Story behind the work: ‘Falling through time’

‘Falling through time’. 2022. Oil on canvas.

The concept of this painting began with the desire to simply paint an image of fabric.

This led to some concept sketches where I day dreamed about how fabric could be incorporated in a composition. I liked the idea of a piece of silk cascading down in a spiral. Armed with some wire and tape, I styled a piece of fabric around a bent piece of wire, suspended it from our clothes line and took some reference photos.

The reference photos where then compiled with some photographs I had taken of myself in Photoshop (and later Illustrator) as I tried to figure out a composition.

Perhaps it was because around this time I had watched Adam McKay’s film ‘Don’t Look Up’ (a film documenting modern societies reaction to the warnings of a comet hitting Earth) that I had outer space on my mind and incorporating a galaxy backdrop brought another dimension to the work. ‘Falling through time’ was born.

In this painting a figure falls calmly through an endless galaxy, gently cocooned by a cascading piece of fabric. An abstract figure comprised of colourful shapes emerges from her almost as though she is her spirit self or an alter ego. The torso of this abstract figure is pinched in the centre and shaped like an hour glass.

This work is a meditation on time and being. Time can almost come to a stand still when we are incredibly present as I feel it does when I am meditating or intensely aware of what is happening around me. Or time can race by before we know it. This figure falling through a galaxy is about locating our time and place in the infinite, and embracing what is and embracing come what may. The abstract colourful figure emerging like a spirit or alter ego represents the vivid possibilities and pluralities of how we might express ourselves in the world.

Finally I will leave you with this quote to ponder:

And yes, every one of our body’s atoms is traceable to the big bang and to the thermonuclear furnaces within high-mass stars that exploded more than five billion years ago. 

We are stardust brought to life, then empowered by the universe to figure itself out – and we have only just begun.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

Above left to right: In the yard taking the reference image of a scarf wrapped around a piece of wire; One of the many mock up drafts of the composition in Adobe Creative Suite (it took me a while to pick a layout for the Abstract figure till I had the idea of the hourglass torso); Photograph in the studio with my cat Diego whilst the painting had the first layer of paint - a mix of mostly burnt umber and mars black, the wooden easel holds a printed reference image.