The Ecosystem expands

Story behind the work:

Long ago I read an article about a man who sealed a large glass bottle with plants inside. Decades later the sealed greenery was thriving so much so that the bottle looked as though it could burst. The sealed container had created its own ecosystem where the water and nutrients sealed within the vessel self-supported the life contained within.

One day whilst sketching in my notebook this image of this thriving bottled ecosystem popped into my head. My mind made the connection to the practice of working on ourselves: on working on addressing our limiting beliefs and replacing them with empowering ones, of choosing to show up in an intentional way rather than automatically reacting, on focussing on what we could give rather than gain, on working on providing what we wanted to nourish rather than lamenting what was lacking.

I thought the practice of creating a strong inner ecosystem filled with empowering assumptions could be like that thriving ecosystem in glass, so strong that it might burst and flourish into the outside world.

‘The Ecosystem Expands’ is a contemporary oil painting featuring a woman gazing at a sphere rich with greenery. A large Bonsai-esque plant along with vines emerge out of a crack in the sphere along with a large flower. Water spills from the sphere. The light source comes from within the sphere illuminating the scene further indicating that this sphere, this ecosystem, is a life source. This work is about creating a rich inner world and, once strong, letting it expand into and hopefully impact our outer world. “ - Cynthia Howard.