"Reflections"- a series
"The need to restore the lost sense of beauty that the dehumanization of industry has forced upon society" William Morris
This cry of an artist of the past has been an echo of many people since…and continues to reverberate in the expressions of art and society. In my current series of paintings, entitled “Reflections” I search deeper into this meaning and attempt to discover what statement means to society and to myself.
When you look in the mirror, or catch a glimpse of yourself in a shop window what you are seeing is reality in another form. Its the truth of what really exists, and it does not lie. Reflections don’t hide anything, they just perhaps aren’t that clear at times. The question is, what does society see in the mirror and what is our response? William Morris’ quote answers this question from one particular view point, and that is a lost sense of beauty. Instead what is seen is a dehumanization of industry and a forceful, heartless society.
Aesthetic artist Burne Jones said, when commenting on his subject matter of predominantly women,. “The central motif remains the woman. In decorate works she is spiritualized to represent a pure and ideal beauty”. The beauty of women is a metaphorical parallel to the beauty of society, and creates a strong link in many realities. Women are the most obvious examples of dehumanization, and when women are hurt then the world around them turns dark and grey. Women are abused and taken into captivity under the deadly grasps of human expectations, leaving the women (beauty) to slowly bleed to death without her realizing its even happening.
In my series “Reflections” I want to capture a fairytale like ideal, by depicting women (the ultimate symbol of beauty) in a mystical dreamlike way, so as to enforce the pure and ideal beauty that has been lost into our human ways. Burne Jones said, ” I mean by a picture a beautiful romantic dream of something that never was, never will be - in a light better than any that ever shone - in a land no one can define or remember, only desire - and the forms divinely beautiful.” I want to capture in my paintings a dream, a wish and a hope that lives in our human hearts and a picture of perfection, purity and blissful beauty; something that we all know will never be found in its entirety on this earth, but perhaps in small pockets of divine manipulation.
At the same time I want to feed in the foreboding feeling of a deep darkness that tries to seep in to destroy this utopian ideal. The heartache of society is strongly evident. there are broken dreams, hopes, and struggles that weigh on the human race and suffocate any life that had the possibility of blossoming into something beautiful.
My first painting i titled “Transcendent” meaning…excelling, surpassing, excelling human experience, not realizable in experience, existing apart from, not subject to limitations of, the material universe. (Oxford Dictionary). Beauty is a heavenly reality, and earth fights for it, but the battle rages on between the mortality and immortality of its existence. Beauty exists on this earth as a promise to something far greater. We hold onto this hope, but the darkness wages on the borders creeping into, as can be seen in the painting, the women (beauty) carries this light and hope, but she has to exist in a dark reality that desires to keep her in captivity. There is a sense of a deep struggle in this painting, but at the same time “Beauty” carries a sense of hope and calmness and continues to walk into the future she has with courage.
My second painting is titled “Salvation” and is based on the scripture Psalm 103 :14-17 which says, “For He knows how weak we are, he remembers we are only dust. Our days on earth are like grass, like wildflowers as we bloom and die. The wind blows, and we are gone - as though we had never been here. But the love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear him. This salvation extends to the children’s children.”
This painting comments on the mortality of humans and how the truest form of beauty ever expressed is through the most purest act of love that breathes life and thus beauty into our souls. Although we are fading and withering away, through salvation we are being renewed and made alive through the love of Jesus Christ. This is the only way beauty can be restored into society.
The link of lace used in both paintings refers to the expectations of women’s beauty in society and although to some it may appear attractive it is a chain that keeps women captive. What we view as beauty on earth is not true beauty at all. We are not beautiful because of how we look but because of what we are capable of doing. Beauty is a description of an action, not a “look”. Its the ability to find restoration in what was once stolen and holding on tightly that no darkness can ever wrap its grasps around your truth.
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