Location: New Zealand
I realized, "Who has the right to tell me I can't or won't succeed with my gifts while I have to pay my way like everyone else, and after I'm dead others will make a capital gain out of my poverty-inflicted useless paintings that served no real value in modern culture"?
I love observing human nature in all its weakness and strengths, wonders and frailty, life and mortality. To observe, inspire challenge and play is for me a God given wonder for which I am grateful to be gifted to have an opportunity to tell what I see. To me its like telling parables. What I see, I hope to inspire others to take time out as I have, to observe and express gratitude for the wonder of life in the shadow of the valley of death.
I continue to marvel at creation whether it be visual, mechanical, biological, chemical or emotional and that is where this series of works has come from and is going to. The journey of life under the manufacturers all seeing eye.
Enjoy.
“Eyes - Windows through which to see the world by.”
Oils on canvas.
I was intrigued by the pelicans of the Kimberly Region of West Australia, seagulls at Goat Island Marine Reserve, New Zealand and an image in Australian Geographic photographed by Mike Langsford.
Inspired by the drama in the original photo, I was technically challenged by seeing how I could create a depth of field (photographic word for focus area) 3D effect. I wanted to concentrate on the eye as the centre of attention, what images are seen by the eye and how a decision is made based on the perception of what is taking place in that moment of the life in these living creatures.
Interestingly, I asked the question; Was the seagull frightened because the pelican was attacking it for being in the pelicans space? Was it frightened unnecessarily because all the pelican was doing was washing its bill or more masterly chasing an unseen fish? I will never know, but the truth is the seagull was frightened and only one reason in the 3 thoughts I have
just mentioned was worth being afraid of. A little like the unreasonable fears that sometimes invade our heart, we don't know what is a good fear to take notice of or a bad fear to reject. The natural eyes see the world, the eyes of the heart dream dreams and the eyes of the spirit hunger for truth. The greatest gift God gave to man is not sight. It is vision. Sight is a function of the eyes. Vision is a function of the heart. A disfunctional heart will fear incorrectly by what the eyes have seen and therefore the vision of life is imparied. A truly functinal heart will make decisions on sound vision and that is wisdom.
It was also a challenge to create non light areas like the black of the feathers without using black oils. Ask me how I did that and I will tell you.
“Ascension - As seen by the gulls, swallows and a heron.”
Oils on Canvas, mounted 3D.
Originally it was just a challenges to paint the skin details of legs with a surreal twist and the more I worked on it the more I was inspired to read the story I had heard about Jesus. I started to study who this Jesus man was all about and I was lead to marvel at the spectacle His disciples must have felt when they experienced such an abnormal phenomenon. Then it dawned on me what about the birds that were there? Religion seems to have made it seem so unreal so I kept adding to the story some of the daily earthy stuff from around my neighbourhood. The more I read the more I had to add the symbols His life means to those who have chosen to believe what he did.
It all seems so surreal, but real.
Oils on Hardwood mounted proud on New Zealand Macrocarpa timber
Before a sparrow there is an egg
Before a flower there is a seed
Before a city there is a dream
Before a dream there is a mind
Before a death there is a life
Metamorphosis - you must die to be born again
Inspired by seeing huge sunflowers standing proud in a friends garden, I was challenged to photograph it with a polarizing filter on my camera to deepen the blue of the sky. When I saw the photo printed I was so stunned by the colours I knew it had to be painted. It has been an on and off project and each time I come back to it I have something more to add.
I have since added 4 more sparrows and I am painting a translucent city into the large foreground leaf. All this is related to the story I see in * Photosynthesis or * Metabolism (the science, chemistry and biology of a plant's function) which runs parallel to the passions of the human spirit. I will spell this out more when the painting is finished in all its glory. When I look past the sunflower into the sky and beyond into the universe behind the petals, I am left in awe. I worship, not the flower or creation, but the founding father, the Omniscient One discovered in the love of His Son.
Photosynthesis •
The synthesis of complex organic materials by plants from water, carbon dioxide, and inorganic salts using sunlight as the source of energy and with the aid of a catalyst such as chlorophyll
Synthesis •
The combination of parts or elements as material substances or objects of thought, into a complex whole (Chem.) the forming or building up of a more complex substance or compound by the union of elements or the combination of simpler compounds or radicals.
Metabolism •
The chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life.
Two kinds of metabolism are often distinguished: constructive metabolism, the synthesis of the proteins, carbohydrates, and fats that form tissue and store energy, and destructive metabolism, the breakdown of complex substances and the consequent production of energy and waste matter.
