OCCUPIED LANDSCAPE: EVERYWHERE

Occupied Landscape: Everywhere Oil on canvas 76 x 76 cm 2018

Occupied Landscape: Everywhere continues my interest in proposing that new topographies are being imposed upon our Earthly, biospheric and near-space landscape. These new topographies are not necessarily visible. Nodes, such as drones, mobile phones, ground control stations and satellites, may be visible, but the signals that connect them are not. With increasing dual-use capabilities of contemporary digital and cyber technologies, the prospect of an insidiously militarised landscape/environment cannot be ignored. This kind of occupation of landscape by signals could indicate a global ever-readiness for war, offensive and defensive, rather than just isolated cases of war and conflict.

In Occupied Landscape: Everywhere a weaponised drone loiters - hovers. Its pixelated appearance denotes its connection to digital technologies. The grids of red and white lines reveal a new netted layer over the landscape. In the title I use the word 'everywhere', drawing upon geographer Derek Gregory's ideas of the 'everywhere war'. This, of course, does not just mean everywhere geographically. It can also mean the everywhere of time, and cyberspace.

NEWS

I have just returned from a stimulating two day workshop "Art + Conflict" hosted by the Institute of International Law and Humanities, Melbourne University Law School, and the Victorian College of the Arts, also at the University of Melbourne. It was a cross-disciplinary workshop, and a successful cross-disciplinary one! People from the Humanities, Law and Arts attended and spoke. Academics, curators and artists were also there, many wearing multiple hats. Four young academic scholars organised the workshop, Federica Caso [Uni of Queensland], Ms Shawna Lesseur [University of Connecticut], Stacey Vorster [Wits/UvA], Laura Petersen [University of Melbourne].

I was invited to be on the plenary panel [photo below], along with Prof Paul Gough, visual artist and Pro Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President in the school of Design and Social Context, RMIT, and Ryan Johnston who is the inaugural Director of Buxton Contemporary at the VCA, University of Melbourne. Ryan is also the immediate past Head of Art and the Australian War Memorial. 

L to R:

Prof Paul Gough, panel provocateur Fedrica Caso, Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox, Ryan Johnston.

Photo: Connor Foley [Institute of International Law and Humanities, University of Melbourne Law School]

A highlight was to hear Prof Desmond Manderson speak [photo below]. He is the Director, Centre for Law, Arts and Humanities, Australian National University College of Law. He spoke about Raphael Cauduro's murals in a stairwell in the Supreme Court of Justice building, Mexico city. The stairwell is used by judges to access their offices from the carport. It is also accessed by tour groups visiting the court building. Manderson's presentation brought to life the ghosts Cauduro had provocatively painted in replays of atrocious injustices. 

Prof Desmond Manderson. Image on screen section of stairwell where Raphael Cauduro's murals are painted, Supreme Court building, Mexico.Photo: Connor Foley [Institute of International Law and Humanities, University of Melbourne Law School]

Cheers,
Kathryn

THROUGH THE MISTS OF TIME

Through the Mists of Time Gouache and watercolour on paper 56 x 75.5 cm 2017

As regular readers know, my recent paintings have been influenced by my M. Phil research into contemporary militarised technology. Recent work has featured the figure of the unmanned air vehicle, commonly called the drone, often in juxtaposition with my interpretation of the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol. 

However...

This new painting Through the Mists of Time does not feature a drone. Rather, it focuses on humanity - unplugged from all cyber and digital technologies.

A result of my research focusing on contemporary militarised technology, is a counter balancing re-focus on questions associated with what it means to be human in the 21st century. That's why the tree-of-life figures so strongly in my work, with or without drones! The tree, as an age-old transcultural/religious symbol 'speaks' of all life and its systems. 

In Through the Mists of Time I wanted to place humanity, as represented by the male and female figures, in a cosmic seemingly timeless landscape. The figures seem to 'cast' a tree-of-life shadow, or new root system, at the same time as they project a tree-of-life into the sky - the endless future. A 'stream' of leaves gives the impression of time passing, the white oval shape alludes to renewal and birth, while the small round tree hovers like a fire fly, ready to illuminate, play, guide, tease. Small dots make up various parts of the painting - are they stars, new universes, energy particles, past and future histories? 

I am interested in investigating human agency in an age where unseen algorithms influence so much of our lives. I suggest that in an age of increasing automation, and developments in robotics and artificial intelligence, questions about human agency are important.

POEM

I was a fare way into completing this painting - and it did take some time - when I decided to re-read some of my Mother's and Grandmother's poems in their joint anthology Out There (1986). Well, one of my Mother's poems 'sang' to my new painting. In fact, I took its title from a line of my Mother's poem. The poem is:

Grafting Time

by Elsie Brimblecombe 

Published in Out There by D. E Ross [my grandmother] and Elsie Brimblecombe, Elise Publishing, Dalby, 1986.

