ART - SCIENCE - IMAGINATION - WONDER

I Spy Oil on linen 36 x 36 cm 2014

 

 

 

INTERVIEW WITH COL CHRIS HADFIELD - ASTRONAUT

 

On Wednesday night this week I watched Chris Uhlmann, from the ABC's 7.30 Report, interview Canadian astronaut Col Chris Hadfield. It was only short, but it was fantastic! Chris Hadfield is on a whirlwind speaking tour in Australia, but unfortunately he is not coming to Brisbane. He's the astronaut who sang and recorded himself singing David Bowie's classic Space Oddity while he was commander of the International Space Station [ISS]. You can watch it HERE 

At around the 6 minute mark of the interview Chris Uhlmann asks Chris Hadfield, in reference to space and the Universe, Having seen the Earth from space and seen the universe beyond it, can it all be defined by science or only by poetry or perhaps even faith.
Chris Hadfield answered by saying ...exploring the solar system is teaching us a lot and it's technically really interesting and it's important, both politically and economically and technologically. But to me, the fact that so many people watched that music version of 'Space Oddity' that I did, to me, that really shows the importance, if you want to actually communicate, the importance of art. I mean, science, technology, engineering, math - they drive the economy, but we're people, we're not machines and washing machines and robots. We're humans. And to share the wonder and experience of what's going on, that is expressed through art, through music and through writing and through poetry and to try and get to the very essence of what's important.  

Yay! Yay! ART!

Notice how Chris Hadfield describes Art as a way of expressing wonder and the essence of what's important. Neither word....wonder or essence...are essentially scientific, yet they are incredibly apt to describe reactions to scientific research, investigation and discovery...and help propel and nourish these activities, at the same time as engaging those of us who are not at the cutting edge of scientific activity. The relationship between Art and Science, I think, works best when awe is the common denominator, driver, impulse.

On The Edge Gouache on paper 34. x 53.5 2001

INSPIRATION AND IMAGINATION

 

But not everyone can be an astronaut or even a passenger on a space craft. So, how does art engage with the scientific investigations of space and the Universe? I mean there are no joy flights designed for artists to literally experience outer space. The key is...imagination. The song Chris Hadfield sang in space, David Bowie's Space Oddity, was released in 1969 to coincide with the Moon Landing. The lyrics were inspired by Stanley Kubrick's1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey which Bowie went to see several times. Stanley Kubrick, in turn, was inspired by a documentary called Universe which was made in 1960 by Roman Kroiton and Colin Law for the National Film Board Of Canada in conjunction with the David Dunlap Observatory, Ontario. It's an amazing black and white film and I really encourage you to watch it HERE.

 

I just love the cascading inspirations...

About the 4 minute mark of Universe the narrator asks a question pondering what would the first people to travel into space see and experience. Remember this is 1960...only 3 years after the first satellite [Sputnik 1] went into space and nine years before the moon landing. The narrator answers his question by saying We can in imagination journey into these spaces...and the film is the answer with its special effects combined with some imagery of space and also of an astronomer working at night in the David Dunlap Observatory. But, the key word is imagination! Working with the scientific knowledge, that existed in 1960, the film makers extrapolated using imagination to make a film that went on to inspire.

The dance between knowledge [eg: scientific knowledge] and imagination is ambidextrous, with the lead being taken in turns. One may take control yet the other may beckon to 'come hither' and vice versa!

Star Dust Mixed on paper 30 x 42 cm 1997 [This image is the cover of my book For Everyone

 

MAYBE?

Chris Hadfield, singing Space Oddity and videoing himself, with the ISS as his 'stage' and Universe as his 'backdrop', very successfully beckoned people to 'come hither', come closer to share his experience, to engage more intimately with distance, to feel the Universal 'music', to gasp in wonder, to laugh a little, to think differently, expose themselves to new perspectives [literal and metaphoric]...and more.