A seed has to be planted, die and then it is resurrected from death to a new life. In this case, the sunflower from its seed, the sparrows from the males seed and the seeds of mans desires have built cities in which to dream dreams and play the game of life. All this could not be without the seed thought "Let us Create" of the divine father. His isolation died and a new fellowship with mankind reflects His glory. The seed sown from man and nurtured in the womb of woman has given me life after it's death to create this image. Therefore, within the seed is the purpose for life.
“AMIDST THE STRESSES OF LIFE - There is joy to be found”
On a resent visit to West Australia, it was my desire to find a colony of Forest Red Tailed Black Cockatoo's. This was inspired by a childhood memory and an article I had recently read that Red Tailed Black Cockatoo's might be heading toward extinction. Visiting my old boarding school, (Hale School) in Perth for some nostalgia I was surprised by a colony enjoying a meal time in the forest canopy of gum (Eucalyptus) trees above one of the car parks. What a delight. My emotions ran high, my praise was in wonder at such magnificent creatures and then directed toward thankfulness that God had favored me to be able to have my hearts desire met. The worship within my culture was toward Him for His extraordinary creative genius displayed, not only in the beauty and humor of the bird seen, but the wisdom in its diet (Eucalyptus) which is the subject of debate regarding extinction. In many cases, the unwise practices, driven by greed and unconscious knowing, that to denude the forests for our habitation and the glory of wealth without respect and replenishment of what we control is in fact a recipe for extinction of what is truly wonderful. This is from my series called "The pillars of heaven" about the joys the human spirit can find in creation with a surreal twist.
In this piece of art I have decided to continue to explore and include some of the art (visual) language of indigenous people and the story telling of their dream time. My contribution here is the river of life running through the center of a playground of ideas, dots. Australian Aboriginals, New Zealand Maoris, the Pacific Islanders all have a language unique to their humanness and I in no way will deliberately choose to belittle their wonder and hunger for identity but I want to include, as a Western born white (fellah) man, the wonder of their lives into my art as has been happening in the world of music for the past few decades. I am ever indebted to the Glory of God who knows culture intimately, the destructive elements in all cultures, the wonder and joys in all cultures and the need for the human spirit to worship and have culture. We are all hungry for identity and this sense of being separated from something Divine is a reality to us all, until one meets Him.
I love the vibrancy and symbolism in native arts, in particular Aboriginal dot painting. The language in Dot paintings today is recognized globally as unique and integral to Australian Aboriginal art. On the surface the dot is simply a style of Aboriginal painting, like the use of cross-hatching or stencil art used in Western art. Exploring deeper into the history of the Aboriginal dot painting a world of camouflage, secrecy and ritual is discovered. What the Aboriginal depicted in their desire to worship from culture I now use and explore the visual medium from my culture to tell the stories of what I see. I am indebted to the Great Divine for the Aboriginals wisdom in story telling and the simple use of what was at hand to make their worship visible.
“ZEPHYR - KISSING THE ASPIRATIONS OF DAWN”
THE POEM:
Gently
The breeze
A zephyr through the night
Kisses the aspirations of dawn
Birds wing there way in light
Thoughts of love and tenderness
Have lighted in my soul
The Man of Peace has sown his seed
Gently
To fill my empty bowl
THE STORY:
This poem was inspired after watching the news on TV and listening to all the stress, the blame, the fears, the pain in loss or feared loss I began to reflect on 'Why is money such a curse to us all'. Greed, avarice, pride of position? One day it's worth everything and the next it's worth diddly squat (nothing) and some will murder, lie and cheat just to have more of it than their neighbor. We feel insecure without it because we don't trust as a little child where our next meal is coming from. We have lost our faith. It does and it doesn't make sense. When I was later considering this I noted what a wonderful world we live in and how easy it is to get lost in the cares of daily stress so we miss out how to enjoy the beauty as a child does. I thought a little bit of light hearted surreal with some images that I had already used in other works and this is the result.
If you are like me you need to be continuously reminded to let it go and walk in the fields of imagination without feeling guilty for past failures. When you choose to dwell on the positives in life you are more adept to make the right choice to enhance the wonders of what the Divine has given us to enjoy. Your bowl of inspiration becomes full with fresh images again.
I am considering taking this further down the road of surreal into a more developed story of living in the fields of aspirations as a fully fledged oil painting. WATCH THIS SPACE.
“Seeds of Desire”
