     Previous post HERE

Regular readers may have previously seen, what I call, my Adam and Eve paintings. But, they will not have seen them all together.

I am currently working on a painting which is inspired by ideas of galactic horizons. So, in the meantime here's an online 'exhibition' of my Adam and Eve paintings! I really enjoy this small series.

The story of Adam and Eve is shared by the three Abrahamaic religions of Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Note the word shared! Yes, we are connected through shared stories, across time, religions and cultures. Stories are like branches of trees, reaching out, rustling together, shedding leaves, dropping seeds, blooming with flowers, reaching for light. Stories are also like the roots of trees, burrowing down to unseen depths, entwining with other roots, anchoring a tree, and giving it strength and sustenance.

Stories can anchor us at the same time as giving seed to relationships, understanding and compassion. However, the light of potential, depends on how willing we are to explore the metaphors, nuances and symbols embedded in age-old stories.

In The Garden of Eden [above] the figures of Adam and Eve are like tree trunks, with branches emanating from their heads and roots radiating from their feet. Life flows through them and beyond. Tree branches meet and cross over, forming a sacred feminine symbol of fertility and life. The trees are symbolic of the age-old transcultural/religious motifs of the tree-of-life and the tree-of-knowledge.

The Colour of Knowledge Oil on linen 62 x 82 cm 2009

Previous post HERE

The Colour of Knowledge depicts the creation of Eve as she is formed from a sleeping Adam's rib. However, for me, this is the 'birth' of the feminine force which exists within us all, male and female. It is the force of life, which knows no gender. In this painting Eve, whilst still connected to Adam, takes from the tree-of-knowledge. Until this moment, the entities called Adam and Eve existed in a whiteness where presence was felt, but not visible. Indeed, once Eve took from the tree, they realised their nakedness and covered themsleves. I imagine that with the arrival of antimonies, represented by the visibility of gender differences, the world cascaded into colour with its multitude of hues and shades. Colour is symbolic of knowledge existing in the distance and spaces between opposites.

                                                   Paradise Oil on linen 52 x 82 cm 2009
                                                                     Previous post HERE

Paradise is a painting where I explore the concept of knowledge as paradise. In this painting Adam and Eve are connected to a cascading multicoloured tree. It is both the tree-of-knowledge and the tree-of-life. The idea that paradise is a 'place' in the outer physical world is enticing. But, I think the promise of paradise, through knowledge, is really about an internal experience deep within our psyche.

She was not made out of his head to surpass him, nor from his feet to be trampled on, but from his side to be equal to him, and near his heart to be dear to him. [Jamieson-Fausset Brown Bible  Commentary] Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm 2009

Previous post HERE

The title of the painting above says it all really!

The story of Adam and Eve is often used to justify a blanketing and suffocating blame game against women. After all, its all Eve's fault Adam was lead astray and evil entered the world! The blame game is often undertaken under the guise of humour, but insidious infiltrations into cultural psyche have been dangerous. However, for me at least, the introduction of evil is merely another representation of the arrival of antimonies. In order to know who we are, we need to know who we are not. Antimonies help us work this out!

The shared story of Adam and Eve is rich with metaphor and symbolism. It is a story which can be explored time and time again. The ability to know who we are, by also knowing who we are not, is a journey not only for the individual, but also the human race. Its called experience, in all its physical, emotional, psychic, spiritual dimensions. It is unfortunate that literalness often stymies the journey, by creating roundabouts with hidden exits. I believe these exits are revealed with a curiosity for symbolism, which ultimately takes you/us on a journey with no end. Like a tree, this journey branches out and digs below, as it seeds and blooms, connects and responds. Knowledge is not static, but alive.

NEWS

• My entry for the $25,000 Mandorla Art Prize in Perth is a finalist. The award is announced 10 August. I will upload an image once the exhibition is live!

• Reminder that my painting $oils Aint $oils Anymore is a finalist in the SCOPE Galleries Art and Environment Award in Warrnambool. The exhibition has been extended until July 15.

