Sunday, March 25, 2012

QUIVER Exhibition

At The Fiery Gate Gouache on paper 52 x 63 cm [framed]
Click HERE to read more

In just under a month
my solo exhibition: 

QUIVER

Dates Tuesday 17 - Sunday 29 April
Open Daily 10 am - 6 pm or by appointment.
My website QUIVER GALLERY
Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane, Australia.

In this post I've uploaded a small selection of paintings which will be in QUIVER


Mother Nature Gouache on paper 52 x 63 cm [framed]
Click HERE for more on Mother Nature


QUIVER is an exhibition of new paintings inspired by concepts of Mother Nature. Using the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol, I explore distance from the nano to the multiversal. In this distance where perspective, both literal and metaphoric, takes on multi layered dimensions, the quiver …tremble….vibration…of all life reminds us of the shared rhythmic pulse across time and space. 
In an age where environmental and sustainability issues battle with increasing energy needs, water viability and food production, re-examination of Mother Nature’s story, myth and symbolism may provide new perspectives which are not only Earth bound, but also directed to and from the cosmic world. 
Firmament Gouache on paper 52 x 63 cm [framed]
Click HERE for more on Firmament


Close and Fat Distance Oil on linen 80 x 150 cm
Click HERE for more on Close and Far Distance

 

Elemental Dance Oil on linen 55 x 80 cm
Click HERE for more on Elemental Dance

Sap Of Life Oil on linen 55 x 80 cm
Click HERE for more on Sap Of Life

 

The Beginning Oil on linen 36 x 36 cm
Click HERE for more on The Beginning

Becoming The Light Oil on linen 160 x 120 cm


Quiet Fierceness Of Light Oil on linen 90 x 180 cm
Click HERE for more on Quiet Fierceness Of Light

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My book


will be available at
QUIVER

Please visit For Everyone's Page to read testimonials, see some images,
and links to online buying sites.


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I have a few projects in stream at the mment. Shall keep you up to date!

Cheers,
Kathryn

Sunday, March 18, 2012

OUROBOROS

Ouroboros Oil on linen 122 x 153 cm

Ouroboros is an ancient symbol of a snake or dragon eating its tail.
Please see links below for more information. 


MY Ouroboros

I have painted the body of the snake as a tree...yes...the tree-of-life. For me, the symbol's mutability means that it is capable of signifying the cascade across the nano and vast. Regular readers will know of my interest in the tree's vascular qualities...life giving systems, whether they be blood vessels, Earth's water systems or as yet undetected energy systems powering the Universe and more. My visual explorations of perspective often incorporate the tree-of-life, which can translate into 'scapes' of land, the cosmos or intimate places witnessing life's first impulse. The tree-of-life has helped me 'see' multiple perspectives, even simultaneously.

These perspectives are not only external to me, but also those that lie within. The tree-of-life's symbolism reaches into the psyche, stirring imagination, stimulating human race memory...with the ultimate realisation that intimate places are vast in possibility, thus linking the nano and cosmic in a dance echoing the high drama and the intimate frisson of a Tango.

In Ouroboros the tree's significance is that it embodies the magnitude of all time, and all existence. It 'speaks' to the instance of life's first flutter and to cosmic resonnances, it collapses perspective revealing hints of the 'ultimate synthesis'. In this painting the snake consumes its body of life, fueling the eternal propulsion.

The ouroboros is painted against a cosmic-like background, its circular appearance creating a portal which seems to promise spaces beyond, at the same time as possibily reflecting places already been. It appears to float in an indeterminable place that seems familiar.

                                                           Youtube Video 'Ouroboros'

BACKGROUND
I have had a lot of fun creating this new painting Ouroboros. I first encountered the ouroboros, as a visual descriptor of quantum and cosmic worlds, in Royal Astronomer, Lord Martin Rees's book 'Just Six Numbers' [1] which I read in late 2010. [See image below] I was very excited to read Rees's thoughts on the relationship between the nano and vast.  Whilst I'd seen the motif over the years, I had not paid it any real attention, until I read 'Just Six Numbers'. Nobel Prize winner, physicist Sheldon Glashow was apparently the first to use the ouroboros as a visual descriptor of the connection and unification of the extremes of size and scale.

Since initially writing this post, I have been alerted to the Yale University 2009 Terry Lectures, all given by husband and wife team, cosmologist Prof. JOEL R. PRIMACK and NANCY ELLEN ABRAMS. In the first of the four lectures they superbly explain the 'cosmic ouroboros'. Please check out this YouTube video http://youtu.be/vgr1CozVlrQ  The website for their jointly witten book 'The New Universe and The Human Future: How Shared Cosmology Could transform the World' is http://new-universe.org/

Regular readers will know of my long and induring interest in perspective and distance, the play between the intimacies of vastness, within and without, nano and cosmic. They will also know of my focus on the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol as a way of exploring the potencies of age old symbols and the secrets they hold. The ouroboros is also a transcultural/religious symbol, which through history and across continents has 'spoken' meaningfully to people about life.

