OUROBOROS

Ouroboros Oil on linen 122 x 153 cm

Ouroboros is an ancient symbol of a snake or dragon eating its tail.

Please see links below for more information. 

MY Ouroboros

I have painted the body of the snake as a tree...yes...the tree-of-life. For me, the symbol's mutability means that it is capable of signifying the cascade across the nano and vast. Regular readers will know of my interest in the tree's vascular qualities...life giving systems, whether they be blood vessels, Earth's water systems or as yet undetected energy systems powering the Universe and more. My visual explorations of perspective often incorporate the tree-of-life, which can translate into 'scapes' of land, the cosmos or intimate places witnessing life's first impulse. The tree-of-life has helped me 'see' multiple perspectives, even simultaneously.

These perspectives are not only external to me, but also those that lie within. The tree-of-life's symbolism reaches into the psyche, stirring imagination, stimulating human race memory...with the ultimate realisation that intimate places are vast in possibility, thus linking the nano and cosmic in a dance echoing the high drama and the intimate frisson of a Tango.

In Ouroboros the tree's significance is that it embodies the magnitude of all time, and all existence. It 'speaks' to the instance of life's first flutter and to cosmic resonnances, it collapses perspective revealing hints of the 'ultimate synthesis'. In this painting the snake consumes its body of life, fueling the eternal propulsion.

The ouroboros is painted against a cosmic-like background, its circular appearance creating a portal which seems to promise spaces beyond, at the same time as possibily reflecting places already been. It appears to float in an indeterminable place that seems familiar.

                                                           Youtube Video 'Ouroboros'

BACKGROUND

I have had a lot of fun creating this new painting Ouroboros. I first encountered the ouroboros, as a visual descriptor of quantum and cosmic worlds, in Royal Astronomer, Lord Martin Rees's book 'Just Six Numbers' [1] which I read in late 2010. [See image below] I was very excited to read Rees's thoughts on the relationship between the nano and vast.  Whilst I'd seen the motif over the years, I had not paid it any real attention, until I read 'Just Six Numbers'. Nobel Prize winner, physicist Sheldon Glashow was apparently the first to use the ouroboros as a visual descriptor of the connection and unification of the extremes of size and scale.

Since initially writing this post, I have been alerted to the Yale University 2009 Terry Lectures, all given by husband and wife team, cosmologist Prof. JOEL R. PRIMACK and NANCY ELLEN ABRAMS. In the first of the four lectures they superbly explain the 'cosmic ouroboros'. Please check out this YouTube video http://youtu.be/vgr1CozVlrQ  The website for their jointly witten book 'The New Universe and The Human Future: How Shared Cosmology Could transform the World' is http://new-universe.org/

Regular readers will know of my long and induring interest in perspective and distance, the play between the intimacies of vastness, within and without, nano and cosmic. They will also know of my focus on the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol as a way of exploring the potencies of age old symbols and the secrets they hold. The ouroboros is also a transcultural/religious symbol, which through history and across continents has 'spoken' meaningfully to people about life.

Below is an image of the ouroboros in 'Just Six Numbers'. The caption in the book  is:

The ouraboros. There are links between the microworld of particles, nuclei and atoms [left] and the cosmos [right]. [2]

In the text Rees writes, Symbolized 'gastronomically' at the top, is the ultimate synthesis that still eludes us-between the cosmos and the quantum. [3]

Here are two links to presentations where Lord Martin Rees mentions the ouroboros and his .

1. Presentation at Melbourne University 30 March 2010.

2. TED Talk Our Final Century

Here are some links to more information about the ouroboros and its history.
http://sybilarchibald.com/blog/category/ouroboros/
http://www.morbidoutlook.com/art/articles/2000_08_ouroborous.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouroboros
http://ouroboroscycle.com/blog/?cat=9

1. Rees M., Just Six Numbers, Basic Books, NY, 2000
2. Ibid., P. 9
3. Ibid., P. 8

SELECTED PREVIOUS POSTS-RELATED TOPICS
Master Template
The Beginning
Dance With Distance
Elemental Dance
Portal

UPDATE

My talk last week at the University of Queensland's Women's College went well. My topic was Beauty Art and You. In my last post Beauty Has No Antonymn I touched upon some of the things I spoke about.

And, in 2012 I painted Cosmic Ouroboros The Post for this painting is the most popular on my BLOG!

Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com 

NORTH SOUTH EAST WEST

At The Fiery Gate Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm

I am continuing to explore ideas of Mother Nature with paintings that behold the feminine essence of our earthly, cosmological and spiritual lives. This exploration expands on my concerns for our immediate environment and my interest in the distance between the vast and nano, whether it be spatial or temporal, physical or spiritual.

At The Fiery Gate suggests that Mother Nature is suspended at the gate to Eden/Paradise? Have we sacrificed her? She is us, she is all, past-present-future. What do we need to do to pass through the gate to return to Paradise? Fire, as a purification symbol 'speaks' of change, which can be either forced upon us or actively sought. Surely the financial mayhem, climatic and environmental turmoil we are experiencing at the moment, screams for the need to make fundamental changes to the way we live and operate.

      

North South East West Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm

North South East West is titled without commas between the words, because I want no borders or barriers to exist by implication. Punctuation can subliminally suggest border/boundary and thus difference. Yet, each point around the 360 degrees of the compass is a direction. In this painting the female figure, Mother Nature-the feminine life force- extends her reach in all directions, with the vascular-like tree-of-life pulsing within and beyond. She is connected to her physical world, as well as her inner world. She is me, she is you, she is us.