If I squeeze the golden fruits

Of time, and suck the juice

Till from the leathered skins

The pith and core and rind

   fall free

The seed beyond the centre

Of that fruit will score

Their mark and drop

Beyond the pearly orchard gates

   and grow

There is this land crossed by days

And falling within the season's drop

Those fruits will bear

Upon the hour, the stop

And go of earth's frantic measure

But if I could graft the trees

Of time and from that union

Spring a growing season

Rooted in the current flow

I would grow and tree of life

   beyond record

A tree whose branches spread

Beyond our lives and those gone by

A tree which blossomed

Through the mists of time

And set its fruits to ripen

In the thinking of the wise.

______________________________

Please check out recent and older posts for more on my work figuring the drone, the tree-of-life and cosmic landscapes.

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

TIME...2015...AND DINNER PARTY CONVERSATIONS

As I write this it is the last day of 2014 and 2015 is only a few hours away!

When I was a pre-teen, my two brothers and I would talk about how old we'd be in years that seemed an eternity in the future. When we were younger years like 1985 and 1990 seemed to be almost impossibly reachable. And, ages like 20 and 30 seemed so incredibly old! Well, the three of us have passed these 'really old' ages with flying colours! And, we are still definitely not old.

And, here we are now on the cusp of 2015...a number and year my brothers and I never discussed because it would have seemed too scifi futuristic! But, I catch myself as I write this sentence...maybe one of my brothers thought about it, although he did not talk about it...he was into scifi!

Time, when I was younger did pass slowly. Sometimes ploddingly slowly. A half hour Math class with a certain dreadful teacher seemed like more than an eternity!

I am not sure when time seemed to hasten its speed, but it does now almost fly.

An interesting, and possibly worrying, thing is that I have noticed today's young school-age children talking about how fast time flies for them. My children, when they were younger, certainly mentioned it. They'd say things like,  'This week has flown' or 'This year has gone so fast'. I never said things like that until I was an adult!

Perhaps the languidness of time-past is something to think about and possibly aspire too; time to think, notice things, doing something like throwing a ball up against a wall...again and again, to do nothing [not even watch tv!]. Seemingly purposeless activity, in hindsight, definitely has benefits.

Anyway...

 

2015 

 

Wishing all of you a wonderful and prosperous New Year

 

and

 

hoping you get time to do nothing every now and then!

 

 

..................................................................................................................................

DINING ROOM

The photo above is my dining room.

The three paintings hanging on the wall are all 2014 ones. Left to right : New World Habitability: Vacation Anyone?, Surrendering Horizon and Beacon. The painting leaning up against the wall at the end of the dining table is Beyond Yesterday .

I took this photo to show my paintings in a domestic environment. I think they look good...even against a you-beaut 1970s timber clad wall! [I did not clad the wall...it came with the house.] I have grown to appreciate the cladding for many reasons; it does not show the dirt, it is a fantastic acoustic buffer for noise from the tv etc, I can bang nails in anywhere [I don't...I am actually thoughtful about this], it seems warmer in winter!

The photo shows the paintings off in a way that cannot be shown when I post them individually...as below.

Paintings in a dining room help stimulate vibrant dinner-time/party conversation!

AND, I've made a 'gallery' on my website of 20 paintings that would look great in a dining room setting. Not only would they look terrific, they'd also spark inspirational and stimulating conversations. You can view the gallery For Your Dining Room HERE

DINNER-TIME CONVERSATION

 

 

Here's what I mean!!!!

 

Firstly, chatter about exoplanets, Goldilocks zones around distant stars, future human travel [even vacations!] to these planets could then lead to......

 New World Habitability: Vacation Anyone? Oil on linen 70 x 102 cm

...conversations about the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life and its importance in 21st century stories and connections, to the past and future. Like a beacon, the tree-of-life guides us. After a bit of chatter about beacons and the sea, beacons as metaphor...the conversation could then...

 Beacon Oil on linen 91 x 102 cm

.... lead to ideas about propelling landscape beyond Earth by surrendering concepts of  horizon to the cosmos. Questions about new perspectives of Earth and humanity might stimulate previously un-thought of possibilities for solving environmental issues...and more. And, after a bit of chatter about politics, natural disasters, global warming and climate change, the conversation could lead to.....

 Surrendering Horizon Oil on linen 100 x 150 cm

...discussions about time! Is there a possibility of beyond yesterday?

And....I'll leave the rest of the conversation to you..................................!

Beyond Yesterday Oil on linen 80 x 55 cm

Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrmblecombe-fox.com

BEYOND YESTERDAY

Beyond Yesterday Oil on linen 80 x 55 cm 2014

 

 

THROUGH THE COSMOS

 

In my last post Lightning I promised some more details about my experience attending the series of events Through The Cosmos, a fabulous few days of concerts and presentations 6-9 November here in Brisbane at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre [QPAC]. Journey Through The Cosmos was a collaboration of science and art/music hosted by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra [QSO]. The Queensland Government's Super Stars Fund brought famous physicist Prof Brian Cox to the collaboration, along with violinist Jack Leibeck, Prof Brian Foster and composer Dario Marianelli.