• Also, my book FOR EVERYONE is moving along! Check it out HERE

• I will have 4 paintings in the Brisbane Grammar School Art Show which is held 3rd and 4th August.

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

KNOWING STILLNESS

Knowing Stillness Oil on linen 85 x 150 cm

It's been over a week since I blogged. I have been busy. Plus, I've been working on 'Knowing Stillness' [above]. I'd started this painting at the same time I started 'Infinity', the painting I wrote about in my last post. By starting, I mean, creating the background movement of colour. This part of my creative process, sees me getting covered in paint and carrying the faint whiff of 'eua de turps' with me for a few days. Yes, the initial process can take a number of days, as I normally use 2-3 layers of pant, but each layer has to dry before the next layer is applied.

I'd had the idea for 'Knowing Stillness' in my head for awhile. I wanted to play with perspective [regular readers will know I love to do that!] by hinting at notions of the 'beyond'. However, this 'beyond' can be the emotional and spiritual depths within us and/or the extremes of the universe outside of our physical bodies, but with imagination, possibly reachable.

The title 'Knowing Stillness' can be read a couple of ways ie: that stillness is all knowing, or that we can get to know stillness. I like to think that multiple interpretations can be absorbed, so that stillness is both knowing and known.

In stillness we can see, hear and feel things we did not could be heard, seen or felt. In stillness the distance of time and space collapses. As regular readers know I have written about stillness before.

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/10/knowledge-of-stillness.html

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/10/in-stillness.html

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/06/stillness.html

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/06/listening-to-stillness.html

In 'Knowing Stillness' I wanted to capture a sense of discovery...not the intrepid Indiana Jones kind, but a more resonating revelatory kind where you sense that you already know something, but have forgotten. The kind of discovery which reveals your presence at the 'Beginning'. Indeed, if we are cosmic dust, then at some level, possibly imbedded in our DNA, is knowledge we currently do not grasp. Yet, there are hints, and in stillness, we may discover more than just tantalising hints.

The painting is part landscape, with the multiple trees forming maybe a mountain, the edge of the earth, or maybe the edge of the universe...or the edge of something seen under a microscopic. Yes, this is my 'play' with persepective, the possibility of the painting being simultaneously an investigation of the nano and vast...mirrors the intimate and vast depths of our inner psyches . The trees are my much loved transcultural/religious trees-of-life, linked together to form life, to create systems, to energise.

If you look closely, the 'sky' is dotted with white circles. For me, these represented the possibility of other universes...that we are not a universe, but a multiverse. As I have written before, Martin Rees's book 'Just Six Numbers' inspired me to visually articulate some things which had perplexed me since I was a child.  'How big is the sky?', 'What is beyond?'. Here's my previous post 'Multiverse' http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/12/multiverse.html

Yet, these white circles need not be just other universes 'out there'. They can represent the other universes within us, within the depths of our psyches. Last week I attended a fascinating lecture at the Qld Jung Society. It was entitled 'Technology and Soul' and presented by Dr. Glen Slater. I came away from this lecture concerned about the seduction of technology which sees us reliant on virtual life type situations, immediacy, bites of information and constant entertainment...and so on. Of course, there can be major benefits, such as an immediate response from a doctor on the ground if someone falls ill on a plane [happened to a friend of mine recently], virtual consultations in any kind of emergency and so on. However, as we skim the surface of virtual life, social networking, immediacy disguised as urgency, are we creating a superficial persona, easily polished with the latest and greatest device or application, but with increasingly nothing behind it?

So, let's not lose touch with the depths within. Let's not let technology hijack imagination. Beware of the narcisstic imperative that suggests plished perfection is progress. Let stillness reaquaint us with the imperfect, where courage takes us in multiple directions within and without. Allow stillness to reveal the questions we did not know we needed to ask. No polishing required...just digging with love and imagination. Stillness knows!