LATEST E-UPDATE:

Please have a look at my latest e-update at this link:

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=859313615340691f5af3cc94b&id=5f60afa09b&e=3cd56fce49

FOR EVERYONE: Words and Paintings

Available as a book or e-book!

My book FOR EVERYONE is available from Balboa Press at:

http://bookstore.balboapress.com/Products/SKU-000458938/For-Everyone.aspx

or from Amazon and other online stores, plus ask your local bookstore.

And, there's a GOOGLE PREVIEW where you can see some of the inside of the book

http://tinyurl.com/3uomgvy

NEW 'GALLERIES' AT

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

QUIVER

http://tinyurl.com/3vqc9ak

MY WOMEN 1990-PRESENT

http://tinyurl.com/3vabc39

UNDER $1000

http://tinyurl.com/675tjeh

Please also check out the DIRECTORS' CUT- BLAKE PRIZE- ONLINE EXHIBITION

My entry into the Blake Prize, was shortlisted by the judges but was not chosen as a finalist.

The Directors' Cut Exhibition is a selection of those works which were shortlisted.

The exhibition is online until 31 January.
You can see all the paintings at:

http://www.blakeprize.com.au/galleries/directors-cut

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

TWITTER http://twitter.com/brimblecombe

UNLEASHING WONDER

Unlimited Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm

Below is the essay written for my 2005 Abu Dhabi exhibition by Holly Arden, Arts Writer and graduate in Art History [Hons First Class] from the University of Queensland. Holly is currently completing her PhD at Monash University, Theory Dept of the Faculty of Art and Design.

The paintings I have uploaded are a few that were in my Abu Dhabi exhibition and that Holly refers to in her essay.

I have uploaded the essay, because in the last few days I have received some very insightful comments from a person, based in Munich, who visited my BLOG and website. He also made insightful comments about Holly's essay.

When Holly showed me the completed essay with an introductory quote from author Andrew McGahan's 'The White Earth' I was astounded...and very pleased! Holly had had no idea that my parent's farm and the McGahan farm were only a few kilometres apart, and that our families have been friends for decades. Our farms were/are at Pirrunuan which is a railway crossing between Dalby and Jimbour, on the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. The Pirrinuan and Jimbour Plains are treeless tracks of rich black cracking soil. To the west is an endless flat horizon which shimmers into watery mirages. To the east the Bunya Mountain Ranges cut a sharp silhouette against the vast sky. Here's a link to a Google Map where you can see our farms. My farm is at the top left.
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?ie=UTF8&hl=en&om=1&source=embed&t=h&ll=-27.042309,151.237965&spn=0.030044,0.07699&z=14

The White Earth' has received a number of literary awards including; Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the South East Asia and South Pacific region, The Age Book of the Year (Fiction) and the Courier Mail Book of the Year Award. It was also shortlisted for the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards that same year. Check out these 2 sites: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/12/1084289744278.html
http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=311&author=218

Holly's 'seeing' of my images in Andrew's words, and her 'reading' of Andrew's prose in my images, spells out the 'magic' foreverness of the vast landscape we grew up in. It also illustrates the power of landscape on the imagination, where the imagination untethers itself from mere replication and description, to stir the vibrational currents that link us all to nature, and thus the impulses of life. The vastness of my childhood landscape gave space to notice the details, to swing from the minutae to the endless, and in doing so unleashed wonder.

Regular readers, who know of my concerns about the Coal Seam Gas [CSG] industry, will feel my distress about the impacts of the influx of coal seam gas mining on the Darling Downs, one of Australia's few prime food producing farmlands.  By puncturing the earth with gas wells, situated about 1 ha apart, not only will there be impacts on the internal health of soils and aquifers, but also on the external landscape. Already, in places where CSG has been active for some time, I have heard of water bores which have dried up, and farmers not being able to find water when trying to establish new bores.

In Holly Arden's chosen quote from Andrew McGahan's book, he refers to 'familiar squares of cultivation' [ie: broadacre farming]. If you have a look at the Google map I linked above you will see an aerial view of what broadacre farming looks like. With CSG, these ' familiar squares of cultivation', will be criss crossed with the all weather access roads which are needed to access every gas well. If you have not seen images of these roads, the pattern on the landscape is like a chaotic web, which disrupts economical and efficient farming practices, creates potential soil erosion issues, subtracts acreage from a farmer's cropping, causes potential problems because of run off [water and vehicular oils etc] onto farming land...etc etc. The landscape will no longer be 'familiar', but more importantly its life sustaining gifts of quality food and fibre will be compromised. Now this is something to be fearful of!

But, this brings me to another question. It is a soul question. What vibrational impact will an internally and externally compromised landscape have on who we are as a race...human race? Yes, over eons, we [human race]  have already changed our landscape in order to feed, house and clothe ourselves. Yet, it seems to me, that this has been a, more or less, evolving process, where we have made mistakes, learnt and changed activity to be more sustainable...it is an ongoing process. But, CSG and the growth of open cut mining in Queensland [and other parts of Australia] are radically, and very quickly, changing our landscape in a way which seems unfetted and diametrically opposed to lessons learnt over the eons. At a forum, on SCG and Open Cut Mining, that I attended at the University of Qld, a few weeks ago, I [and the others in the audience] were appalled when Government and Mining Industry representatives admitted that they did not know the full impact of CSG on the environment, but they'd learn as they go!