 

After writing my last post I attended two more events - Composing For Hollywood, a truly fascinating discussion with composer Dario Marianelli, and a performance/lecture with Brian Cox called The Physics of Time. The inspiring lecture was followed by a performance Quartet for the End of Time written by Messiaen when he was a prisoner in a World War II concentration camp. Messiaen composed the work for himself and three other prisoners who all played musical instruments. The performance I saw/heard included violinist Jack Liebeck, pianist Zubin Kanga, cellist Li Wei Qin and clarinettist Paul Dean.

 

COMPOSING FOR HOLLYWOOD

The discussion with Dario Marianelli and author, composer, musicologist Stephen Johnson really highlighted the complexities of movie production. Whilst Marianelli spoke mainly about his life, composing, performing, recording music for films, it was evident that the interconnectedness of every aspect of production is highly complex with each bit requiring excellence. It was fascinating to hear a man talk about his career with such passion. Johnson was a great person to have as the fellow conversationalist. Marianelli was commissioned by the QSO to compose a piece for Journey Through The Cosmos. His Voyager violin concerto, inspired by spacecraft Voyafer 1 and II, was performed by the QSO, with violinist Jack Leibeck, at the Journey Through The Cosmos concerts.

 

THE PHYSICS OF TIME

The Physics Of Time lecture was delivered by Brian Cox with his trademark conversational style. He explained Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, quantum physics, spoke a bit about time travel, cosmic time, the beginning and end of the Universe, the large Hadron Collider at Cern. He also mentioned a fractal tree of universes [see my previous post Universes and Trees] in the context that our Universe may be just one in a Multiverse characterised by an infinite number of simultaneously occurring Big Bangs. He ended the lecture with a quote:

For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love......Carl Sagan.

 

AND!!! Below is a photo of me with Brian Cox, taken after the Journey Through The Cosmos concert!

 

 

 

Photo Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox and Prof Brian Cox courtesy Queensland Symphony Orchestra

 

 

 

Now to my new painting Beyond Yesterday [above]

Regular readers will know that I have been interested in the idea of a Multiverse for some time. Please see my earlier 2010 painting simply called Multiverse [below]. So, what was I thinking when I painted Beyond Yesterday, which I had started before going to Journey Through The Cosmos?

 

I wanted to create a cosmic-like landscape ie: an ambiguous one...where the viewer has some trouble orienting him/herself. The background colour [see detail photo below] is textured, as if there is another 'scape' behind the one on the surface, where there are 'landscape'-like contours and perhaps a hazy horizon. Yet the background colour and texture is a constant, suggesting a much larger essence, perhaps the 'reality' that an horizon-less existence is possible? If our Universe exists in a Multiverse, that is characterised by ongoing simultaneous Big Bangs, then our Universal horizon is merely the end point of our Universe, but not of cosmological existence. The red ball, painted like a 'scape' is perhaps another Universe? It shares the same background colour and texture with the other 'landscape', yet it seems to both recede into the distance at the same time as appearing to be propelled forward out of the painting.

 

Beyond Yesterday, as regular readers will identify, is another of my 'landscapes' that attempt to untether notions of landscape from Earth-bound horizons.

 

 

DETAIL Beyond Yesterday Oil on linen 80 x 55 cm 2014

 

 

WHY THE TITLE BEYOND YESTERDAY?

Well, to me at least, it does not immediately suggest a single trajectory of time and existence. 'Beyond yesterday' could mean back into the past, but equally moving into the future, it could be simply an ever present NOW or it could mean some other dimension.

 

Light that we see, or detect, from space comes from a long ago 'yesterday', yet we 'see' it in the present and can deduce things that will or might happen in the future. 'Yesterday' is in some kind of perpetual 'beyond-ness'.

 

AND, then think about all those other potential Universes being created by simultaneous Big Bangs. If we think of time in a Multiverse something seemingly nonsensical as Beyond Yesterday helps us lose grip on the 'safety net', or perhaps 'shackle' of TIME [as we think we perceive it]. 

 

 

 

 Multiverse Oil on linen 80 x 100 cm 2010

 

 

 

OOO [Object Oriented Ontology] SYMPOSIUM 

 

 

 

 

My proposal for a paper/presentation was accepted and I am one of the speakers at:

Seeing Things: OOO Symposium For Creative Researchers

 

Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Queensland, Australia.

Thursday 20 November 8.30am  - 4.30 am

 

My topic is:

Cosmic Perspectives

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 



LOOKING IN THE REAR VISION MIRROR-COSMICALLY SPEAKING

Where? Oil on linen 50 x 50 cm

 

 

I am continuing with my driving/traveling theme...even though I know it's tangential and thus perhaps somewhat tenuous....but certainly not feeble! My recent previous posts and paintings that, also tenuously but not feebly, touch upon the driving/travelling theme include On My Travels I Saw - Are We There Yet? - Hope and Looking Out The Windows. 

 

For new readers, the kind of driving/traveling I think about are not drives in cars, airplane flights, bus journeys or even luxury cruises, but rather much more exciting possibilities...jaunts that trip into the imagination, slide around perspective, excite metaphor and reveal cosmic potentials. 