In the 7.30 Report Chris Hadfield explains the moment when he decided as a 10 year old that he would be an astronaut I watched the first two human beings walk on the Moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the summer I turned 10. And I decided that night - and it wasn't just watching them on television, it was going outside afterwards and looking up at the Moon and seeing - trying to link what I'd seen on the television now with looking at the Moon itself and making the conscious decision at that point that, "I'm going to grow up to be something; you know, why don't I grow up to be that?" I wonder how many people have been inspired by Hadfield's singing space video? Maybe there are children who are now holding close desires to be something they had not thought of before? Maybe there are people who now engage with scientific research of our Universal environment? Maybe there is less fear of the unknown? And, most importantly maybe more people, leave their computers-look up from their phones, and actually go outside to look up at the stars...and wonder!

MOON LANDING 1969

I too watched the Moon Landing in1969. My Dad insisted that my brothers and I stayed home from school to watch it live. I still remember the blurry black and white images on our box of a TV. I did not decide to be an astronaut, but the gravitas of the event still lives within. Although, I think I had already taken 'flight'. Isn't that what artists do!?

___________________________________________________________

In my last post THAT WORD - LANDSCAPE I describe the distance of my childhood landscape and my experiences 'flying'!

You might be interested in my MOON post too.

When I was A Child I Dreamt I could Fly oil on linen 80 x 120 cm 2003

AND

 

That brings me to my forthcoming exhibition

 

UNTETHERING LANDSCAPE

From Earth-Bound Horizons 

 

2 - 14 September here in Brisbane

Please visit the exhibition's site HERE

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

I am on INSTAGRAM now too

kathrynbrimblecombefox

A PAINTING'S CAPACITY TO APPROVE OR VETO: AN ARTIST'S PROCESS.

 

New stretchers [Belgian Linen] 

Please read my previous post called The Blank Canvas

 

So, I am painting...the large stretched canvas in the photo above. The two photos below show early stages. I am now working on more colour, more impact, light and shade, depth. It's a constant state of wonderful problem solving.

 

 

 A preliminary coat of paint

 

As I work, the painting 'speaks' to me. Yes, truly it does! It can veto my ideas! It can also 'grasp' my hand with approval! It can pose questions too. This is when I place the in-progress painting in a position where I will see it when I walk back into the studio...and then I walk out. I do other stuff, like write a BLOG post...and later when I return to the studio, I see the painting with fresh eyes. Sometimes I rework an area, other times I see something new, and on other occasions I fall in love with the painting...until it 'asks' me more questions I cannot immediately 'answer'...and I walk out again!

 

Yes, it is kind of like a relationship...

 

And, subsequent layers of paint.

Sometimes people ask me if it is hard to see paintings go ie: sell. Hey, no! I am happy they find new homes. It's a thrill to walk into someone else's house or business and see one of my paintings. Truly a thrill!

 

I also have them hanging in my house. But, they get changed very regularly as they go to exhibitions, competitions, sell etc. The photo below shows you how my work looks hanging in a domestic situation. Don't you just love the 1970s wood panelling! Actually, I have grown to like it a lot...time has given me plenty of space to get used to it. Funny thing is, it would have been very expensive in the 70s. I did not put it there...the previous owners did.

 

 

L to R Multiple Landscapes, When It Rained On Mars and Galactic Horizons And Beyond

But, getting back to the work in progress above.

It's a large painting, at this very minute leant up against my car parked in the carport, so that when I walk back into the studio [aka garage] I can see it through the open garage doors. Yes, I had reached a point where too many questions were muddling me, so I walked away...and I am writing this BLOG post.

I am actually looking forward to walking back into the studio. I have been painting long enough to know that the process is exciting. The problems are never really that bad, because the process gives me strategies to deal with them. Long ago when I was younger I would wipe out, tear up, get angry and frustrated...but with age I've learnt that the impasses are just as creative as the moments and hours when everything falls into place.

The new painting will be themed along the lines of the thoughts I expressed in my last post Prelude To Landscape And, I am happy to report that the painting is not vetoing...it's just asking questions!

Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

ETERNITY'S BREATH

Eternity's Breath  oil on linen 85 x 150 cm

This new painting above relates to a recent small work on paper called All of Us [below]. Please read my previous post HERE

In All of Us the 'shadow' of the tree represents variously, all history, geneology, human race evolution. The trees in Eternity's Breath also represent variously, all history, geneology, human race evolution, but they also 'speak' of the viscera of existence encompassing all physicality, emotionality spirituality...eternity. The trees evoke the appearance of lungs and the rythmic movement of breath...inhale and exhale, inhale and exhale.

After attending Prof Paul Davies Brisscience lecture a few weeks ago I have been imagining the expanding universe reaching a point where dissipating energy no longer propels spatial or temporal extension. The universe then starts to recede until a state of mammoth spatial and temporal compression causes another Big Bang, and time and space are flung into creation again. This ongoing expansion and contraction is the inhale and exhale of universal breath. 

Regular readers will identify the use of my much loved age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol. The trees in Eternity's Breath create a 'scape' which is both vast and intimate. The trees' branches mirror the capillaries of flesh and blood lungs, at the same time as evoking the 'vascular-like' energy of universal cosmic breath. The figures, humankind, seem to stand at an edge...a precipice...maybe at the point of the exchange between exhale-inhale-exhale. This precipice poses the questions: Why are we here? If we are part of the exhaling universe, what fate lies for us when it inhales?

The oval shapes, full of colour, suggest portals...possibilities...gateways. The 'shadow' tree behind the two figures disappears into one of these colourful portals creating a tension...like waiting for a baby's first breath... or for a dying person's last one.

And, of course trees literally provide oxygen for us, and our fellow animals, to breath. And... we emit carbon dioxide, which trees and plants, use in their 'breathing' process of photosynthesis.

The tree!

All of Us gouache on paper 15 x 21 cm

As I have previously written I am interested in investigating and revealing the potency of the tree-of-life, to find what its symbolism might mean to us in the 21st century. Yes, it has historical significance, but age-old symbols need to be untethered from past historical visual representations to give life to their ageless wisdom. It is up to us to release the tether and journey with these symbols as they weave their way around, and into, contemporary issues and life. I believe the tree-of-life holds potent meaning for us in the 21st century as we grapple with, and are excited by, the ever increasing close and far distances of cosmological research and discovery. I 'see' the tree branching out, and rooting into, the spaces and distances of the quantum and cosmic worlds, meeting us with meaningful ways to understand...and envisage even more...philosophically, scientifically, creatively and spiritually.

Below are two other paintings which 'speak' of breath.

 Breathing Across Time Oil on linen 50 x 94 cm

Breath Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm paper size 52 x 63 cm framed

NEWS

• Tattersall's Landscape Art Award: I have again been invited to participate in this award and exhibition. The prize money is $25,000. The award will be announced Wednesday 5th September. The exhibition will be on display at Brisbane's Tattersall's Club until September 8, after which it is moved to Waterfront Place, 1 eagel St, Brisbane from 10-21 September.
• Also, my entry into the Santos Acquisitive Art Prize in Roma has been selected as a finalist. Entries had to reflect upon the 'benefits of La Nina- the abundance that follows rain'. As regular readers know, rain and water, have been important themes in my work for a long time. The prize is announced 31 August.
• AND the painting below Cosmic Frisson has been purchased for the new Gold Coast Hospital!

Cosmic Frisson oil on linen 90 x 180 cm

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com



JUST WONDERING........

The Beginning Gouache on paper 15 x 21 cm

Do you ever remember, as a child, wondering about life and the universe? I do. I wish I had that same infant intensity or perhaps, it is really a wish for more time to wonder. I certainly remember wondering how IT all began. How far did space go? How far did time stretch? When did life begin? These questions took up quite a deal of space inside my head especially in those years before I went to school. Ha! School! Whilst it was initially ok, it soon bored me to tears. I remember it being a place of tedium and repetition where wonder went out the window! Secondary school was a bit better!