                           

Hidden Secrets Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm

Essay By Holly Arden

…at the foot of the hill washed the plains, immediately flat. Close by the land was divided up into the familiar squares of cultivation, but as the eye leapt outwards the colours and shapes merged, fields and farms spreading all the way to the horizons…. On the left marched the blue line of the mountains, and on the right, the land merely extended forever westwards.
- Andrew McGahan, 'The White Earth'

If there is such thing as a cultural psyche, landscape would be a defining feature of it. This must at least be true in Australia, for people of both indigenous and non-indigenous heritage. And it is hardly surprising, given that Australia is four-fifths the size of North America with a population of around 20.4 million. The landscape, vast and for the most part unpopulated, is literally everywhere. ‘The Land Down Under’, ‘The Great Southern Land’: historically, mythologically and psychologically, Australia’s identity is characterised by the distances that mark its interior and separate it from the rest of the world.


As a result, landscape painting has led arguably the strongest course of Australian art. The landscape works of early post-colonial artists evidenced a type of psychological rationalisation of what they encountered in these new foreign lands. Consequently, these were often filtered through a European aesthetic. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists have pictured landscapes that recount stories of the creation of their ancestral lands. In all its forms, landscape art is a means through which artists have situated themselves physically and sensually, culturally and psychologically, in relation to place. As James Baker writes: ‘Landscape art is often a metaphor for…mindsets in that it is also a result of the response to the environment, not just a representation of it.’

What type of response might living in rural Queensland generate? Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox lived for decades in the agricultural communities of Dalby and Goondiwindi in the state’s south-east. The feelings of desolation and loneliness provoked by rural life has left its mark on the work of numerous Australian painters, foreshadowed it seems by the colonial experience. So it comes, perhaps, as a surprise to see the markedly upbeat works in this exhibition. One of the first ways we experience this is through Brimblecombe-Fox’s use of colour: jewel-like blues and fiery reds. Such reds ring true to the deep russet of the region’s soil and are coupled in works such as Life’s Vibration with a vibrant force of energy expressed by lines that vibrate with optic movement. These are scenes quite different to those traditionally pictured, for example, in Russell Drysdale’s desolate brownish terrains.

Secondly, there is a sense of harmony in these paintings achieved partly through the artist’s refined, almost diagrammatic forms. This suggests Brimblecombe-Fox works from a certain level of objectivity or ‘remove’. By ‘remove’ I mean that she is able to view the earth as a natural system and as one part of a much greater whole. Through the working of its ‘parts’, the vegetation that nurtures life, the blood that supports it, the natural world is able to revolve continuously. In a group of paintings that feature a circular earth motif, a network of roots/nerve endings/blood lines service the earth like veins. These connect with a much greater expanse of sky, which puts the earth, quite literally, into perspective. There is something liberating about this and also humbling. In works such as Every Wonderful Possibility, the sky is formed through repeated semi-circular brushstrokes. Traditionally symbolic of harmony and fertility, the circular earth is filled with the roots of life.

A range of rarefied mountain landscapes accompanies these busier paintings. The stylised, patterned forms in these works have a strong graphic quality. The sharp contrasts of the Darling Downs landscape where the artist lived perhaps lend themselves to such picturing. These are places where rain, as in Mountains Dancing, falls in visible sheets and where the mountains, as writer Andrew McGahan describes, “march” on one side, while “on the right, the land merely extend[s] forever westwards.” These are scenes of hard lines or else expanses of coloured nothingness. Then there are the man-made forms, the angular fields and irrigation channels; landscapes which, especially in the harsh light and heat, lend them to abstract rendering. And in the heat of the day, as in Mountains Dancing, there are illusions everywhere, where the luminous blue of the mountains could be mistaken for a gathering of lakes.

Mountains Dancing Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm

The use of abstracted form is also, for Brimblecombe-Fox, a way of translating her impressions of landscape into paint, impressions for which there are not always visual equivalents. None of these works were painted on site. Therefore, by employing a series of ‘motifs’ that might represent a thought or feeling about a place, or through intuitive brushwork, Brimblecombe-Fox maps a personal, inner landscape. A defining marker of the Darling Downs landscape, the mountain is repeated in a varied range of responses to this metaphor for life’s goals and challenges. (And there must be at least one personal mountain here; achieving an exhibition, let alone in another country is one steep climb)! In Metaphor, warmth seems to emanate from beneath the blanket-like covering of the mountain. In Hidden Secrets, the mountains are veiled, elusive and because of this, ever so slightly ominous. In the russet coloured painting, Mountains As Metaphors, the flowing painted line transforms the mountain range into a wave-like abstract form. Floating in an expanse of flat colour it is inaccessible but, with its gentle undulations, its distance causes no anxiety.

Mountains As Metaphors Oil on linen 80 x 200 cm

Mountains As Metaphors demonstrates Brimblecombe-Fox’s distinctive use of abstract graphic form, particularly line. In this work, the line is highly charged, seeming literally to carve the landscape out from a red void. In Earth’s Vibration and Inside The Mirage, multitudes of loose lines suggest a landscape quivering with potential energy. These heavily worked lines are also physical signifiers of the artist shaping the land in paint. In contrast to these more highly composed paintings, a group of gentler, freer works reflects the artist’s fascination with the possibilities of her medium. In Unlimited, for example, Brimblecombe-Fox builds thin washes of paint, allowing these to drip into forms that could be rain-washed landscapes or layers of wood grain.

