All of life ebbs and flows, until it ceases to exist altogether. At least, this is how it seems. I imagine that everything fits into a rhythm given the passage of time - maybe even the birth of universes? Who amongst us really knows? My thoughts drift into these big picture scenarios every time I sit and create. Ideas stretch before me - expansive, limitless even - and I float into the noise so that I may flow towards the void.
Thoughts this big need to be tempered with grounding practices - gardening, walking, stretching, observing the intricacies of the natural world, or venturing into the vast, dark corners of limitlessness within our own minds . When we look out so far, we need also to pull back inwards, and it is then that we see that all is one and the same, all is big and small, simple and complex, chaos and peace. It is all the same thing.
Still, there is no denying that some suffer more than others and it is impossible to project any logic onto the random lottery of life. The world seems entirely unconcerned with fairness. Perhaps it is simply a human construct, an ideal forged in our own naivety about how the universe functions?
All this pondering comes out of the uncertainty and anxieties shaped by recent events, local and global. It's been a hell of a start to 2022 and the general consensus is that all this darkness can go away now. But here we are, reckoning with both nature and man, both equally as destructive and unforgiving, and yet we know they are regenerative and creative in equal measure. The scales are tipping in one direction and it feels like we must work insurmountably hard to bring them back to balance.
Here, in my 'neck of the woods' our city sits under a layer of mud and debris as devastating floods took much of the east coast by surprise. This comes only two years after the worst bushfire season this country has endured, which came at the end of the worst drought season we'd seen in a very, very long time. All is not well in Aussie land, and still there are people who need convincing that climate change is real. Farther afield the drums of war beat loudly out of Europe, resonating across the globe. A man orders the murder of numerous innocent civilians and threatens nuclear destruction, exemplifying the immeasurable evil a single human can wreak on this beautiful planet.
It is a lot.
Through it all I sit and draw, etching Venus figurines and feminine relics discovered in archeological digs around the world. Over my many years of art-making these figures have made several appearances, but I am surprised to see them enter my practice again at this time. Maybe it is a yearning to be enveloped in the sacred feminine, a kind of reaction to the aggressive ego-fuelled jostling between male leaders? Or perhaps it is a way to appeal to the mercy of mother earth, who will no doubt chastise her wayward children into submission...or eat us alive. Maybe it's a bit of both?
Regardless of the reasons, I am deeply into this work, having drawn 6 figures in the past week, and I see a new body of work emerging that deviates greatly from my fauna based illustrative pieces. I will write more about these intriguing figures and relics in the future as I work to understand my attraction to them. But for now, I will continue to draw the days away as world events unfold around me. I think in these times it is best to remain small, with humble ambitions and a life full of rituals that fill the heart with love, empathy and kindness.
Be well. xx