 

 

REAR VISION MIRRORS

In my last post Looking Out The Windows I use a short phrase, written by motoring critic Jeremy Clarkson in a review of a 1999 BMW wagon, to launch into a metaphoric exploration of looking out the windows. Clarkson wrote, Yes, it wasn't equipped with other modern features such as parking sensors, but I solved that when manoeuvring by simply looking out the windows.  .

 

So, looking out the windows helps us literally and metaphorically practise perspective, seeing the close and far distances. Handy, in an age where repeated and continuous experience with the short distance between eye and screen exposes us to, and threatens us with, myopic sight and perspective.

 

In the middle of writing my last post I also thought...well what about the metaphoric possibilities of the rear vision mirror.

 

The rear vision mirror presents us with the fascinating potential for keeping an eye on the past, as we live in the present and look to the future. However, cars and other vehicles, are becoming more computerised and automated, providing occupants with entertainment gadgets, and drivers with assistance packages for parking, reversing, orientating and more. The driverless car/vehicle, already in existence, fitted out with all the latest gizmos, may mean that no-one needs to look out the windows ...or look into the rear-vision mirror. If we loose sight of the past and don't look out the windows to the future, maybe we'll just experience a constant myopic present?

 

To see adequately into the future, we have to expand our view of the past. This quote from

The New Universe and The Human Future by cosmologist Prof Joel Primack, and co-author Lawyer and philosopher Nancy Ellen Abrams, says it all really! It is the first line of chapter 5 providentially titled This Cosmically Pivotal Moment. Note that they say we have to expand our view of the past. Myopia is not a handy afflication when expanding 'our view' is called for.

 

WHERE? oil on linen 50 x 50 cm

So, to the painting above. 'Where?' implies a question about a physical position, but it can also ask about a position in time. The image could be the birth of the Universe, as if seen in a rear vision mirror, which is kind of what happens when cosmologists and astronomers examine images of newly discovered cosmic entities. Light reaching us now started its journey eons ago; the past licks at our heels, and sends light and shadows into the future. But, if we don't look out the windows or look into the rear vision mirror we might miss the light and be caught in the shadows.

 

And, of course, the journey maybe be a spiritual one destined to reveal a place within us.

 

Which brings me to another painting...and question:

 

Are We There Yet?

 

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

 

UPDATE

Where? was a finalist [one of 70 out 2000 entries] in 'Seeing Stars' an art award hosted by the SKA [Square Kilometre Array] the world's largest and most sensitive telescope being built here in Australia and Sth Africa. It is a collaborative project with many nations on board.

The finalists' exhibition was held in Melbourne at the Yarra Gallery, Federation Square.
You can see the finalists HERE
 

 

COSMIC ADDRESS

My next exhibition:

15 to 27 October 2013 at Graydon Gallery, Brisbane.

I am really excited about this show. Shall keep you posted!

 

Until next week,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

RETURNING

Returning Oil on linen 50 x 92 cm

 

Returning? Returning from where, from whom?

 

I often think about the presence of the future in the past. Sounds non-sensical in some ways! But, I've had experiences which, with hindsight, have heralded the future. However, it has only been with hindsight that I have the Ah Ha moment of realisation. In a sense, hindsight is a return to a moment in the past...realising that the past can 'return' to the future.

 

The concept of return or returning, is probably more apparent in the saying history repeats itself. Now this can be not so bad or it can be dreadful, particularly in the case of war. Whilst the weapons and tactics of war might have changed, the underlying human instigations perhaps have not? Why do we resort to war and conflict over and over again?

 

When we gaze out into Space we are seeing light, emitted from stars, that has travelled billions of year to get to us. This light is the past being witnessed in its future. In my mind we 'return' to the past, to those moments just after the Big Bang, when we see the stars. It makes me tingle with awe.

 

There is also the story of Adam and Eve, who upon expulsion from the Garden of Eden, are aware that a return to Eden is possible and something to strive for. Adam and Eve, representing humanity, are sent forth to experience the space between antimonies, that space created with the injection of 'evil' into the equation. 'Good' now had a companion, albeit a recalcitrant one. With humanity experiencing life, in this space between antimonies, it was given an opportunity to understand who it is not, thus making it possible to discover who it actually is. The repetition of war and conflict suggests we have a few more lessons to learn!

 

Now to my new painting above called Returning. The cascade of arced trees rustles with light, reflecting that emitted by the blood red moons. Interpsersed amongst the colourful branches of the trees are various dots, including red ones. These seem to whisper to the moons, echoing time seemingly passed and time heralded from the future. Yes, regular readers will identify the trees as my much loved age-old trancsultural/religious trees of life. This symbolic reference to life embraces its entirety, from pre-human [even pre-Earth] to that which exists in a post-human future, that may witness through implosion [or other forces] both a death and rebirth of the Universe. In a sense...the ultimate RETURNING.

 

I have used the word returning as the title rather than something like The Return, because the latter is finite, a once off, whereas returning suggests a constancy and an eternity.

