This week whilst writing about my current work I realised how, once again, there is a great big fat thread running from work I did a long time ago. I love this connectedness and I love it when things fall into place and make sense. It is reassuring and exciting at the same time. Sometimes I am following a thread without even realising it by walking my own path unaware of any connection to the past or the future because it feels so natural.
Back in 2005 or thereabouts, I was creating work about ‘rest’ being a place we are at ease, without all the appendages of the things we often wrongly associate with our identity, for example, our job or the things we ‘do’. What is it like to sit with ourselves when our purpose is removed or laid down? Can we be loved, appreciated and valued even if we don’t ‘do’ anything? I think what I was partly getting at is the culture of ‘busyness’. We must be seen to be busy in order to justify our existence. Being at rest or having a break is often seen as slacking. I was also trying to address the belief that we are what we do and I was hoping that through the work I created, the viewer might be reassured that even without doing anything, we are valuable, loved and important. We can rest knowing that no one is judging us and in fact we should be congratulated when we take time out in order to rest and restore our energy so we are able to face whatever is needed.
My recent work has come about because of observations I’ve made during times of pure contemplation of the natural world. It’s one of the things I do to rest my mind. I’ve been watching sunrises and sunsets and noticing the light and colours at different times of the day. The resulting work has developed into a timeline of colour. Watching these natural events has given rise to many thoughts and memories. At times I have experienced recall of childhood feelings and also become aware of the passing of time. Indeed I have been contemplating time itself. What is time? It is a human construction to help us organise ourselves but it is also a series of events in the physical world and the revolving of our planet around the sun. Through watching the sunrises and sunsets I have become aware that I am watching time. Time is movement and we can only really be aware of the movement of the earth around the sun if we stop for a while and watch as the sun appears above or disappears below, the horizon. Stopping and watching helps me to slow down and in my experience, time slows down when we slow down.