I love working with metaphors, and 'Light' is an incredibly powerful one. It can be used as a beacon to guide us through the challenges of life in its many forms and representations.
The ’Be The Light’ collection is an invitation for us to share our light, illuminate connection and synthesize this narrative together. I hope each work enables you to lift your spirits, reside, and resonate with its meaning, bringing the presence of light, joy, and hope into your home's interior vista, allowing you to carry that feeling out into your exterior world.
I have received lots of lovely questions about how and what the inspiration was behind this series. So I thought this is the perfect space to answer your Q’s!
Here’s how the concept for this collection unfolded …
When I decided that my new print collection would be inspired by light, I revisited an experimental journey I had experinced in the making ‘Nuance 1&2’ from ‘The Necessary Art of Noticing’ collection I created during the pandemic. During this time I was limited by materials and outside resources and I had to use or repurpose what I had availble both in my studio and in my imediate natural environment.
I started applying paint abstractly to plexi and glass panels from discarded old picture frames laying around my studio and layered collected dried flora & fauna I’d found on my nature walks between the painted surfaces. I LOVED the process and the end results and wanted to push the boat out further with the next series I emarked upon. This is how ‘Be The Light’ came to be!
Q - How was the collection created?
I love to trick my audience’s eye and my work unveil itself on closer inspection. Is it a painting or a photograph? In this case it became both!
With this thirst to revisit the feeling I felt being truly liberated in the experimentation process, creating ‘The Necessary Art of Noticing’ I began to think about how I could push this new process further. Instead of photographing the work overhead as I had done previously. This time I stacked my hand painted, repurposed glass surfaces one in front of the other in front of my camera.
Being attuned to the light in my art practice means understanding its properties and collaborating and playing with it to create my desired outcomes. I intentionally corralled a mix of studio lighting with natural daylight. The light protruded through the panes with an ethereal effect, which I then captured through the lens of my camera and distilled into 7 magnified photographic fine art prints.
Q - What inspired the collection
A quote by Marianne Williamson from her book, A Return To Love_ "As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others”.
I’m also intrigued by the Chinese Yin and Yang symbolism and its representation of balance, flow, transformation, and opposing forces. The state of feeling the light is not achievable without participation with its counterpart. We cannot see or feel one without the other, we would not have happiness without sadness, morning without night. Life can be tough, filled with challenges and hardships. However, amidst the struggles, there's a profound beauty that unfolds—a captivating tapestry woven with moments of magic, renewal, and purpose. Reminding us that there can be vibrant sparks of awe and wonder on less luminous days.
If there's anything my previous ‘Supernatural’ collection taught me whilst working with fungi and the huge knowledge trajectory I found myself on learning about their mycelium networks. It was the importance of connection and their contribution of sharing nutrients to their surrounding ecosystems. And that they are capable of doing this in the darkness of the underground! I thought that was a wonderful paradigm to reflect on, don't you!?
Q - What’s the ethos / intention of this collection?
A metaphore is a remarkable formation beacuse its both means what is says and what it doesn’t say. Those two things come together, and it creates an imagination which is active. Working with light as a metaphor as the underlying theme, is an incredibly powerful one. It represents positivity, hope, knowledge, and healing. My wish for this collection is that it enables you to lift your spirits, reside, and resonate with its meaning, bringing the presence of light, joy, and hope into your home.
This is the feeling I crave, the feeling I want to create for myself, and shine on you through this art collection.
Q - What conversation are you wanting to nurture?
Amidst the pursuit of peace and equity, we find ourselves challenged by worn-out ideologies, outdated institutions, and societal systems that no longer serve our collective future. It's a time that feels both unsettling and surreal, as we emerge from a pandemic and confront pressing issues like climate change and global humanitarian crises.
However, could it be that this turmoil serves as a catalyst for hope and prompts us to reconsider traditional societal constructs? Our survival depends on the presence of hope and connection. This got me thinking about how I / we carry light within ourselves and how we can utilize this energy to reflect it onto others. We don't need to prove our worthiness of possessing it, but Western society dictates otherwise. We have been conditioned to stay within the bounds of fear, overwhelm, and detachment from one another and this planet.
I hope this collection serves as an invitation for us to embrace our inner light and carry this feeling out into the world. To allow our human experiences to shift away from fearful, negative societal strongholds and narratives and move towards more positive impactful change for the betterment of our collective futures. One stepping stone (or in this case, artwork) at a time.