My grandmother D.E Ross was a poet, author, painter, accountant! and thinker. She wrote a poem about me which I think captures the frustration I felt at not being able to solve the problems my BIG questions posed. Here's the poem:

A tiny grandchild

  barely four years old

    sits chin in chubby hand.

       long distance in her eyes.

Whatever is the mattter, Katarina?

   I have sad thinkings,

      she wistfully replies.

The line long distance in her eyes. tells me that my grandmother caught me at a time when I was wondering. I still feel as if my eyes lose focus when I daydream or wonder. Yet, at age 'barely' 4 I did not have the vocabulary to explain to my grandmother that I felt frustrated. The word 'sad' was the only alternative!

I've written about my grandmother before, most recently at 'The Beginning of Everything' post http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/11/beginning-of-everything.html

The Beginning Of Everything Oil on linen 90 x 180cm

My mother Elsie Brimblecome is also a poet, author, painter, educator...not an accountant! She has a B.A, B.Ed St, and a M. Ed [research] all from the University of Queensland. The latter two degrees completed via external studies from our farm outside Dalby and with 3 children under her feet! My mother wrote a poem called 'Catching Time' which I think illustrates a wonder. So many of us wonder about time!

Catching Time

By Elsie Brimblecombe

When in the lengthy stillness

Of a time before counting

I held within my grasp

The seasons and their fruiting

The suns and moons of morning

Burst asunder from my keeping

And delivered the glory

Of their light in sharing

In the very act of thinking

I apportioned light a place

So high in the scheme of things

That forever and a day

Knew nothing of the smile of heaven

Before the fall of evening

Resting in the moment never passing

I caught a ghost of time

in a net shining casting

Outside the cradle of the present

And there thrashing ever floundering

The great creature of the mind

Lay trapped

In hours and days and past and future

Never ceasing.

I love the last stanza! Makes me wonder!

My mother has an exhibition of her paintings currently hanging at the Brisbane Square Library, 266 George St, Brisbane until end of April]. She has called the exhibition 'Art Based On Text' because the paintings come from 3 series of work, each inspired by the written word. These are Italo Calvino's 'Invisible Cities', Artur Rimbaud's 'Les Illuminations' and Brisbane poet Ynes Sanz's anthology 'Fanny The Flying Housewife and Other Stories: Poems for mad and magnificent women'. [published at www.lulu.com by Ynes Sanz, Brisbane, 2009]

Brisbane Square Library web site: 
http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/facilities-recreation/whats-on/venues/index.htm?q_venue_id=211

Here are two of my Mother's paintings inspired by Ynes Sanz's poetry, with the accompanying poem.

Mother of Invention: Name unknown, inventor, date of letter 1933, other dates unknown Acrylic on canvas 2010

Mother of Invention: Name unknown, inventor, date of letter 1933, other dates unknown
By Ynes Sanz

'Dear Sir' she wrote, seated at the pine table
with its faint sour smell of yellow soap.
Outside the rain slipped gently
from bent guttering to the verhandah edge
where last year's pressed tin toy would be found
when the house-paddock grass browned off again.

Rolled gold nib and her narrow wedding ring
gleamed back the woodstoves comfortable glow
among the smells of stewed tea and drying boots,
and linen airing on the clothes-horse, where
white pinafores and cut-down trousers
hung ready for the Sunday drive to Church.

She breathed in time with every downstroke
of the marbled fountain pen. So little
rhythm for her in the unfamiliar tool,
the words began to run away,
shake free of the lines and float outside,
to settle in the tea-tree with the wrens.

She saw her children playing on the windrow,
past the yeard where piebald pigs were capering in their mud,
saw her husband, repairing fences on the hill,
small against the too-green Gippsland grass,
this man who collared-and-tied, sodden and shaken up,
drove their old truck to market and to Mass.

Returning to her task, she spelled it out
in her plain cursive hand. Asked the Ford boss could he build
a cross-breed of a car: part coupe and part box.
With his help, she would be the midwife
to the thing that like herself, would grow in time
to be a farmer's steady mate. He said he would.