Below is an image of the ouroboros in 'Just Six Numbers'. The caption in the book  is:
The ouraboros. There are links between the microworld of particles, nuclei and atoms [left] and the cosmos [right]. [2]
In the text Rees writes, Symbolized 'gastronomically' at the top, is the ultimate synthesis that still eludes us-between the cosmos and the quantum. [3]


Here are two links to presentations where Lord Martin Rees mentions the ouroboros and his .
2. TED Talk Our Final Century

Here are some links to more information about the ouroboros and its history.
http://sybilarchibald.com/blog/category/ouroboros/
http://www.morbidoutlook.com/art/articles/2000_08_ouroborous.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouroboros
http://ouroboroscycle.com/blog/?cat=9

1. Rees M., Just Six Numbers, Basic Books, NY, 2000
2. Ibid., P. 9
3. Ibid., P. 8

SELECTED PREVIOUS POSTS-RELATED TOPICS
Master Template
The Beginning
Dance With Distance
Elemental Dance
Portal

UPDATE

My talk last week at the University of Queensland's Women's College went well. My topic was Beauty Art and You. In my last post Beauty Has No Antonymn I touched upon some of the things I spoke about.

And, in 2012 I painted Cosmic Ouroboros The Post for this painting is the most popular on my BLOG!

Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com 

Monday, March 12, 2012

BEAUTY-HAS NO ANTONYM?

Tomorrow night I am giving a guest formal dinner speech at Women's College, the University of Queensland residential college I attended many moons ago. I have chosen the topic of BEAUTY.

Regular readers will know I have written about beauty many times before [a couple of links are below]. Hopefully, the words will flow forth easily tomorrow night! My mother always says, write about what you know. I think the same goes for public speaking, and many creative pursuits. I may not know all about beauty, but it has been a focus of my thoughts for a long time.

                                          The Beauty Of Oil on linen 36 x 36 cm 2011

So, I have previously written about beauty's capacity as a portal, as a catalyst for hope [and therefore having political agency], as a reminder of what we loose if we don't look after ourselves and the planet. I have also explained my belief that beauty conscously elides ugliness, and in doing so, acknowledges it, and then relinquishes it to a presence in absentia. This conscious elision means beauty cannot be labeled as ignorant. It does mean, however, that an underlying pathos exists giving beauty a fulsome and mature dimensionality which contrasts with, and renders impotent, the vacuuousness of prettiness. Prettiness survives in the world of fashion, a mono dimensioned world which slips and slides across our everyday lives in the mass media.

But, to my title for this post. BEAUTY- HAS NO ANTONYM?

As I have been preparing for my speech, I suddenly had a light bulb moment. Many people might think ugliness is the opposite of beauty. But, for me, pretty is the opposite of ugly. My thinking is that if beauty does consciously elide ugliness and it exists in absentia, then how can ugliness be an antonym? An existence in absentia, is not the same as a shadow nagging to be acknowledged, because, as I wrote above, I believe beauty does consciously acknowledge ugliness in the process of elision. It is not ignored...it's just not given any more attention and due to acknowledgement it does not demand it from beauty. Is beauty an example of non-duality, a unified concept?


                                   The Beginning Of Everything Oil on linen 90 x 180 cm

Was beauty present at the instant life began, at the Big Bang or whatever it was that set everything in motion? I suspect it was. And, this Beauty now exists as some kind of human race memory, maybe deeply buried in our DNA code. Maybe that's why we sometimes have Ah Ha moments, that stir our inner core reminding us of something, often propelling us onto new thoughts and actions, but always providing us with joy and hope.


Gate Oil on linen 100 x 100 cm 2011


Previous BEAUTY posts:
 
 
 
 
 
QUIVER
My forthcoming exhibition of new work

17-29 April
Graydon Gallery
Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane

Gate [above] will be in the exhibition. The Beauty Of is already sold! And, The Beginning Of Everything was in my last solo exhibition and was also a finalist in the invitation only Tattersall's Landscape Art Award 2011. After QUIVER'S opening night I am planning to bring in some other paintings, to have a kind of...stock room...where people can discover. It is actually really frustrating that older paintings are often only exhbited once or twice...hardly gives a chance for people to see them, let alone decide to buy them! 


NEWS

I discovered another blogger who likes my work. And, I like his too. You might like to check out John Simpson's unfolding story 

Cheers,
Kathryn

Thursday, March 08, 2012

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

I attended a breakfast to celebrate IWD at my daughter's school today. A past student gave a great speech about her experiences working in communities much less fortunate than ours. She particularly spoke about the issues, and the lack of choice, women in these communities face.

