#34 Looking Back
Looking Back (910mm x 760mm acrylic on stretched canvas)
Looking back from the edge of time
click on image to enlarge
Over twenty years ago I had a silent face-to-face encounter with a gorilla, and apart from the total engagement of its eyes and very immediate presence, I felt that it looked right into my soul, the outer world falling away into a very real moment of connection between species, a moment leaving its echo in glimpses of other lives since then, following their own inevitable journeys of survival, a path for some, a tightrope for many. These moments of connection come seldom in a lifetime, more frequently with the primates such as the baboon spoken of in this painting, and, of course, the extraordinary close encounters with whales and dolphins that I have had over the years.
I have never forgotten that moment with the gorilla, for it etched into my being a deeper comprehension of the indivisibility of all life, and each experience of connection has brought me closer to the thread of belonging which binds us all within the universal struggle for survival. This is part of my story as an artist, to speak of these threads and to make visible the invisible aspects of our lives which are lost or hidden in the rush of modern life.
‘Looking back’, being artwork #34, marks the two-thirds point along the 52 Artworks – A Year in Nature journey. Now we start looking forward towards the exhibition and events when the year is complete, so please make sure you are on our database through Facebook and other social media/website if you wish to be notified of events, but till then, the painting and sculpting continue..
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