Inside The Mirage Oil on linen 80 x 200 cm

Informed by vastness and distance, Brimblecombe-Fox’s paintings have an essence of Australia. But aren’t these qualities (feelings, stories) that might also be found throughout the world, in the desert scapes of the Middle East? Thus, while they speak of specific sites, gained through decades of living in rural Queensland, they are not essentially Australian. Part psychological, part allegorical, they have universal resonance. Most refreshingly, while her large canvases hint at emotions such as the fear and loneliness that come with isolated living, Brimblecombe-Fox never allows them to become overly sentimental. Instead, they reflect a mature artist with the ability to balance feeling with resolved, sophisticated approaches to painting this most charged of subjects.
Holly Arden

So, until next time,
Cheers,
Kathryn
http://www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com/

NEXT SOLO EXHIBITION
VORTEX 22 Feb-6 March, Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
I am thinking of having an 'artist's talk' in discussion with an Art Historian on Sat 26 or Sun 27 Feb. Stay tuned for details.

THE BEGINNING OF EVERYTHING

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

I have been working on this new painting for weeks, full days and into the nights. After looking at this painting, viewers could think I was a little obsessive! Well, that might be the case with this painting! It just kept propelling me and I now feel somewhat lost. This feeling will go, when I start the next painting, which is already percolating in my mind.

The Beginning Of Everything ....where do I start!! Funny question when you think of the title! But, that's just it...the title and the painting pose more questions than answers...not that I think art necessarily does, or should, even try to answer anything. If it had the answers, I think, art would truly be dead.

Perspectives

I had this idea that I wanted to paint an mage which 'spoke' about the beginning, those nano seconds after the Big Bang. What would 'landscape' be like? I wanted to paint an image which gave an impression of those nano instances, but also the presence of whatever it is/was that set it ALL in motion. Coupled with those post-Big Bang nano instances I wanted to paint an image which could be 'read' as that intimate nano-second when each human life begins. Regular readers will know that my interest in the connection between close and far distance, the intimate and vast, the micro and macro, drives my search for a way to open multiple perspectives.

Tree-of-Life

In this painting, I have used my much loved transcultural/religious tree-of-life motif which cuts its capillary-like branches across the 'landscape' ...from the Universe of outer space and the 'universe' within the womb, to the 'universe' of human psyche. The tree's branches weave their way across the space, which can seem to both inside and outside something...vast and/or intmate. I wanted to give a sense that perhaps we, the viewers, are witnessing something from the edge of a 'happening'...that we are both witnesses and participants.  I wanted to give a sense that the image contained more than it revealed. 

Childhood Landscape

The vastness of my childhood landscape on my parent's farm outside Dalby on the Darling Downs, has influenced my interest in the 'play' between the vast and intimate. Indeed, the vastness meant that one could be both witness and participant, because multiple distances could be seen and felt simultaneously. The relentless blue skies of the daytime turned into the twinkling sheath of the Milky Way at night. The Bunya Mountains, cutting a majestic silhouette in the east, contrasted with the flat treeless horizon in the west. In between this distance there was space to notice the minutiae of life. Things such as the snaking cracks in the black soil, which miraculously closed up when rain turned the soil into thick mud. Things such as grains of wheat scattered on the side of the road, the creeping tendrils of prickle plants, drops of water on leaves, little whirly winds which picked up dust, feathers, seeds.

I remember, as a child, lying on my back on a thick patch of green clover [before the prickle bindis formed] gazing up at the sky. The clover was like a lush bed and the sky seemed full of energy. As a child I remember my grandmother, who lived in town, taking me and my brothers outside her house, at night, to gaze at the stars. My grandmother knew all the constellations and tried to teach us to identify them. She brought the galaxy closer to us with her knowledge. In a sense she gave us the experience of being witness and participant in the 'beginning of everything'.

Visitors from Overseas
My parents, over the years, hosted a number of visitors from foreign countries [India, Germany, UK, Malaysia, New Guinea] and many of these visitors had trouble coping with the vastness of the flat naturally treeless plain landscape of my childhood. The distance frightened them. Even friends of mine from the city had issues with the vastness. I sensed they felt 'on edge'... literally on the edge of something which went beyond just physical experience.

Back to the painting! The larger section on the top right, still depicting the tree, gives a sense of space...both within and without. The red tinged appearance is a deliberate reference to the doppler effect, suggesting that what we see is receding, and thus expanding, at speed away from us. Yet, the blue tinge suggests a movement towards us. The round 'hole' references many things, including but not limited to...black holes, the possibility of other Universes, the stillness at the vortex core, atoms, birth canals, an eye [with all its symbolic meanings], veins...the moon of my childhood memories gazing at the night sky with my grandmother.

Whilst my childhood memories and wonderments have inspired this painting, some of the extra [or coupling] inspirations came from a book I have mentioned before...a fascinating book called 'Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe' by Martin Rees [Basic Books, 2000] Martin Rees is Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics, and Master of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. He also holds the honorary title of Astronomer Royal and Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and at Leicester University.