NEWS

On August 4 I am presenting at the Qld Jung Society monthly session. Here's the link to all the details.

http://www.jungqld.com/2011-8-brimblecombe-fox/

September: I have been invited to participate in the Tattersall's Landscape Art Prize. It opens September 7.

September 8- October 8: My solo exhibition 'Paradise' at Purgatory Artspace, 170 Abbotsford St First Floor], Melbourne. Opening Friday 9 September

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

VORTEX: EXHIBITION AND ARTIST'S TALK

Stillness Within Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/06/stillness.html

I still do not have my proper internet at home, but when I visiting the Telstra Shop today, for an unrelated reason, I mentioned I still did not have internet due to a continuing area Bigpond network outage...and I was given a 5 gigabyte Mobile WiFi device. So, I am reconnected and I am SO happy. I can now send out all my email invitations for my exhibition VORTEX: Seeking Stillness At Its Core. I have had them drafted in my draft folder for ages.

And, readers, I promise you I chose the title for the exhibition long before cyclones started pummeling an already pummelled Qld.

BRISBANE FLOOD

On Wednesday 12 January I evacuated from my house with the Brisbane River rising on one side and overflowing into low lying nearby parkland. Water had started filling my street from this overflow and also from gushing storm water drains. I had not gone to bed on Tuesday night because I was taking all that I could from downstairs to my upstairs...making sure there was some order to the chaos too. I had sandbagged external doors, my pool pumps had been detached and taken to higher ground. My car, and my daughter's car, were full of petrol and parked up the hill. My dog was at a friend's house. Friends were so wonderful!

But, to my great relief the water did not get into my house or yard. On Thursday morning when I gingerly waded through some water to ascertain my house's condition I was so thankful to see that me and my neighbours had been spared major damage. We are the lucky ones, as I know many people who suffered severe damage, and thus the interruption to lives, financial stress and so on.

On the weekend after the flood my street was inundated with volunteers, who helped with everything the flood had caused. I am so grateful to all those people who assisted me with shifting mud. I had fallen heavily on the Wednesday morning and ignored wounds on my ankle. Well... yes... they got infected and I needed antibiotics, and redressing of the wounds every second day at my doctor's surgery. I stuck a plastic bag over my foot, but it still did not allow me to get muddy in order to help all those who were helping me. The power came back on 6 days after I evacuated, and that was also the day my children returned home. I am so glad they were not here when I was madly preparing!

VORTEX

I am getting excited about my forthcoming show which opens in just under 3 weeks. The flood and aftermath forced me to stop painting for about 2 weeks, but I have taken my easel back downstairs to my studio...aka garage! Ah...yes...I am not moving everything else back until after the cyclone season! The sand bags are still guarding my doors!

VORTEX: Seeking Stillness At its Core

Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane

Tuesday 22 Feb - Sunday 6 March

Open Daily 10 am - 6 pm

Opening Night Wednesday 23 Feb 6-8 pm

Can We Eat Coal For Breakfast-NO! Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm

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

ARTIST'S TALK!

ARTIST’S TALK: KATHRYN BRIMBLECOMBE-FOX

IN DISCUSSION WITH ART HISTORIAN DR. CHRISTINE DAUBER
@ VORTEX: Seeking Stillness At Its Core

GRAYDON GALLERY
29 MERTHYR RD
NEW FARM, BRISBANE

DATE: Saturday 26 February.

TIME: 3 PM – 3.45 pm and drinks afterwards.

