Thursday, May 24, 2007

I finally had a photographer come around to document some of my latest oil paintings. The wonderful Priscilla Bracks www.priscillabracks.com an accomplished photographic artist in her own right has taken my latest images.

When I was painting this work I was thinking about those aspects of ourselves which we inherit from our ancestors. Even those aspects of our consciousness and subconscious which we live with but are oblivious to there source/s. We assume our thoughts and the way we think are totally stimulated by our own experience. But, how much of the way we think is due to inherited traits or even cellular memories of the human race? Another question to ponder is how can we irradicate or at least control those thoughts which are not useful to us? Firstly we may have to unravel our thinking process to find the core belief/s which [unknown to us] are influencing our lives. Unraveling is a courageous process because there are some aspects which act as crutches or protection which are no longer needed or perhaps were needed by those who have preceeded us. Identifying these thoughts/beliefs honestly as not useful and sometimes harmful can be a difficult confrontation with self. Letting them go is the next step.

I also believe that we can look at behavious caused by inherited cellular memory at an individual level as well as a collective level.

This painting 'Inherited' shows complexity through the tree-of-life signifying life, history and
geneology. The visceral appearance is about the body/brain partnership.

Inherited Oil on linen 55 x 80 cm photographed by Priscilla Bracks.

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