 

Here are some links to other posts where I discuss concepts of returning:

Collective Memory

Perpetual Beginning

Body As Site

Past Present Future

 

MY BOOK AND CHRISTMAS

 

I have some copies of my book For Everyone and it would be a fantastic Christmas present! So if you want one or even more let me know, via comment [which I won't publish] and I will get back to you. Or you can contact me HERE

 

AND MORE CHRISTMAS

 

I have made two new 'galleries' on my website, in preparation for Christmas. If you are after present ideas, for Christmas, or any other celebration, please check out:

 

Oil Paintings Under $1000

Works On Paper Under $1000 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

 

 

 

 

TIME TRAVELLING

Tree-Of-Life Time Travelling, Oil on linen 90 x 150 cm

 

 

Nearly 21 years ago, I was a new Mother. My first born baby girl was, and still is, beautiful. However, as most new parents know, life with a newborn is exhausting. I remember lying on my lounge room couch, feeding my baby...and we both fell asleep. Mine was a heavy, exhausted, deep sleep where I plummeted into an almost alternative state. I dreamt...I was flying...and I awoke suddenly with my arm outstretched reaching for something. I knew I had touched Time.

 

How did I know this? Well, I just knew. I lay back down, settled my baby and tried to gain some composure. I felt a physical weight, as sense of having been absent and that I had returned with a thump. Nearly 21 years later, I can still recall these feelings, albeit only as a whisper.

 

So, did I touch Time? Or was this experience a sign of complete physical and mental exhaustion? Maybe the exhaustion relaxed the boundaries that keep us contained inside 'normalcy'? Maybe the exhaustion allowed for a portal to be opened? Who knows! But, it's fun to wonder...and that's what artists do!

 

So, this story brings me to my new painting Tree-Of-Life Time Travelling. Regular readers will [again] identify my much loved age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life. Two trees 'grow' from the bottom of the painting, indicating that their roots exist outside the painting...with/in Time. The trees are LIFE in all of its fulsome entirity ie: everything! They twist and turn, in a symphony of colour, across a rich crimson 'sky', which could be a sky or space or some other medium existing in the cosmic or quantum 'out there'.  The 'flow' of life is fluid in any, and possibly all directions, across and with time and space. The trees meet somewhere, creating a frisson, a place/space portal where the arrow of time illusion... melts.  

 

Even if we never actually time travel...thank goodness for wonder and imagination!

 

DR WHO

 

Maybe I watched too much Dr Who when I was a kid? Hey, I still watch it. I love Dr. Who, the Time Travelling Lord. The Tardis is Dr. Who's time travelling vehicle. Vehicle! That makes me think of time as a kind of 'road network' and we all know that even here on Earth roads can take us in a multiple of directions. We don't have to always go forward, never to return to places! Imagine how much more complex, exciting and sophisticated the 'roads' of time are. And, imagine travelling on them, especially in vehicles/dimensions that appear small on the outside, but are huge on the inside, like Dr. Who's marvellous Tardis.

 

I have uploaded the painting below because it is one of my 'road' paintings. I painted a few about ten years ago, just after my divorce.  Notice the multiple horizons and how the road snakes its way through them. The word 'distance' in the title does not have to mean a literal one point perspective distance. I know some may think it is a long bow, but I can see similarities between Tree-Of-Life Time Travelling painted in 2012 and Driving Into The Distance painted in 2002!

 

In my last post Untethering Landscape: Revolutionary? I write about untethering our ideas of landscape from Earth-bound perspectives...maybe if we do this we'll 'see' the 'roads' of time?

 

Driving Into The Distance Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm 2002

A RECENT EXPERIENCE 'TIME TRAVELLING'

I attended a really stimulating lecture, at the University of Queesland Art Museum last Saturday. It was co-hosted with the UQ students' Society of Fine Arts [SOFA] The guest lecturer was Prof. Mark Ledbury from the University of Sydney, Department of Art History and Film Studies. He is also Director of the Power Institute 

The title of the lecture was  'Eccentric, Capricious, Bizarre... Thinking About History Painting'.  Prof. Ledbury's passionate and animated presentation of 18th century history painting propelled me back in time. Yes, I felt I was there! His description of artists' manoeuvres across a range of concerns, from choice of subject matter to composition, humanised them in a way which my previous academic experiences with 18th century history painting had never ever hinted at. He brought the era alive, in a way where, as an artist myself, I resonated with their struggles, gambles and games. Prof. Ledbury is currently writing a new book called An Eccentric History of History Painting. [You can see photos of the UQAM/SOFA event here ]

History, taught well, certainly can take a person back in time. I know it's not the same as a literal transportation of a physical body back or forth in time. However, until vehicles/dimensions are created/found for us to 'transport' ourselve through time, I am content with history....delivered in the way Prof. Ledbury 'performed'...as my 'vehicle'. Oh...and don't forget... imagination!

This takes me to the BIG HISTORY project founded by Bill Gates and Australian academic David Christian. Yes, BIG HISTORY is described as an 'Introduction to Everything'. Here's a quote from BIG HISTORY'S Home Page:

Big history takes a big perspective evolving study in independent disciplines to a holistic view of our inter-related universe. Before you know it, physics, chemistry, biology, ancient civilizations, and contemporary human history suddenly fit together.