Painting for Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox is a spiritual event. Her work has a lyrical optimism that emanates from the beauty of the work itself and from the poetic nature of her supporting texts. Her personal oeuvre is both intelligent and understated. It comes with a big agenda-to make the world a better place in which to live. A daunting goal: but for Brimblecombe-Fox, optimism is a state of mind-a matter of choice- a way of always moving forward. This means her painting is ethically driven, politically informed and aesthetically pleasing. Dr. Christine Dauber

VORTEX: Seeking Stillness At Its Core
• Exploring the possibility of stillness in the vortex core where we can listen to things we did not know could be heard, see things we did not know could be seen and feel things we did not know could be felt. As we live locally in an increasingly globalised world new perspectives inspire compassion for self and others.
• Investigating the distance between the nano and cosmological, and thus revealing new perspectives.
• And...WATER...well how does water go down the plughole? As a farmer’s daughter Kathryn has an intense interest in the conversations and debates about water, its uses, value, commodification, infrastructure, sustainability. These are her ‘quiet activism’ paintings!

Online gallery @ http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/10/water-gallery.html

BLOG http://www.kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/
WEBSITE http://www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com/
MOB: 0409 059 018 PH: From Monday 21 Feb [07] 32542325

Cheers,
Kathryn

BEAUTY AND THE VORTEX

Finding The Light Oil on linen 100 x 70 cm

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/07/finding.html

I have uploaded some of the paintings that will be in my forthcoming exhibition VORTEX. Here's a short statement I have written for the exhibition:

Solo exhibition exploring vortexes, taking the viewer to cosmological extremes and to intimate spiritual places. The turmoil of the outer vortex, depicted in images of environmental degradation, is balanced by images of the inner vortex where stillness offers a place to listen to ourselves. VORTEX traverses distance by playing with perspective and using the age old trans-cultural/religious tree-of-life as a guiding motif which explores the intimate and vast, both temporally and spatially.

Regular readers of my BLOG will know that I have been writing about vortexes for some time now. The statement above just touches upon some of my thoughts. It is always quite difficult to condense something, one is somewhat obsessed by, into a short statement!

I see VORTEX as being a coherent exhibition with paintings exploring the beauty of stillness at the core of the vortex...and other paintings exploring the turmoil on the outer vortex, particularly in regards to the 'madness' I see happening with CSG mining on prime food producing farmland. AND, regular readers will know my thoughts there!

OUTER VORTEX
Yet, my paintings exploring the turmoil of the outer vortex are not ugly...well I don't think they are! I see beauty as offering hope. I cannot see the point in creating more ugliness or reminding people of it in an unrelenting way. There's enough in the mass media to remind us of the plunderous and degrading activities which the human race has inflicted upon the Earth. Image after image, seemingly imploring for enlightened solutions lose their impact after awhile. We become desensitised and in the process we feel neutered, as if the problems are SO huge there is no way we can make a difference. Now.... this is where beauty has the power to uplift as it reminds people of paradise... that if beauty can still exist, even in imagination, the potential to resurrect any 'paradise lost' is still there.

One painting of the 'madness', which will be in VORTEX, is the painting below, called $oils Ain't $oils...Anymore! This painting questions value by using small $ signs to signify water, soil and coal. It's prophecy is not attractive, yet I feel that beauty still stretches its hand out through the turmoil to the viewer, in a way which stimulates hope rather than destroying it. http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/12/oils-aint-oilsany-more.html

As I have written a number of times before, I prefer to consciously elide ugliness. This means that ugliness, and all its contingent erosive attributes, exists in absentia in my work, thus negating criticisms of naivity. Indeed, as regular readers of this BLOG know, I have spent many years living in rural Queensland, and whilst I am not a soil or water expert, I do arrive at this point in my life, with decades of practical experience and observations, which are visually parley in my paintings.

I have previously written about beauty http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/03/beauty.html

$oils Ain't $oils...Anymore! Oil on linen 70 x 100 cm

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

VORTEX CORE

The painting at the top of the page 'Finding the Light' and the three paintings below, were all inspired by my imaginatings of what it might be like to be present inside a vortex at its core. The first time I closed my eyes and imagined the stillness, I felt calm. As I have written before, this stillness offers a quiet where we can hear things we did not know we could hear, see things we did not know we could see, and feel things we did not know we could feel. For me this beautiful sentient place is a place of hope, where the human race may find answers to questions it did not know to ask.

