Revolve the World (2024)

Water and acrylic on canvas

(100 x 100 cm)

The painting revolves 360 degrees. There is no right or wrong way to view it. It celebrates the infinite number of perspectives that exist and the multiplicity of ways that life manifests. At the core is the centre of the Earth. Breaking free from the narrative of paintings being fixed entities, this work invites the viewer to participate. It gives agency to the viewer and reminds them of their agency. We are all actively participating in creating this collective experience. You are invited to revolve the world.

Mundus Imaginalis (2023)

Charcoal and chalk on canvas

(157 x 163 cm)

This artwork is the result of a process. An enquiry and exploration of the contents of my unconscious. The content of this artwork was drawn from a series of deep "active imagination" meditations, as termed by psychologist Carl Jung. It explores the function of imagination as a faculty of perception. As a medium through which to engage with the real reality underlying the shapes and forms of the visible world. It weaves together a cross-cultural understanding of archetypes and mythologies constituting our collective unconscious mind.

Cosmic Tree of Life (2024)

Water and acrylic

(80 x 85 cm)

Exploring the art and science of water lead me to the work of Viktor Scahuberger. His understandings of water inspired the gestures that made this work. Water took prominence over the paint as the primary creative material. Attention focused on the water, allowing it to lead the way - the paint simply present to make visible the movement of the play. What you see is a water-dance suspended in time. What emerged is a tree - a symbol seen throughout global mythology.

Meeting the Whale (2024)

Colored pencil drawing to photo-etching print

(35 x 25 cm)

Drawn from a vision of encountering a whale. What does it feel like to meet one of these beings? My research into whales as living beings and as archetypal mythological symbols lead into the creation of this work. This is a limited edition print of which there are three.

Imaginality (2024)

Who is the artist when the artist is underwater?

This short film is the culmination of my research into the unconscious realms of reality during my MA Art & Science. There are many unconscious processes at play that influence the experience of art-making. One of the main ones is environment.

Depending on where we situate our bodies we will think different thoughts and act in different ways. Each environment draws out a different version of ourselves, a different experience, and a different artwork. So where is your body situated? Which environment are you creating as?

My curiosity lead me to underwater to explore how my experience transforms when I situate my body underwater. It is known that many physiological changes occur instantly that cause our experience to transform. For example our heart rate lowering by up to 40%.

But for me, the greatest transformation to my experience is the degree of freedom that I am able to embody underwater. On the ground we can only really move into two dimensions, our movement limited to the shape of a circle. However, in water, a whole additional dimension of movement is unlocked. We are able to truly embody three-dimensional movement. Our potential movement becomes spherical.

The mind is the body and the body is the mind. A body that can move freely is a mind that can move freely. From this embodied bodiless state of being, what ideas can arise? What movements can occur?

From which state of being are we envisioning the world and acting from? Is it from an embodied state of freedom? When we move in unprecedented ways we are embodying and realizing unprecedented timelines and worlds. As possibilities of movement expand and grow, so does our awareness.

So who is the artist when the artist is underwater?

Waking up on the barren landscape, the main character of this film represents humanity. Waking up into this world wondering how did we get here? How are we even here? What's going on? Then the protagonist notices a spiral seashell beside them and re-members that all of this was once underwater. Memories flood through of our time underwater, of our ancestors, the amoeba, millions of years ago. Of our origins and how we came to have the bodies that we have today.

All of this re-membered, the protagonist emerges from what they realize to be the crater of a volcano. As they walk up the side of the crater, the sun rises. A new day has dawned, a new world born. They have re-awakened to who they are and to where they came from.

This film features footage from my own experiences of creating art underwater. It includes my first experience of painting underwater and the world's first experience of etching underwater.

Imaginality (2024)