Where Am I?

The Wide-Eyed Look Of An Unknown Creature

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There are periods in any life when the world is new or seems profoundly changed:

When born,

When as a child I meet the open sea for the first time,

When I find my kindred spirit,

With illness,

When I fall in love,

With loss,

Through accident,

With sudden good fortune,

When close to death,

With nature,

With music,

With art,

With word.

 

During these times of transformation I am as a stranger in a new place as my feelings run deep.

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My three most prized experiences are what I see, what I hear, and what is said: either in my mind, by another, or on the page. Only the last of these, what is said, has the chance to re-enter the world as I first encounter it: through my voice, my whisper, or with time, through what I write.

In the artwork 'Where Am I?' I focus on these areas of my experience by showing a figure whose eyes and ears are large, and whose mouth is agape. The fragmented uncertain forms of memory and experience make up not only the background of this image, but the figure too. The world is as much a part of me as apart from me.

Perhaps the yellow and traces of gold towards the upper left might be interpreted as sunlight, while the colours of ochre, rust-red, and blues are of the earth. There is more warmth than chill, yet the overall mood is ambiguous as I try to express my feelings of bewilderment, disorientation, and wonder as something powerful is experienced for the first time.

 

An extract from a full size draft of the work follows below.