WATER
Please check out some of my meanderings on water...its issues are the most serious of this century. You can start here http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/11/murray-darling-currency.html

Cheers,
Kathryn

TUILLE SKIRT AND OTHER THINGS

Detail of work in progress

                               Detail of work in progress-taken at an angle

The two images above are details from a large painting I am currently working on. My thoughts are about the creation of the Universe, or maybe seeing another Universe...with the idea of 'Universe' being about our external physical world, as well as our internal emotional/psychological world. Regular readers will identify with my play between the distances of the nano and universal, intimate and vast, macro and micro. In whatever case, my VORTEX ideas are propelling me. The VORTEX gives me the energy to tunnel in all directions! I have written about my VORTEX ideas previously...here is a link that will also take you to other VORTEX links too http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/10/knowledge-of-stillness.html

But, before I leave the VORTEX...just a reminder that my solo show opening 22 February 2011 is called VORTEX. As you can see from the images above, my much loved transcultural/religious tree-of-life is my visual conduit into the life propelling realms of the VORTEX.

IN MY STUDIO
In this post, I have decided not to dwell too much on ideas, theories...heavy stuff. Instead I thought I'd upload some images of my studio and me.

Here I am in my studio where I paint my works on paper. I share this room with the hot water system and the fuse box. It is actually a kind of non-room, so it's perfect for making a mess in.

Here are some works on paper in progress. Regular readers will possibly see that these are the beginnings of some of my 'water' paintings. That is if they don't end up ripped to pieces because I am not happy with them!

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

Here I am in my studio where I paint my oil paintings...well... it is actually the garage and I share it with a lot of other things, but not the car because I have a carport for it. As you can see I do not have any flash studio furniture. Indeed an old washing machine suffices for a bench! The good thing is that I don't have to be 'precious' about anything.

And, here I am loading a big painting onto the roof racks of my car. Needless to say I do not travel long distances with paintings on the top of my car. However, around Brisbane it is ok, except when wet! Of course, on the odd ocassion I have had to collect my children from school, with a painting atop the car, I have been a complete and utter embarrassment! No-one elses mother has something as conspicuous as a painting wrapped in bubble wrap atop her car!

And now to a photo to show that I can 'glam up' a bit too. Here I am in an outfit, part of which I made! The black top is actually a gorgeous corset which I bought. It 's meant for underwear, but I thought it was beautiful enough for outer wear! [Now I won't go into what my kids said about that!] The tuille skirt and shawl are both made by moi. The shawl was easy. Just a length of tuille with little pink bows randomly sewn all over it. The skirt took a bit longer, because it has layers of pink and brown tuille attached to a lycra band, which I also made.

So that's it for today. Some lighter-note things, which I hope people enjoy seeing.

Cheers,

Kathryn

COSMIC DUST

 

                                Cosmic Dust Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm

This new painting above has been in my mind's eye for awhile. I wanted to create an image which exposed the possibility of the nano and vast at the same time. So, whilst I had in mind an 'landscape' image of the Earth in space, I wanted to pose the possibility that our idea of 'landscape' can be untethered from Earth... that maybe a sub-atomic entity or at the other extreme even a whole Universe provide new perspectives of what 'landscape' really is.

I have recently finished reading 'Just Six Numbers' by Martin Rees, Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics and Master of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. In this book he analyses the six numbers that explain the sensitive balance of the Universe we inhabit. Whilst reading this book I could not help but think about some of my previously expressed ideas on perspective, and more significantly on the need to learn skills in 'seeing' multi perspectives simultaneously. To understand not only our globalised world in which we live locally, but to appreciate the 'world' beyond our sky, beyond our galaxy and even further, we need to 'see' the accelerating distances in the nano and the vast. If we 'see' them we can understand why preserving life and our environment is important ...because the human race may not have anywhere else to go!

In Cosmic Dust   I have painted a circle with two trees...yes my much loved transcultural/religious tree-of-life. These trees meet at their trunks. One tree is painted in cool colours and the other in warm ,representing change through cycles. The 'tree ball' is encircled by a glimmer of white light, which represents anything and everything from Earth's atmosphere, to reflected sunlight, to divine light and more. The background seems to move with suggested light and colour, depth and space... substance of existence?

I have used my tree-of-life, as regular readers would know, to represent life in all its systematic processes. The tree, in an instant, can be read as the vascular-like force of life whether it be at sub-atomic, atomic, human, planetary or universal levels. It can be read as any kind of system with an impulse to create and sustain life. It branches out and roots itself into the 'landscape' of all existence.

As I painted Cosmic Dust I found myself constantly moving back and forth to examine the image from close and far distances. I have written about what I call the 'artist's dance' before, commenting that it could be a metaphor for how we need to view our world [local, global and universal]. We need to move! My mother has just seen Cosmic Dust and I was very pleased to see her doing the 'artist's dance' too. She even commented on what the painting looked like when she viewed it up close, and then from a distance. And, I did not tell her to do this! I like to think the 'artist's dance' is a clue to the artistry of living life to its fullest.

The title Cosmic Dust signifies that subatomic, atomic, human, planetry and even universal entities are the dust created in those nano seconds after the Big Bang. As the dust  coalesced into the material substance of life, it makes one think about our connection to everything. The 'landscape' of life lives through us and beyond.

B AWARE exhibition

I have had 5 paintings chosen for this exciting exhibition: Here's links to 2 of them:
http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2008/07/earth-for-sale-120-x-160-cm-oil-on.html
http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2007/07/thank-goodness.html

'B Aware' is a curated exhibition organised by the 8GG, Eight Goals Group, which is a group of concerned Anglicans raising awareness of global issues surrounding social justice and poverty as outlined in the UN's Millennium Development Goals, 2000.

 Dates: 8-21 October 2010. Daily 9.30 am - 4.30 pm


Opening: Friday 8 October 6.30pm. To be opened by Archbishop Dr. Phillip Aspinall.