I am pleased to say that there are a number of Australian schools who have successfully applied to be pilot schools for the BIG HISTORY project. A study of history...going back in time and learning... surely must help pave the roads of future time.

REMINDER
The Tattersall's Landscape Art Award is on public exhibition until Friday 21 September at Waterfront Place, 1 Eagle St, Brisbane. My painting is Cosmic Dust You can see all the paintings HERE

Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

QUIET FIERCENESS OF LIGHT

Quiet Fierceness of Light Oil on linen 90 x 180 cm

This new painting Quiet Fierceness of Light was inspired by a recent work on paper Firmament which is below. Yet, as I painted Quiet Fierceness of Light other things happened. It posed a number of impasses for me, as it challenged me with questions, articulated through dilemmas of aesthetics and conversations with myself. I wanted to create a feeling of a calling, the kind that whispers to us when we least expect it. The kind of calling that moves us past what we know to places where the unknown provokes us to wonder...and discover new knowledge about ourselves and the world.

Regular readers will know that light features in a number of my paintings [I have provided links below]. I love the frisson which quivers in the connections that link the scientist's wonder of light with the philospher's and spiritualist's. The frisson is highly charged!

In Quiet Fierceness of Light a figure of a woman reaches across the canvas, as if she is straddling the depths of time. A flame of light provides a force which seems to propel her. But she garners this light in the spaces between the branches of the trees which errupt from her arms and legs. These trees, regular readers will know, are my interpretation of the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol. They have various possible meanings. They can be 'read' as roots issuing forth from her feet and branches from her hands, or representations of life systems such as the vascular and lymphatic, or cross sections of internal organs such as the brain or kidney. Yet, we can go further and see them as representative of any kind of life giving system such as above and below ground water systems. For me, in this painting, they both emit and garner energy connecting all life across all dimensions.

The background of the entire painting is formed by one tree which cascades across the canvas. Like ripples it suggests another layer of life's propulsion. It seems to embrace all direction, all space and beyond, possibly indicating the primordial template/system of life in the multiverse.

The red circle, with the light emanating from it, may be the sun, the source of literal light broadcasting across our daytime. Yet, light as a metaphor struggles to penetrate our psyches when the darkness of sameness erodes confidence amd strangles wonder. The light in Quiet Fierceness of Light is more about the light of knowledge...of ourselves, others and the universe. It is with and through knowledge that we shed light across the pathways of life. The light imbues us with wonder as it calls forth both beckoning and shining the way. Light that beckons is where we find challenge, drawing us towards it. If we are game we meet its glow.
There is more to Quiet Fierceness of Light, but I'll leave that to you, the viewer. I leave you to travel your own journey with light!

Firmament Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm

LIGHT

Sending Love
Halo
Finding
Becoming The Light
Colour Of Knowledge

WHAT I AM READING

I am currently reading Fire In The Belly: On Being a Man by Sam Keen. It was published in 1991/92 so is twenty years old. It is a fascinating insight into men! I have read the first four chapters where Keen analyses the role of WOMAN in the male psyche. He writes WOMAN in capital letters to differentiate the Goddess/Mother Nature entity from the woman of flesh and blood. He investigates how men need to find distance in order to embrace and love. I am really looking forward to reading the entire book. Keen writes beautifully eg: When writing about WOMAN- 'She has been an inevitable symbol of divinity since the beginning of time and remains a sacred presence in the timeless dimension of every psyche.' How about that for creating pictures with words and transporting the reader to places beyond!

Fire In The Belly: On Being a Man A Bantam Book USA 1991 

WHAT I HAVE JUST READ

I have just finished A Hatful Of Cherries by Felix Calvino. This is a wonderful collection of short stories, written by Calvino, who was born in Spain, but now lives here in Brisbane! Each story drew me in and I felt a connection to the characters. I felt so sad for Basilio and his wife. Really loved the ‘Ghosts on The Beach’ too. ‘Silvia’ was such a measured story, belying the strangeness of the two men sharing a mistress.The story about quitting smoking was painful to read, but gripping. I felt his frustration...and I have never smoked! The ‘Detour’ story has a film in it I am sure! Calvino's endings are really great, because he makes them astonishing, even when they are about ordinary happenings.

I also liked the way Calvino moved from stories set in Spain, to those set in Australia. It provided a rhythm that was punctuated every now and then...like jazz! I could not read more than two stories at one time, because I liked how they stayed with me for awhile.

One of the short stories Unfinished Thoughts has been made into a short movie, which has won and been nominated for a number of awards. Click HERE for more information.

I highy receommend A Hatful Of Cherries
A Hatful Of Cherries Arcadia Australia 2007

SOME INTERESTING SITES I'VE FOUND

I recommend  Everybody Means Something: Words, Values and Identities Explored  This is a BLOG with some very thoughtful posts.

