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!

 

 

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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

COSMOLOGY AT PURGATORY ARTSPACE

 Tree-of-Life Time Travelling Oil on linen 85 x 150 cm

I am looking forward to my next solo exhibition, which will be at Purgatory Artspace, in North Melbourne, Australia.

I am calling the exhibition COSMOLOGY

Dates: Wednesday 30 January - Saturday 17 February
Opening Function: Saturday 9 February 2-4 pm: I will be there!
Address: 1st Floor 170 Abbotsford St, Nth Melbourne.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 11am - 5pm
PH: 03 9329 1860

Purgatory Artspace is the project space attached to Gallery Smith.

I've made a 'Cosmology Gallery' on my website with some of the paintings that may be in COSMOLOGY

Ad Infinitum? Oil on linen 50 x 50 cm

 

Regular readers will know why I have called my show COSMOLOGY! My interests in the distances between the nano and vast, plus multi perspectives [even seen simultaneously], are apparent in my paintings. Coupled with these is an interest in teasing out the potencies of age-old symbols, such as the tree-of-life and the ouroborus, to determine whether they can be visually interpreted with 21st century 'eyes', to assist us in understanding our place in the cosmos. Over eons, age-old symbols have helped people position themselves within a contemporary milieu. I believe these same symbols carry secrets that are pertinent for us today. We just have to engage our skills of imagination and intellect in a dance with science, to confidently allow the symbols to 'speak' to us as we envision distances propelling in all directions.

 

Sometimes these distances, so hard to comprehend, can overwhelm. Yet, they can also, make us acutely aware that Earth is [currently] our only possible home. All of us call Earth home and I'd like to think it is within our capabilities to work together to ensure this home is sustained as a healthy and peaceful place to live. Am I suggesting a utopic, idealist view? Well, taking a new perspective or even a multi-one seen simultaneously, may enable us to remove the utopic veil that implies the unachievable thus keeping our perspective myopic.

 

There are questions too about keeping Space free of human detritus. Sorry... we have already failed! I recently attended a fascinating presentation at Brisbane's Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium where an image of the currently in-use, as well as decommissioned satelites, was shown. Each one was indicated by a light. It was certainly a compelling image, which struck a sense of guilt.

Cosmic Ouroboros Oil on linen 120 x 150 cm

 

I am not interested in illustrating or recording facts, figures, examples in my work. I am not a scientist, yet I am very interested in scientific ideas, especially when they stir my imagination and wonder. Ever since I was very young I have been intrigued by the urge for discovery. As a pre-teen I devoured books about the lives of famous scientists eg: Jenner, Curie, Fleming, Marconi and others. I remember enjoying reading about the things, events and ideas that lead to their important discoveries.

 

Alas, Science was very poorly taught at the primary school I attended and by the time I was starting secondary school my interest in Science was severely curtailed. Even worse. my confidence was eroded. An interesting aside...it was implied that because I was good at Art and not so good at Maths, then how could I possibly be any good at Science! Yes, I can remember a particular teacher I had for grade 4 and 5 saying things [cruel things too] that clearly indicated his uneducated biases.

 

However, achieving high marks [ie: distinctions] in Senior Biology did restore some of my faith in my abilities. At University I studied a year long History of Science subject. It was the best, most rewarding subject I have ever studied, even compared with those subjects in my double major in Art History! This History of Science subject, taught by Prof. Mac Hamilton, at the University of Queensland, re-stirred my interest in the realms of the unkown, the 'what ifs?' of the Universe and the 'why?' questions that see the intersection of critical/scientific thinking and imagination.

 

I've written about my interest in cosmology before:

Ouroboros

Cosmic Ouroboros

Galactic Horizons

Cosmology 

Multiverse

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

 

 

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