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Artist's Statement
Hello
everyone. I live in Tredegar, South Wales, I’m 56 years
old and since 1987 I’ve been seeking answers to the big
questions, you know the ones; who am I etc? This has been
and continues to be an extraordinary journey and I feel increasingly
blessed to be alive on this planet at this time and opening
day by day to my own spirituality and witnessing this in many
others as I go along.
People ask what
my art means to me. Increasingly the answer is everything,
not just painting but living my life as an art, finding a
creative way to do things.
I’ve always
been aware of beauty and been moved by it, for a long time
without any understanding of the energy that moved me. This
Planet is staggeringly creative and beautiful and we are fools
to try to bring all the richness and variety down to a few
strangled manmade ideals of expression that we are comfortable
with.
Specifically my
art is my soul song, my expression of my love of the Earth
and the Great Mother Goddess who gave me life and sustains
and lovingly nurtures me and always will do. It is a vehicle
to share these things with others but if no one sees another
thing I paint or reads another thing I write I will still
paint and still write. Now I’ve found my tools I know
I won’t stop until I can no longer do it.
Another question I’m asked is how do you decide what
to paint? I don’t consciously do that. Whenever I’ve
tried to work something out, to do sketches of an idea it
is always a mess. The image just “arrives” spontaneously
on the surface, sometimes after an agonising gestation period.
Let’s backtrack here.
I started painting
as a project given as part of a healing course. We were asked
to “express in some creative way your Sacral Chakra.”
Eight words that threw me into complete chaos. This was the
start of an even bigger challenge to unblock my shut down
desire to be an artist and heal my relationship with my father.
I became a Healer
in order to heal myself but didn’t think so at the time.
I got into journeying to find my spirituality, which I didn’t
know I’d lost, and to make sense of all the crazy psychic
phenomena that were making me come unglued. My teachers (in
the Spiritualist Church, in the NFSH and a Native American
Shaman) gave me a framework and protocols to deal with this
and to understand the wakeup call my Soul was issuing. It
all sounds so simple when I say it like this, it wasn’t
and I don’t think it ever is. As I was reared in the
school of anything worthwhile requires some sacrifice I think
it could be we aren’t geared up to allowing it to be
easy or to appreciating anything unless there is some personal
cost. That really needs some attention. Receive the Blessings
as they arrive from your Soul for they have already been earned..
A lot of my work
is in pastel and I adore it for its vibrancy of colour and
the hands on technique. I have tried all media except oils,
as I’m not comfortable with turps etc. Working on a trial
and error basis with all of these I’ve learnt how to
get what I wanted and develop a style of my own. All the work
has a spiritual bias with some of it arising from my Dreaming
(a Shamanic practice) and some images coming from meditations
for Peace.
The Earth Mother
has asked me to bring forth images that speak of Beauty, to
live in a Beauty way. I try to give hope and inspiration to
those whose eyes have shut because of pain and suffering and
to provide words and images that can hopefully reach in another
way to their Soul It’s OK to have doubts and be human,
above all be human but try to embrace the best aspects you
possibly can.
Bears Came
Dancing - 2004
These pieces of
work/play are my soul communicating with me. It is trying
to show me what goes on in my other worlds, within the landscapes
that I journey through. To help me learn from the part of
my consciousness that wears other masks but most importantly
from the part that stands clear and shining and unmasked,
with an open heart and without fear in a world that’s
full of fear. Hopefully just being and doing my art is enough.
I recently held an Open Studio exhibition at home and used
the ground floor as a Gallery. If your home is the only place
you can do a show then do it there
As I enter the
Grandmother stage of my life it is more and more important
for me to have my work seen. Each piece will mean something
to someone. The paintings carry energy that is alive, they
speak, some people find this very disturbing and back away
while some burst into tears. At first I found this hard to
take but I realise we all go at our own pace and the triggers
that affect us are all over the place and not choreographed
by anyone but ourselves.
This is an ongoing
process for all of us, we are work in progress and whilst
we have breath thus it will be.
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Angel
Feeding the Doves - 2004
Dreamers
Friend - 2004
Ixel
and the Jaguars - 2004
Second
Mayan Journey - 2004
Invitation
from the Jaguar - 2004
Golden
Bowl Transformation - 2004
Hawk
Comes Calling - 2004
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