The Secret Self
New work:
Just experimenting with these new works really, "painting out my feelings" - catharsis, divination, visionary art. I spent about three days on this piece while my son's been a bit sick and hauled up on the couch sketching too. We watched a few great docos over the past few days - The Magic Art of Jan Švankmajer is a great one, a couple about the making of and symbolism behind Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth and we are part way through a discussion Robbie found with Alan Watts on the work of Carl Jung.
So much magical thinking and inspiration.
One of a series of new works that relate to several early works and ongoing series which I began in 2014.
The first series explores the objectification of women, the relationships we hold as human beings to objects and domestic life and is entitled "Objectifications"; the second series explores the golden era of technicolor and film and the wonderment (distraction, captivation and opportunity for promotion of hidden agendas, capitalist ideals and propaganda) it provided and juxtaposes this sugary visual imagery with the harsh conditions brought about by the events of the late 30s and 40s and is called "Somewhere in Dreamland" - both bodies of work explore and question the vulnerability and inner strength of women.
A recent series "Conversations with my Inner Child" also informs these new works and aesthetic choices and my line of exploration here. The exploding lines and colours and pencil sketches are intended to be child-like and strike intentional reference to artists such as Judy Watson, Exene Cervenka, Louis Wain, Sister Mary Corita, Henry Darger and 1960s psychedelic poster designs. I expanded that line of questioning beyond the inner child therapy work I was undertaking and into the environment; contemplating the interior of these memory places, the objects they hold and the physical place some of those objects hold and keep all our lives. These works also question what emotional triggers are imbued within the object's form. Do these inanimate objects have auras?
What value do we assign the woman objectified - in the sexualised painting, in the car ad, in the 1940s film noir romance, in the domestic violence trial, in the supermarket with her kid screaming, our mothers and sisters, women we see as competition or opportunity, our female superiors... etc etc etc.
We also watched a fantastic documentary last night called !Women Art Revolution (filing that name is a Librarian's worst nightmare!). Such a great film, it "tracks the feminist art movement over 40 years through interviews with artists, curators, critics, and historians." The boys were actually super keen to learn more about the intersection of feminism and art.
Highly recommend all the above.
I am going to be posting more of my writing and theory on my website and hopefully publishing some of it along with two finished chapbooks of confessional poetry, in the coming months or years.