Compassion Oil on linen 100 x 100 cm 2010

                           http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/07/compassion.html

Colour Of Stillness Oil on linen 100 x 60 cm

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/10/knowledge-of-stillness.html

                                                                  Hovering At The Centre Oil on lnen 30 x 30 cm

                               http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/08/hovering.html

SUPERCONDUCTORS

If art can trigger the collective imagination, to take us to places of stillness where hearing, seeing and feeling things we were previously unaware of is possible, then art could be called a superconductor!

Here's an explanation from http://www.superconductors.org/INdex.htm of what a superconductor literally is:

If art can be seen as a superconductor, we can now think about what might create resistence to render it impotent and inert. Maybe ugliness, in a way which regurgitates mass media's reportage, is one resistor? And, maybe beauty is a potent transistor?

Concepts like this tickle my imagination and have done so for a long time. My Dad is a HAM radio enthusiast and I grew up with electronic bits and pieces, plus our farm was uniquely identifiable by Dad's tall aerials. Our cars were always equipped with HAM radios, Dad made our first TV in the early 60s, and our first record player also. Here's some info for those of you who do not know what HAM radio is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio  AND...One of my brothers is in IT and his current specialty is supercomputing.

In another post I will write about art and its potential to be a superconductor for cultural diplomacy. Unfortunately, 'show and tell' type attitudes are resistors. I draw some of my thoughts from my own experiences exhibiting in London, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Seoul.

VORTEX

22 Feb - 6 March 2011:  Graydon Gallery, Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane. I will be at the exhibition daily 10 am -6 pm, so it is a chance for me to chat to people. I had a great time chatting at my exhibition FRISSON in March this year.

Cheers,

Kathryn

http://www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com/

http://twitter.com/brimblecombe  [Follow me!]

http://au.linkedin.com/in/kathrynbrimblecombe 

IN THE STILLNESS

                                                Detail of new work I am currently working on...as yet untitled

I am working towards my next solo exhibition, which I am going to call 'Vortex'. I have previously written about some of my vortex thoughts. Here are a few of the links: http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/08/hovering.html   
http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/07/finding.html
http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/06/galaxial.html
http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/06/stillness.html

As you can see the new painting, I am currently working on above, continues with my vortex compulsion. I will finish this painting in a day or so and will upload a full image of it then. However, I will write a little about it now. As with some of my other vortex paintings, which I have written about in the above links, this new painting is an outpicturing of my imaginings of being inside a vortex, in that place where the turmoil of the outer vortex finds peace and stillness. A place where thoughts can be heard, where we listen to things we did not know made sound, where we see things that we did not know could be seen, where we feel things we did not know could be felt. A place where the conscious and subconscious hold hands to expand towards an embrace of our sentient and spiritual experiences.


In this new painting I am painting multiple trees-of-life which errupt from the pinnacle of the vortex. There are 7 trees, representing the colours of the rainbow, the colours of the chakras, the days of the week and so on. But, whilst the number 7 is significant, for me, colour is the most important element, because colour signifies knowledge. Colour, as a metaphor for experience of all kinds and thus knowledge gained, paints our psyche and our soul. I have written about colour and knowledge previously; http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2009/12/colour-of-knowledge.html

With  this new painting I am thinking about the knowledge gained from stillness, from listening, seeing and feeling in a place where peace clears the muddied waters of the exterior vortex. Revelations, insights, new perspectives are all possible in stillness. We can see, feel and hear ourselves in a different way. Yes, this kind of knowledge is self-knowledge...and finding out who we are not in order to know who we are.

I have recognised unhelpful default thinking processes in myself when I have made the time to be still. And being still is a problem for someone who is hyperactive. However, I have found that imagining being inside vortex is very helpful. Ahhhhh.... a wonderful thing our imagination!