I currently have a painting in an exhibition which is part of the IWD celebrations. It is the WOB International Women’s Day Art Prize. [WOB is Women on Boards]. The exhibition is at TAP Gallery

278 Palmer St., Darlinghurst, Sydney. Gallery Hours 12-6pm daily
Ph: (02) 9361 0440 Email: info@tapgallery.org.au The exhibition finishes Sunday 11 March.

The painting below 'In The Garden Of Eden' is the one in the exhibition at TAP Gallery.

Please click HERE  to see my previous post for 'In The Garden Of Eden'.


Last year I submitted an image, which was accepted, for the Global International Women's Day Arts Initiative. The image below is the painting. Its title is: "She was not made out of his head to surpass him, nor from his feet to be trampled on, but from his side to be equal to him, and near his heart to be dear to him." [Jamieson-Fausset Brown Bible Commentary]

Please click HERE to read my previous post for this painting.



I have a designated 'Gallery' on my website which displays a selection of my paintings that reflect upon women. The 'Gallery' is called MY WOMEN: 1990 - Present. Please click HERE to have a look!

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My forthcoming exhibition QUIVER in April, will be an exploration of Mother Nature, the feminine power of life, which both men and women, as humanity, share.

QUIVER

At Graydon Gallery, New Farm, Brisbane
17-29 April 2012.
Open daily 10 am - 6 pm

QUIVER STATEMENT

QUIVER is an exhibition of new paintings inspired by concepts of Mother Nature. Using the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol, I explore distance from the nano to the multiversal. In this distance where perspective, both literal and metaphoric, takes on multi layered dimensions, the quiver …tremble….vibration…of all life reminds us of the shared rhythmic pulse across time and space. 

                                                             Quiver Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm
                                                                              PREVIOUS POST

GUEST SPEAKER

Next Tuesday I am the guest speaker at a formal dinner at The Women's College, the residential college I attended when I was a student at the University of Queensland. Two of my paternal aunts and my mother also attended The Women's College I will be speaking about beauty! Regular readers will know I have written many times about my thoughts on beauty. I am looking forward to next Tuesday.

Till next time!
Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

Friday, March 02, 2012

THE BEGINNING

UPDATE ON MY BOOK FOR EVERYONE

My exhibition 'For Everyone' at FireWorks Gallery comes down today. It is the exhibition of the thirty original paintings inside my book For Everyone: Words and Paintings. Check out my previous post for photos of the book launch last week. I've sold a heap of books! In fact, I've had a few people return, after buying one book, to then buy another 4-5 of them! And, I have sold a few paintings too. Feeling very happy.

For Everyone: Words and Paintings is available on many online bookselling sites and at both bookstores at the Queensland Art Gallery and GOMA. Check out HERE for links to buying sites.

A SURPRISE ACCOLADE

Two days ago I received a surprise notification from BLOGGERS.COM that my BLOG was one of 'Editors' Pick of the Day'. Each day they choose three BLOGs to mention!


The Beginning Oil on linen 36 x 36 cm
THE BEGINNING

Regular readers will recognise my much loved transcultural/religious tree-of-life motif in this new painting 'The Beginning'. I wanted to create an image which evoked the essence of the beginning of everything, the BIG BANG...or whatever it was that ignited life throughout the Universe or even the Multiverse. I also wanted to create an image that 'spoke' of the beginning of life inside the womb. The instant of conception, leading to the unfolding complexity of new life.

Regular readers will indentify my interest in exploring how the intimate is connected to the vast and vice versa...how by collapsing perspective distance seems to disappear. This disappearance reveals humankind's coupling with the forces of the Universe/Multiverse.

The two trees seem to mirror each other, yet they are not the same. Whilst they seem to perhaps represent concepts of duality, they pose questions, stimulated by collapsed perspective, about the links between the seemingly opposite. An earlier painting called 'Duality' also poses these questions, with a similar placement of mirrored trees.

NO REST FOR THE WICKED!

Well, I am not really wicked! But, there's no rest for me! Book launch over and now onto....

My next solo exhibition of new work is QUIVER
At Graydon Gallery, New Farm, Brisbane
17-29 April 2012.
Open daily 10 am - 6 pm

QUIVER STATEMENT

QUIVER is an exhibition of new paintings inspired by concepts of Mother Nature. Using the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol, I explore distance from the nano to the multiversal. In this distance where perspective, both literal and metaphoric, takes on multi layered dimensions, the quiver …tremble….vibration…of all life reminds us of the shared rhythmic pulse across time and space. 

'The Beginning' will be in QUIVER.

Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com