Scones set to rise, she sits and stares across the years,
bent fingers trace the worn pine table top.
Outside, the hill paddock still stretches up blue green
nearer to heaven with each coming spring
and Jess is barking, splashing through the creek
to grand-children come calling in the family ute. 

I love this poem. It's the country girl in me!

Matron: Irene Melville Drummond, war hero, 1905 -1942 Acrylic on canvas 2010

Matron: Irene Melville Drummond, war hero, 1905 -1942

By Ynes Sanz

who doesn't yearn for mother love

a courage-under-fire kind of love

the mentioned-in-dispatches variety

the sort of love that [when you're in waist-deep with guns at you back and no way

home]

can still find the heart and the guts to say [looking straight ahead so no shared glance will make you crack]

very steadily [so that on hearing her voice you don't falter]

spelling it out very clearly [so there can be no mistake about her words]

something that will never leave you

like 'Chin up girls, I'm proud of you and I love you all'

then

nothing

Other women whose lives inspired Ynes to write poetry about them are: [there are 40 in total in 'Fanny The Flying Housewife']

Amy Johnson, pilot, 1903 - 1943

Josephine Baker, exotic dancer, 1906 -1975

Gertrude Stein, writer, 1874 - 1946

Susan Trevers, 'La Miss', French Foreign Legionnaire, war hero, 1909 - 2003

Doris Taylor, founder, Meals on Wheels, 1901 - 1968

You can find more of Ynes's work at:

http://haibuntoday.blogspot.com/2008/03/ynes-sanz-man-in-black.html

http://commonshrew.blogspot.com/

So, back to wonder. Ynes's poems make me wonder about the lives of others, those brave and magnificent hoydens embracing life. Her poems make me wonder about Ynes's own wonderings, the catalytic links and inspirations that spark those first words of any poem. I wonder about my mother's wonderings, my grandmother's wonderings. Poetry and art [of all kinds] gives others a special insight into the artist's mind and indeed, soul. It is a private and intimate place which conjures and creates gifts for you and me. These gifts can be tangible, but I suspect the most precious gift is the invitation to wonder too.

Cheers,

Kathryn

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

WONDER

After a couple of weeks not painting I am now back into it. I was distracted by the preparation for two presentations which both went well. I have to say, though, I prefer being in my studio on my own. Venturing into the public arena is always fun, but I need to recharge my batteries with some alone time in my studio. The recharging is under way.

The good thing about a break is that it can cause a departure from previous work. Others may not pick up on the departure, but I am aware of it. I used to fight it, but now I welcome it knowing that any departure is a result of new experiences, rethinking and reflection...even if it has only happened in a couple of weeks.

In my presentation for the Qld Academy of Arts and Sciences at the Queensland University of Technology Art Museum I spoke to the topic 'A Critical Space: The Art/Science Nexus'. One of my suggestions was that both artists and scientists have insightful powers of observation. This might happen to a greater or lesser extent in individuals, but generally speaking acute observation is a capacity which is shared by both scientists and artists. Both may observe their physical surroundings but they will also observe their reactions to and thoughts about these observations. It is one thing to observe with your seeing eye, but to observe those things which sight might trigger in the imagination where the capacity for wonder exists is another level of observation.

Artists and scientists will make internal critical judgements about their wonderings. This is where there is possibly a departure in manner because the desired outcomes are different. And, it is a good thing there is a difference, because I believe art must avoid the trap of thinking it can provide answers when it has the power to prompt questions. However, science is driven to find answers albeit knowing that any answer must be refutable. Questions keep science honest, but only to the extent of the quality of the questions. Art is one of science's partners pushing for questions based on wonder and imagination.

The power of observation ranging from observing the external to then observing the internal paths of imagination and wonder is a dance of close and far distance. The artist and the scientist employ powers of perspective to view their physical world and also their own internal worlds. Interestingly I have written the plural for internal 'worlds'. This poses interesting questions about the space or distance which is inside each of us.

The painting above is called 'Rain Brings Hope', gouache on paper, 30 x 42 cm [unframed]. It is from my 'Water' series of works on paper.