Charter For Compassion  I have been a member of this site for some time. It was inspired by Karen Armstrong, who is a 'provocative, original thinker of the role of religion in the modern world' . Check out her TED site. I've read her book The Spiral Staircase. It is just one of her many books.

I read this provocatively titled article recently, Infinite Stupidity It is a talk with Mark Pagel who is a Fellow of the Royal Society and Professor of Evolutionary Biology. He is Head of the Evolution Laboratory at the University of Reading.

Did you know there is a Global Peace Index ? I met Steve Killelea, the man who founded the organisatin Vision For Humanity a few years ago, at a conference at the Univeristy of Queensland. At the time the idea for a Peace Index was new. But, Steve Killelea is a very passionate man and within a year of the UQ conference the Peace Index was up and running.

I also discovered recently that there is a Corruption Index!

Other interesting sites are listed in the LINKS tab on the right column of this BLOG!

'FOR EVERYONE: WORDS AND PAINTINGS'

My BOOK!

Please click HERE for more information

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

 

QUIVER

Mother Nature Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm

My exhibition PARADISE at Purgatory Artspace in Melbourne finished last Saturday. Great feedback from the gallery and visitors. I am very happy and am planning another exhibition for early 2013.

I will admit to being somewhat exhausted though. Having an exhibition is both physically and emotionally draining, not only leading up to the event, but also while it is on.
However, after a number of failed attempts to paint...yes lots of tearing up paper and over painting...I feel I'm now back in a creative flow. I've been painting with gouache on paper, plus I have prepared three canvases, which are sitting in my sudio [aka garage] willing me to spill out the images in my head.

INSPIRATION
Let's just say that whilst it is frustrating when the creative flow seems impeded, the ripping up and over painting become a kind of 'play'...and that's a good thing. I let it happen. Out of this 'play' some ideas started to gel in my mind and flowed onto the paper.

I've been wanting to explore more ideas of beauty. As regular readers know I have written about beauty before. For me, beauty is a reminder of what we lose if we do not nurture our planet and all its living creatures, including us. Beauty is not ignorant or simple, as its underlying pathos is an understanding of the existence of ugliness, which it consciously elides. The conscious elision is the element which differentiates beauty from mere prettiness. However, I think that many confuse prettiness with beauty, and in doing so skim across the surface of potential. The cult of celebrity, the fickleness of fashion and the vacuuous drama of reality shows seem to me to perpetuate the slippery slopes of superficiality, resulting in a tourist-like experience of life, rather than an absorption in life.

Beauty has a capacity to touch our hearts deep inside us, triggering resonances that quiver with the past and the future, reminding us at a core, or DNA, level of life's purpose. In these new works on paper I found myself taken to places within and compelled to explore the quiver, the resonance.

Quiver Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm

The body of a woman is present in these four new works. She is the conduit of life, the essence of life revelling in life. She is not a separate entity placed outside the 'scape'. She, is absorbed into the patterns of life, she is part of the pattern, the rhythm. I use the word 'scape' to encompass all environments from those bound to Earth, to those deep within the human psyche, to those in the outer reaches of the cosmos, as well as those that 'speak' of history, past, present and future.

                                    Threshold of Time Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm

Regular readers will identify my much loved transcultural/religious tree-of-life motif. The tree just keeps inspiring me! In these paintings it seems indivisible from the female figures as it erupts from their limbs and hearts, connecting to the distance beyond and within.

Firmament Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm

Here are some links to previous posts where I write about beauty:

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/03/beauty.html [I write about beauty at the end of the blog post]

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2011/03/beauty-as-portal.html

http://www.youtube.com/user/kabrimblecombe?feature=mhee#p/a/u/1/8J_zL8ALnJo This is a short segment from a recent 1 1/2 hour presentation I gave for the C.J Jung Soc of Queensland. In this segment I talk about beauty.

GOOD NEWS!

My entry for the BLAKE PRIZE http://www.blakeprize.com.au/ whilst not getting into the finalists was apparently in the group considered for the finals. AND, from that group the directors select works for what's called the DIRECTORS' CUT EXHIBITION. And, my entry COMPASSION is in it! http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/07/compassion.html

This link will take you to where you can see the list of selected artists. http://www.blakeprize.com.au/news/2011-directors-cut-artists-announced

The DIRECTORS' CUT is an online exhibition and the images are live from 26 October - 23 January. I'll keep you informed!

WEBSITE

Please check out my website www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com where I have online 'galleries'. Details such as prices etc can be found there.

Cheers,

Kathryn

UNTETHERING LANDSCAPE

Other Universes Gouache on paper 15 x 21 cm

At my artist's talk in discussion with Dr. Christine Dauber on March 26 she asked me a question about landscape. She basically asked if I identified myself as a landscape painter. This is an interesting one for me, because for many years I would have described myself as such. However, whilst I still paint what could be called landscapes, I don't think the term 'landscape painter', or describing my painting as 'landscape', is fulsome enough. I've pondered this for some time now, even prior to Dr. Dauber bringing the topic to the fore. When I answered her question I basically said 'yes and no'! I ventured to suggest that whilst my feet are planted on the ground my head is actually in the clouds, so I 'see' the external and internal world in and from multiple perspectives.

