Path 1 / Path 2
Path 1 / Path 2.
Diptych.
Acrylic on Canvas. 1999.
Size - Path 1 - h-56.4 x w-36 cm, Path 2 - h -21.5 x w- 24 cm.
Diptych.
Acrylic on Canvas. 1999.
Size - Path 1 - h-56.4 x w-36 cm, Path 2 - h -21.5 x w- 24 cm.
Path 1 - Consciousness, Awareness, Stillness, connected, the now!.
Path 2 - Ego, Thought, Unconsciousness, Disconnected.
Path 1 / Path 2 was a one-off experimental work produced after a pretty intense time in my life. I had just finished my Visual Arts degree and was pretty mentally and emotionally drained. When I painted this work I was quite disconnected with myself and didn't really know what this work meant or even why I called it Path 1 / Path 2.
Looking back at it now and at present reading 'The Power of Now' by Eckhart Tolle, I suddenly realized my hands and subconscious mind were way ahead and screaming out at me, although I didn't understand the true meaning of it at the time.
I had photocopied a Photoshoped, manipulated photograph taken of my side profile. I then cut my head out of the photocopy and placed it to one side. I was going to throw the larger sheet away when I realized that this sheet I had left behind was somehow as important as the piece I had cut out, so I kept them both.
I noted in my visual diary at the time, that at that point of the sheet going from one sheet to two separate pieces created a fork in the road. And I wrote - a choice you make at any given time creates your destiny, if you don't make a choice then that is still a choice or decision, which would keep you on your present path. If the head was placed back into the space it was cut from, it would never quite fit the same way again, therefore creating yet another path.
Also the material we go to throw away can be looked at in a different light, being just as powerful as the piece we want to keep.
At the time I remember being drawn to coins and beautiful Renaissance reliefs, so the initial goal for cutting out my head was referring to this. By painting a relief from a photocopy I was placing a contemporary spin on it.
But the larger left over piece of paper kept calling to me. I then decided for some reason to paint both sheets as a study of the two pieces of paper, on separate canvases.
This work was exhibited in a group show and I remember my sister-in-law saying to me "that she didn't understand this work" and I replied to her - "that neither did I".
This had happened to me quite a few times with my paintings in the past, where a few years had gone by before I really understood what the painting was trying to tell me at the time. This feeling is rather like learning to play the piano. You find that your hands are already on the keys a few seconds before the conscious mind kicks in and tells you which key I should be playing. My hands were already there and waiting.
Eckhart Tolle describes the same about his book 'The Power of Now' and says one has to be ready for it.
In looking at this work now, I can see the past and I can see a crossroads. I can see by looking into the space where my head, mind, ego and thoughts were supposed to be, has been replaced with space, stillness, awareness of oneness, acceptance, depth and 'consciousness' in the wider sense of the word.
The head I had cut out represents the ego, constant thought, constant chatter, skimming on the surface and not being present.
Path 2 - Ego, Thought, Unconsciousness, Disconnected.
Path 1 / Path 2 was a one-off experimental work produced after a pretty intense time in my life. I had just finished my Visual Arts degree and was pretty mentally and emotionally drained. When I painted this work I was quite disconnected with myself and didn't really know what this work meant or even why I called it Path 1 / Path 2.
Looking back at it now and at present reading 'The Power of Now' by Eckhart Tolle, I suddenly realized my hands and subconscious mind were way ahead and screaming out at me, although I didn't understand the true meaning of it at the time.
I had photocopied a Photoshoped, manipulated photograph taken of my side profile. I then cut my head out of the photocopy and placed it to one side. I was going to throw the larger sheet away when I realized that this sheet I had left behind was somehow as important as the piece I had cut out, so I kept them both.
I noted in my visual diary at the time, that at that point of the sheet going from one sheet to two separate pieces created a fork in the road. And I wrote - a choice you make at any given time creates your destiny, if you don't make a choice then that is still a choice or decision, which would keep you on your present path. If the head was placed back into the space it was cut from, it would never quite fit the same way again, therefore creating yet another path.
Also the material we go to throw away can be looked at in a different light, being just as powerful as the piece we want to keep.
At the time I remember being drawn to coins and beautiful Renaissance reliefs, so the initial goal for cutting out my head was referring to this. By painting a relief from a photocopy I was placing a contemporary spin on it.
But the larger left over piece of paper kept calling to me. I then decided for some reason to paint both sheets as a study of the two pieces of paper, on separate canvases.
This work was exhibited in a group show and I remember my sister-in-law saying to me "that she didn't understand this work" and I replied to her - "that neither did I".
This had happened to me quite a few times with my paintings in the past, where a few years had gone by before I really understood what the painting was trying to tell me at the time. This feeling is rather like learning to play the piano. You find that your hands are already on the keys a few seconds before the conscious mind kicks in and tells you which key I should be playing. My hands were already there and waiting.
Eckhart Tolle describes the same about his book 'The Power of Now' and says one has to be ready for it.
In looking at this work now, I can see the past and I can see a crossroads. I can see by looking into the space where my head, mind, ego and thoughts were supposed to be, has been replaced with space, stillness, awareness of oneness, acceptance, depth and 'consciousness' in the wider sense of the word.
The head I had cut out represents the ego, constant thought, constant chatter, skimming on the surface and not being present.