Art is expressing that which cannot be expressed in words. There are moments in life when words and language have limitations to the felt experience. The use of metaphors is a way of experiencing one thing in terms of another. It becomes evident that the ‘one thing’ which would be the felt experience can be expressed in art, whether it is painting, poetry, sculpture, dancing, music etc. The main aim is to allow the successful communication of the profound inner experience from one human being to another.
Through my professional career, I had the privilege of being trusted by many people who sought psychotherapy and trusted me for a while with their burden and the suffering. It is through connecting with the others’ sufferings that I have become aware of the need to communicate that which at times has no words to be defined.
Valuing and connecting with nature is also a way of nurturing and healing our very own being. Nature provides us with what we need. Unfortunately, we have been abusing and destroying that which can sustain us.
Through my paintings, I express the felt pain of nature. For the most part, my work centers around this theme, predominantly the sea, skies, and trees. Trees inspire me, yet their pain cuts through me, just as the saws which cut down trees to make new roads, new buildings, removing nature’s beauty to make way for concrete.
Within the expression of my inner self, hope emerges as a central theme in both my life and my work. It is also a central theme in my painting. The method of hope is holding on to the belief that even when there are the worst storms, the sun will shine again, just like the cycles of nature and the weather have their own cycles and their own calendar. Staying with the process and getting meaning from the experience, will bring forth the next phase, the next cycle.
In the paintings, cycles and polarities are evident. The polarity of dark and bright represents the hopelessness to hope which is expressed through the differently brighter colours, even if it is only a wisp – it never goes away. For life is a flow, with waves of sunrise and sunsets. Acknowledging and embracing our own polarities we can know our own soul and become more authentic. This is what I portray in my paintings.
The paintings are mainly fluid art using acrylic paints, where I stay with the creative process and allow what is meant to emerge to take shape and become figural.
Healing Paint 