Here is my newest work and the opening paragraph for the show statement:
"This body of work is intended to contribute to our shared conversation about global climate change. I’m thinking about our new digital smart grid for energy distribution. I’m thinking about how glacial ice and jelly fish each appear lit from within. And this leads me to the idea of bioluminescence and the light within each human heart. I’m thinking about how this light connects me with the existence of tenderness, grace and beauty. Maybe what we can do is create a grid from the light inside each of us. From the vision each of us holds in our hearts of a new world."
I've been preparing for my next show (okay I've been skiing too!). But that's inspiration since it soothes my soul and invigorates me.
Today I finished the first "formal" Ice Jelly and began number two.
While I'm not getting quite what I expected from the varnish and enamels. It's ok. I'm using some aluminum sheets from Booksmart Studio which I adore!
So here's a snippet of my writing for the show statement and an iPhone shot of number one Ice Jelly. More to come.
"Watching the jellies swim or seeing glacial ice I feel the existence of original light, tenderness, grace and beauty of life. I reconnect with what seems lost in our world. I feel it as the force of spirit. It is the love that moves oceans and that breathes me.
This magnificent world that keeps calling me is spirit held in solid form. The miracle of emergence is simply Spirit’s creative play in the light and grace of it’s own movement. A movement of both subtler energies and greater consciousness. "
I've been researching and checking out new aluminum substrates for the next show. I've finally narrowed down my choices to three manufacturers. So now the Ice Jellies come to life. This morning in a big mind meditation the new panels arose through my causal body's awareness. And in that recognition came the concept that aluminum is the metaphor (or not) for my shining ground of being as the mirror that reflects all that is.
I've been asked to put together another show about movement. Since we've snow and small spots of color I've been playing with my iPhone! Here's the baby steps in that direction.
I've been playing around with some sheets of Lexan (it's the stuff that astronauts helmets, the see-through-part, are made of and it's bullet proof, or so I've been told.) I'm pouring varnish and dripping enamels and painting with hand ground oils. It's all prep work for a new project. But more about that later . . .
It's fun stuff to play with and I can run it through my large format printer.
As we fully enter 2011 and I am once again at work in my studio here are few things I'm thinking about as I prepare for my Ice Jelly show at the Hampden Gallery and prepare new concepts and proposals for large installations . . .
With this series of work ice jellies I have come to a place of faith, Not faith outside humanity but faith in my understanding of our connectedness on earth. What exists in me exists throughout our world. Therefore how could I not feel benevolent forces at work within us?
Thinking about ice: with the Pakistan floods in mind, thinking about the rate of the Himalayan glacier melting and that potential for flood devastation.
As we experience what feels like a very quickly moving, or so one hopes, evolution our ability to now transcend time, place and distance through digital technology and beyond will serve us in ways we haven't yet imagined. The image below? Windstalks! Science becomes art?
the movement of water is based on the desire to be still
I am pleased to have been invited to show some of my River Scrolls in a small group show at the Krause Gallery in Providence, RI. The show runs January 4 - 28. Previous plans prevent me from attending the opening reception on Friday, January 7. The gallery is not open on weekends only week days from 8-4. For more gallery information use this link.
Below are the River Scrolls included in this show.
Creating this new body of work has been a challenge and has been in the background for about a year. You've seen some of my early steps in my Open Sketchbook. I've been trusting solely my innermost sense of feeling; desperately keeping my linear brain away from the work.
Both of these visuals: jelly fish swimming and melting glaciers are examples of climate change that we can touch and feel. We may not understand the implications but our bodies and hearts understand the language. It feels to me that this is a conversation continued within an urgent whisper which has been floating in the ocean just beneath the surface. A whisper in a language known within our DNA and in the deep recesses of our hearts.
And it also seems to me our problem with climate change is one of perception not one of ability to solve our problem. The melting glaciers and the jellyfish breach the gap between our ignorance and our wisdom and compassion.
Below are a few details of this moistmedia on lexan. Click on the images to enlarge them.
Playing in the studio this afternoon making mini suns! Since I made the sunflower flowsaic series I've had these mini suns stuck in my head. Today they finally came to fruition!
I wonder how it is that I keep forgetting the value of a day of play? Everytime I spend time playing it frees me to stop TRYING to create and to simply ALLOW inspiration to arrive. Splendid!
A circle is always happening between life and art. And one is forever being moved and moving one’s self along the spiral.
With this new body of work, ice jellies, I have come to a place of faith. Not faith in god but faith in my understanding of our connectedness on earth. And for me faith is a felt sense.
Last summer I saw the magic jellies at the New England Aquarium. As I watched the movement of the jellies I was reminded how fragile life can be, how delicate and how wonderful. I felt the same sensation watching time lapsed video of the glaciers melting.
Oddly my body knows both of these movements. Today I'm pondering this as prayer made visible.
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