Free entry. All art is for sale.
Artists selected for 'B Aware' include Proppa NOW group artists, Gordon Hookey, Jennifer Herd and Richard Bell: Young refugees from Brisbane's Milpera High School...Plus...Glenda Orr, Clinton Cross, Karen Kaese,Vincent Serico, Cernak Cernak, Meryn Jones, Jennifer Andrews, Kerry Holland, Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox, Michael Baartz, Joe Nalo, John Suine and many more. Artists are from PNG, Indigenous and local communities. The curator is Joan Winter.
The UN's 8 Millenium Goals, agreed upon by 189 countries in 2000, focus upon eradication of hunger and poverty, achievement of universal primary education, gender equality and empowerment of women, reduction of child mortality, improvement of child mortality, combatting HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases, ensurement of environmental sustainability and the support of a global partnership for development.


http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=lf#!/event.php?eid=114955445225116

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

HOVERING

Hovering At The Centre Oil on linen 30 x 30 cm

This painting above is a small 30 x 30 cm work. It was inspired by thoughts of vortexes, stillness, possibility and the potency of the archetypal tree-of-life symbol. I am reading another book by the Lord Astonomer, Martin Rees. This book 'Just Six Numbers' is entirely layperson readable, just like his book 'Our Final Century', which I have written about previously. http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/04/idea-sketches.html   http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/05/presence.html

Well, a few things have got me excited. One is that prior to reading 'Just Six Numbers' I was pondering the phenomena of the vortex, literally as well as metaphorically. Regular readers will have read some of my 'vortex' posts. Rees writes about spirals and vortexes in cosmology eg: galaxies. Another source of excitement is Rees's chapter 'Primordial 'Ripples'. I was reading in bed a few nights ago, with my eyes falling out of their sockets due to tiredness, and I started to read the chapter and laughed.  It transfixed me, because prior to reading all about primoridal ripples, I painted 'Cosmic Frisson', which was inspired by ideas of ripples. I even called a recent post 'Ripples'. http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/07/ripples.html   http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/08/cosmic-frisson.html

So, back the painting above...Hovering At The Centre. I wanted to leave some space, because so many of my paintings are full of vast textures which only suggest space as a dimension beyond the surface. I wanted to create an image that included a sense of empty space, simultaneously vast and minute, like a portal or a vortex/spiral core. I wanted to create a sense of finding stillness, a place of possibility, alluding to a complexity that, whilst not understood can be sentiently felt, thus asking us to have faith.

At one level Hovering At The Centre is inspired by Rees's words, 'Most galaxies harbour a central hole as massive as millions of stars.' These central holes are 'black holes'. They defy explanation, but are discernible by scrutinising external forces such as gravity and light. But, this is where an artist's imagination is triggered. For me, my painting portrays a sense of life surrounding the 'black hole'. This is indicated by the tree-of-life motif, which suggests celestial systems finely balanced to stimulate the continuing expansion of the Universe. The tree-of-life is also gravity which stops the Universe imploding into black holes and perhaps surrending existence.

In Hovering At The Centre the circle or hole is like a portal, embraced securely by the tree-of-life. So, entering the portal may not be too bad, because it might be like being inside a big hug [worse case...a crushing hug!]! Portals are metaphors for choice, other dimensions, crossorads in life. Portals, do not have templates to follow, otherwise they'd not be portals, but merely glass doors through which we could see. Portals are not understood by criteria or agendas. If we ascribed these things to portals we limit ourselves and the potential opportunities offered by the unknown. Portals compel us to dream and imagine, and criteria and agendas are not good bedfellows.

Here is a link to another painting where I 'speak' about portals. The painting is called 'AH HAs' and sold at my exhibition FRISSON in March. http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/02/ah-ahs.html

NEWS

My painting 'Halo' is one of  the 70 finalists for the 2010 Tattersall's $20,000 Art Prize, Brisbane. This year the prize is by invitation, so I am very excited to have been chosen as one of the exhibiting artists. The exhibition opens Wednesday 8 September.

On October 8 a rather interesting curated exhibition BAware will open at St. John's Anglican Cathedral in Brisbane. The exhibition is themed to the Millenium Goals to raise awarenss of gloabl issues of social justice, poverty and sustainability. I will have between 3 and 5 paintings in this exhibition. I will post updates over the next weeks leading up to the exhibition.

Until next time,

Kathryn

MAJESTY AND ORDER

Majesty and Oder Oil on linen 36 x 36 cm 2009

While I was painting this image above I was thinking about 'order'...and not house tidy type of order [although I know my family thinks I should think about this more!]. I was thinking about 'order' as in destiny and fate or another name could be 'divine order'. Coupled with my thoughts about 'order' were ponderings on systems, all kinds of systems from natural ones to man-made ones. The largest system is the one which gives pulse to the Universe and whilst we may not conpletely understand this system we know it exists. Now this got me thinking...if we have evidence of a system it does not mean we know how it works, yet we have faith that it does.

Sometimes, a system is not evident until something happens which gives rise to questions about how, why and when the event happened. Sometimes people achieve things without an apparent system, yet once the achievement is made a 'walk' back through the experience will reveal a 'system', which may or may not demonstrate traditional lock step sequential patterning.

