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"What Might Grow?", was started when I was working on an exhibition called “Fathomless” - exploring the things we sense but cannot see.
I arrived in front of the easel that day with a heavy heart and confounded soul. That morning we’d woken to the news of yet another school shooting in the USA. Uvalde, Texas. 21 lives taken.
It took me many hours to realise that the paint I was slinging angrily and the frantic scribbling were never going to be about a sense of awe and wonder (which is what I was trying to catch on the paper). Maybe this one was destined for ceremonial burning. Then I realised what I was painting. This was my reaction to that shooting. It was messy, chaotic, all together TOO MUCH.
21 yellow circles made their way onto the page - one for every life lost. Then I had a decision to make: where to from here?
Can this horror be the fertile ground for something new to grow?
This piece is my prayer, I guess. Not just for Uvalde, but for every messy, chaotic, nightmare that humans visit on one another: That from the razed earth of heartache and sorrow, love and light will somehow shepherd in hope and beauty.
This one ended up getting a spot in the Fathomless exhibition - because, on reflection - it was clear to me that the event that inspired it is fathomless.
What Might Grow? was entered into the Brigalow Arts Festival, and I was delighted to hear its name called out as the winner of the Local Artist Award - it made all the effort to frock up and clean the paint from under my fingernails worth it!
Framed Size: 38" x 20"
Medium: Acrlyic, Ink, Coloured Pencil, Oil Pastel on Watercolour paper