I have said 'external' and 'internal' because the way I 'see' is both an outward observation with my eye, of eye ball and pupil, as well as an inward one with my mind's 'eye'. The latter is, I suppose, what I 'see' in and with my imagination. Both observations involve another level, which is my emotional response which can quicken or ignite excitement, further wonder, intellectual stimulation, revelation.

Someone, and I cannot remember who, described my paintings as 'spiritual landscapes'. This is probably getting close to the mark, but I still have a niggling problem with the word landscape and what it means to most people ie: an image of or inspired by the literal physical landscape of our external environment. I have had a thought...maybe this meaning of landscape tethers us to a line of sight perspective, with its contingent uni dimensionality, that ultimately blinds us to other dimensions. Are we, in fact, attached to a diminished idea of landscape which affects how we view our world and beyond? If we are, its not a helpful way of 'seeing' as we live locally in an increasingly globalised world.

Recent natural disasters remind us that our landscape can change dramatically and dreadfully, not just cyclically with seasons etc. Change is inherent within the external landscape and tethering ourselves to a vision of constancy in one dimension, I propose, makes it much harder to cope with catastrophe, as well as blinding us to new ways of 'seeing'. The latter probably impacts on how we live in and treat our environment.

The Beginning Of Everything Oil On Linen 90 x 180 cm

If everything in this universe is the result of a BIG BANG, then everything is the BIG BANG'S dust. If everything [and this includes us!] is dust from a common source, then everything is 'landscape'. I ponder upon this and think about how I am inspired...not just what inspires me. Once something triggers my imagination I see inside myself. I actually feel my eyes 'glass' over as I almost plummet to immeasurable internal depths. It often feels much more vast than the external world. In a way, by traversing my internal world I find  pathways to alternative outside worlds. The landscape is within and without.

Cosmic Dust Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm

If everything is the dust from the BIG BANG then there must be a common fundamental code imbedded within everything. Now that's exciting. I can already 'see' that this code is the foundation of and for landscape...a landscape that is not about time or place, but of existence. This code is both here and now, which is in the past and the future. Maybe our imagination has the capacity to stir this common fundamental code agitating it to reveal itself?

However, if we are tethered to a uni dimensional notion of landscape then it means we [probably mainly westerners!] have trained our brains, over time, to view the world this way. I am reminded of Dr. Norman Doidge's fabulous book, 'The Brain That Changes Itself' and his talk at this year's Qld Writers' Festival. Encultured ways of 'seeing' create maps in our brains, but we can change these maps if, as time goes on, we find that previous ways of 'seeing' are not helpful. I am suggesting it is time to change! This is where art's agency lies. Art can help trigger the impetus to create new maps in our brains...maps that link more with imagination or our 'mind's eye' rather than just our eye of eye ball and pupil. I have previously written about Norman Doidge's book and art:
http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/01/love.html
http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/02/becoming.html

As I explore the potential and potency of the transcultural/religious tree-of-life weaving into my paintings, I wonder if the tree holds the clue to the code imbedded within everything? After all, it can represent systems of all kinds. Its branches and its roots link matter and air, heaven and earth. It symbolises life across religions and cultures through stories and myth. It breaths for us and the planet, and it is in a constant state of change. I wonder.


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

COSMIC FRISSON

                                         Cosmic Frisson oil on linen 90 x 180 cm

This is the painting I was working on when I wrote my recent BLOG post 'Ripples' http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/07/ripples.html  Yes, it is finished!

I wrote in 'Ripples' that I wanted to create a painting which seemed to ripple, at one instance appearing to reveal something and at the next swathing it under swift and repetitive movements. This  painting could be a landscape of the Earth in the cosmos, her outer protective atmosphere meeting the sun blessed sky space, creating a frisson between multiple dimensions. Yet, the cluster of rounded shapes could be a cluster of space presences, from planets to particles of dust, saluting a sun star many light years from ours.

I have used my tree-of -life/knowledge motif to create the planetary shape, but beneath the rippling-like branches, glimpses of other forces can be seen. These same forces are glimpsed through the sun's felt presence within the sky space. The cosmos teases and tantalises us with its secrets, by revealing its inner essence languidly.

Without the teasing and tantalising would we question? Would we be curious? The search and acquisition of knowledge survives and thrives on the stimulation and seduction of glimpsed secrets.

I have used the tree-of-life/knowledge to suggest that 'life' lies beyond our planetry existence. It may not be life like we know it, but as the Universe continues to expand, its propulsion is the potential. I am so glad the Universe and the sub-atomic, and the simultaneously expanding and decreasing space and distance between them, are complex. Complexity means there are forces, whilst we may not understand or be aware of them, that keep life's processes operating. My faith lies in the complexity that holds the questions we have not thought to ask and the answers we don't even know exist yet. Now that's frisson!

Regular readers would know that my solo exhibition in March here in brisbane was called Frisson. Here is a link to a previous post http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/01/feeling-frisson.html

Until next time,
Kathryn