For sequential thinkers a system is possibly a different thing to a divergent thinking person. This latter type person will not necessarily think sequentially as in 1,2,3. Their sequence may be 3, 1, 2. This person is often a BIG picture thinker, who will demonstrate hyperactivity and boredom if confronted initially with sequential 'bits' without a BIG picture promise. I think primary school is a devastating place for tangential BIG picture thinking children, because there is so much emphasis on 'bits' of information. These children wonder why they need to learn the 'bits' and tune out when there seems to be no or little relevance...I have seen this with my own children.

So, these are some of the thoughts I had when I was painting this new image. I have just finished it and my thoughts are still spilling over... as they do...which is a kind of system isn't it? Indeed, I have faith that this will happen after finishing a painting, thus leading to the inspiration for my next painting.

I wanted to paint an image which 'spoke' of systems, faith and majesty. My tree-of-life motif represents all of life, but I have formed it to appear like the Earth in orbit. In this sense, the painting is a landscape, indeed a vast one. The size of the painting is small ie: 36 cm x 36 cm, but I like the way vastness still exudes with majesty. It fits in with my ideas about distance being close and/or far. Readers of my BLOG would know of my fascination with the permeability of distance and perspective. The tree-of-life and its branches suggest a system, a natural one akin to those of river systems, mountain ranges, cloud patterns, ants trails, vine tendrals, blood vessels, lymph systems, finger prints and the markings on the palms of your hands....and so on. Each dot represents another world of systems pulsing with life and having faith that it will continue.

I have painted the dots amongst the tree-of-life branches in various pale shades of the complementary colour of the surrounding branches. So, the purple branches have pale yellow dots, the red/pink branches have pale green dots and so on. I did this deliberately for a few reasons: 1. The colour wheel provides a system which artists can use to augment the visual impact of their work 2. I like the concept of seemingly oppositional forces creating a tension which can stimulate 'happenings' 3. I like how seeming randomness, as in the placement of the dots, can be questioned by the subtlety of complementary associations...and how this gives clues to 'hidden' systems at work in our lives and psyche [both idividually and collectively].

Anyway, I could go on and on! But, I won't because maybe you have your own thoughts and as I have said before I love viewers taking my work to places I have not thought of. I do not complete my work, because each conversation either within a person or with others, provides another completion, thus the possibility of multiple completions. Now, is that a system? Systems are everywhere. There is an 'order' in their very existence giving majesty and awe to our lives.

DANCE WITH DISTANCE

I attended the Daphne Mayo Art History lecture at the University of Queensland Art Museum on Thursday night. The visiting scholar who gave the lecture is Terry Smith, FAHA, CIHA the Andrew W Mellon Professor of Contemporary Art History and Theory in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh, and a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Architecture, University of Sydney. The title of his talk was ‘The History of Contemporary Art: Paradoxes and Antinomies’.

Prof Smith discussed the meaning of 'contemporary' and posed questions relating to what it means to be contemporary and contemporaneous. He touched upon time suggesting that being ‘of the time’ or ‘of the moment’ identified the space/place which might be called contemporary. Whilst placing his discussion on a broad frame of historical context and human existence he devoted his attention to exploring the question… What is contemporary art?

While he was talking I became more and more excited because I felt he was investigating and trying to explain the essence of how humanity now exists in the space created between and in the macro and micro [global and local] and that this space is the contemporary place. I believe he saw this as the space between the paradoxes and antimonies referred to in his title. I have written before about the simultaneity of perspective ie: global and local, macro and micro. I have also described distance, both spatial or temporal, as having the capability of being close or far. So, this space between the macro and micro need not be about a large distance, but rather a distance that expands and contracts from nano size to something more. I believe this ‘distance between’ is not about opposites or extremes, but more about negotiating that which may appear to be particular and anything which seems to diffuse particularity keeping in mind that 'particularity' depends on perspective. I also feel that if we mistake this distance between the macro and micro as being a space between two extant opposites we will miss discovering new trajectories and the resulting new spaces/distances. Negotiating life which is increasingly seen as both global and local is the dilemma of the contemporary.

In reference to my own work I have previously written about the multi perspective approach I employ to engage the viewer in an observation which has the potential to give the experience of simultaneously being in many places/perspectives at the one time. My work is intentionally ambiguous with regards to viewpoint ie: a viewer might feel they are above, below, inside, outside, in front or behind, close or far or a combination. I wonder if this experience might enable someone to understand that in this globalised world we need to be able to place ourselves in another’s or many others’ shoes in order to conduct business, diplomacy, politics, cultural exchange and so on…and also to view ourselves from a distance outside. This is where compassion for ourselves and others enters [I will talk about this more further on]. My multi perspective approach suggests that we have the capacity or perhaps the potential ability to learn to ‘see’ everything around us [like having eyes all over our bodies] giving us the ability to discover trajectories we may not otherwise be aware of.

The act of painting is about seeing with the eye ball and pupil but also seeing with the mind’s eye. As I [and other artists] move back and forth from our work examining them as close and far distance we make decisions based on what our seeing eye thinks looks good and what our mind’s eye wants to achieve in respect of meaning, message, essence and/or aura. The physical act of moving back and forth is a dance which exemplifies the processes of negotiating the space/distance between the macro and micro. The creative act, in a way, provides clues for how we can negotiate living in the contemporary space/distance. Like any dance there are moments of inclusion and exclusion…the push-me-pull-you of energy.

