Currently I am deep in to a series of paintings about man’s relationship to the earth; where and how we live. It was to be a series about habitat or places to live but has evolved in to an exploration of cities and their relationship to nature. I won’t be finished this series until next summer and then I hope to show them here on the east shore of Kootenay Lake and in Nelson. I am currently looking for a gallery in Calgary for a show. If anybody has any suggestions or contacts for a place to show a cohesive series of a dozen or so large paintings please ;et me know. In the spring I will start photographing these works and posting them. Until then I will continue to write out the stories behind paintings I have done over the last couple of years.
The Rhythm Keepers
Camping with my family in the jungles of Chiapas, in Southern Mexico, was an experience of the powerful pulse of nature. As it gets dark, the critters of the tropical jungle amp up the noise level; frogs, birds, howler monkeys, trillions of insects and lots of noises that I have no idea what was creating them, call out of the black night. I sat and listened, then felt the power of the noise pushing against my chest. The sound turned in to a pulsing vibration, like the jungle had a rhythm or a heartbeat.
In The Rhythm Keepers, I explored the idea of rhythm; the rhythms of our heart and our breath always at the centre of our lives. From that center we connect and open with rhythm in so many ways; it is hard not to move to music and drumming. We experience a rhythm to our lives in the seasons, the moon and the waves on the ocean. I think that there are many more rhythms that are senses don’t register which effect us throughout our lives.
As I worked on this painting my mind was blown by the idea that all rhythms are connected, touching effecting each other, as they overlap and blend they become larger stronger rhythms. I am struck by the idea that they connect to form one rhythm that pulses through the universe. All the rhythms that we feel can be experienced as the heartbeat of a living universe.
This connects to so many ancient (and current) teachings about vibration – everything is a manifestation of a different kind of vibration, from the rapid high-pitched rhythm that seems like a steady note, to the drum beat or wave crashing of more distinct pulses, to the really (from human perception) slow quasar pulses of distant stars. The idea of coherence and harmony comes forth – finding my own rhythm, attuning to a vibration that brings entrainment and changes a rhythm for healing or alignment. Lovely explorations. Lovely image.