B AWARE
The exhibition B Aware which I mentioned in my last previous opened  last Friday. It was an excellent opening. This curated exhibition is themed on the 8 Millenium Development Goals. The show continues until Thursday Oct 21, and is open daily 9.30-4.30pm. All the paintings are for sale too...at St. John's Cathedral, 373 Ann St, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Check out my website 'gallery' B Aware where I have uploaded images of the 5 paintings selected for the B Aware exhibition. http://www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com/



Until next time.
Cheers,
Kathryn

STILLNESS

                                                                 Stillness Within Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm

Have you ever tried to find stillness? When I say 'stillness' I mean that place of peace and silence where the world stops spinning. I have tried many types of meditation, but I find it very difficult to make up my mind about where my favourite quiet place is. So, when a meditation facilitator suggests that one goes, in one's mind, to a favourite place I get quite agitated because I cannot choose. Then if I have actually chosen my spot before the meditation time is up, I then try to work out what the weather might be like, where exactly am I positioned and so on. Normally I start in a certain place ,but end up somewhere else, with many intervening 'happenings' occurring along the way. I suppose one could put it down to having an imagination!

But, recently I discovered a way to experience the stillness. I wrote about this briefly in a recent previous post 'Artifice of Fantasy' http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/06/artiface-of-fantasy.html I imagine I am inside a vortex! Well, yes...the vortex is a metaphor for the hurly burly of life. But, I find it very easy to imagine myself inside a vortex and when I do, I immediately feel stillness. The inside is the core, where I imagine no movement and silence, but an immense energy. This energy is not a frantic, electricified type of energy, but rather an energy of source, of a beginning and an end... and thus without time.

I was thinking about silence recently for a few reasons.
1.  I enjoy silence and I wonder why people want noise and sound all the time. When I think there is silence I realise that  it is never really silent, because through the quiet of seeming silence, sounds of nature can be heard eg: rustle of a lizard in the grass, a small bird's song and so on.
2.  A friend of mine mentioned the French philospoher Luce Iragary's interest in silence. I have previously read some of Iragary's work, but it was some time ago. I remember being drawn to it at the time. So, I have done some googling and read a little more and will endevour to buy one, two or more of her publications. Her interest in silence as a place of listening is intriguing and actually deceptively quite mutlifaceted in terms of knowing oneself... and the other ...and others.
3. I have another friend, Anna Schaumkel who runs listening circles through the business she runs with her partner http://www.beattitude.com.au/index.php I have attended a listening circle and it is quite a powerful experience. People sit in a circle and as each person talks the others listen without making commment. There is a profound experience of being heard.
4. As I have imagined being inside the vortex, in this place of stillness, I have 'heard' my own life force, I have 'heard' myself in the silence.

I know that many people, both men and women, feel unheard and have the attendant core belief of being unlovable. However, the silencing of women across history and cultures is profoundly sad, for men and women. This silencing can be directly by men, or by women to and of themselves based on fears revolving around expectations of societies and families which are largely based on patriachal dynamics. As the mother of daughters I see them voicing their opinions in ways that, at the same ages, I would never have been game to. As a single mother for the last ten years I have watched my daughters not be silenced by me and the residues of my learned experiences of expectation. My exhaustion has meant I could not keep up the facade of really caring about expectations, which deep down I resented anyway! My daughters' expectations are to be heard and not just be me, but by their father, friends, teachers and so on! In fact, I have learnt a lot from my daughters!

STILLNESS WITHIN  Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm
This painting depicts the tree of life twirling around the vascular red vortex which is linked at both the top and bottom to 'veins' which extend beyond the painting. An upright and an inverted tree-of -life, both rooted to the 'veins', suggest that time and space have ceased being measurable, as the woman inside the vortex experiences a stillness and quiet, where she hears her own life force through her breath and pulse, and knows who she really is.

PRESENCE IN MALENY
My small exhibition 'Presence' has been extended by one week until 22 June. So, 'Presence' can still be seen at Maleny's Upfront Club 31 Maple St, Maleny http://www.upfrontclub.org/

Kathryn