I have written before about finding a shared compassion with visitors to my exhibition in Abu Dhabi in 2005. My paintings were the catalysts for the most amazing conversations with people from all over the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe. I realised I had to suspend ownership over the completion of my work because each conversation brought another completion. I discovered that my use of multi perspectives and the trans-cultural/religious tree-of-life motif propelled conversations to deeper levels because time was not spent on explanation. People shared their hopes, dreams and in some cases despair with me and in the process we discovered we had new perspectives of each other collapsing barriers of difference which set us apart. By discovering points of similarity we discovered intimate spaces of shared compassion.

I think this potential capacity for shared compassion is the great hope of a globalised world perhaps providing clues to new pathways to peace. This compassion is not about sympathy which has an intrinsic inequality. Compassion to me is much more honourable, respectful, mutual and has the potential to be truly intimate. So, if living in the space/distance between the macro and micro/global and local is what being contemporary is about I believe compassion has an important part to play. I say this because once people develop skills of ‘seeing’ different perspectives compassion and understanding, albeit not necessarily agreement, will propel relationships and negotiations both globally and locally. The alternative is too horrible!

For me contemporary art is a reflective and affective agent for the qualities within the ‘space between’ where simultaneity, compassion and the sensational [as opposed to sensationalist] are evoked with simplicity [as opposed to simplistically]. Contemporary art is an exploration of a space which I am beginning to think might be where we rediscover the aura encompassing time and space ie: existence. Contemporary art can [but not necessarily] be an affective agent assisting people to understand and negotiate this ‘space between’. I don’t like to think art has a defined ‘role’ because it denotes predetermination or prescription. However, art certainly has an affective agency.

But back to the Daphne Mayo lecture. I came away feeling more sure that my work is truly contemporary. In this age of multi media/new media I [and other artists] sometimes feel that because we don’t employ these new mediums then our work is ‘old hat’… unless of course it is simplistically confrontational/sensationalist and gains immediate attention [that’s another story].

I believe my work can be described as truly contemporary because I am inspired to paint images that ‘speak’ about the co-existence of the macro and micro, that identify the existence of the space between the macro and micro and the possibility of new horizons which are not necessarily in front of us, collapsing linear/horizon line notions of perspective, engaging other cultures without appropriating them, revealing the simplicity within the complex and vice versa. By doing these things I have become more comfortable shimming through concepts of distance whether close or far. My solo exhibition in London in 2002 was actually called ‘Distance’. Whilst I know I had not fully thought about the various issues I have written about here I was interested in the fact that distance could be about time and space, could be far and close, and that I was an Australian exhibiting at a far distance from her home country. This latter more literal aspect, whilst a little banal, I now realise is important because the physical/felt experience has a way of entering the psyche. That’s why I deliberately create paintings with multi perspectives hoping that a viewer might have a physical/felt experience of what it is like to be in another or many other places.

In this global world we also see an incredible growth in the self/personal development services. These range from orthodox to alternative often invoking the ‘spiritual’ to assist in attracting clients or genuinely exploring its endless qualities. People are gaining new perspectives of themselves by delving into the possibilities of self/personal development. So whilst our world view becomes vast, and we can now book a holiday in space, we also feel compelled to ‘look into’ and examine ourselves because we want to understand ‘how to be’ in a world which can be scarily immense. This desire can be extrapolated to the burgeoning support/counselling services for the other micro components of the whole ie: family, business, corporate, government, national entities.

I have uploaded the above image for a few reasons. One is that it is a new work. Two…it is ‘seeing’ the interiority of vastness at the same time as witnessing the vastness. Three…it plays with perspective. I have called this painting ‘Viscera’ meaning that the internal life forces of the earth are revealed. Yet, ignoring the detail the sum total is a large landscape. Yet, is the viewer sure of where they stand in view of this vast landscape? Is the viewer in front of a land and sky scene or above a landscape of land and water or inside the internal workings? The landscape seems to be born from a tree…the tree-of-life with its branches becoming visceral and vascular reminding us that our bodies hold these same truths and energies. This is where the image can devolve into something more universal than a particular landscape. I like the fact that a viewer standing at a distance will ‘see’ a different landscape to the one they see when up close, yet it is the same landscape. You, the reader, can have a similar experience by clicking on the image to make it larger. Enticing the viewer to move back and forth from the painting replicates the moves I made when creating it. This dance with distance is an important component of my work.

Viscera Oil on linen 90 x 200 cm 2008

CONVERSATION

I am quite excited because there is a small article about me and my work in the University of Queensland's latest Graduate Contact magazine. It is in the section called Keep In Contact which has a variety of stories about various graduates from various years. It is always interesting to read an article about yourself. Whilst I was interviewed for the piece it is interesting to see what the writer has considered important. I am really pleased that, in this case, my thoughts about conversation and art come thorugh very clearly.

 

 

I have written about my ideas relating to conversation and art before on this BLOG. However, I am always adding to these ideas. Something which has become a little more focused are my thoughts about the agendaless quality of spontaneous conversations triggered by art. Each conversation is different with each viewer. Intimacy can be achieved. However, I think intimacy is different to discussion about intimate things. The latter can happen at various types of meetings eg: about women's health, poverty, divorce and so on. However, in the case of a meeting there is normally an agenda, whether formal or informal. Discussing intimate experiences does not necessarily mean there is an intimacy of shared feelings and emotions which have surfaced due to reactions to a work of art. My experience has been that exchange is different to sharing.

This painting above is a work on paper. It is called Sunrise Over The Vastness and whilst it is a landscape I was also thinking of the idea of personal horizons and the illumination of these.

Sunrise Over The Vastness Gouache on paper 21 x 30 cm 2008