11 February 2009

Earth Circle, 2


Charcoal on two overlapping sheets, HP paper
58 x 63cm, © February 2009, Wayne Roberts
.. an imperfect rendering of an *ideal*

Link to Red Cross .

10 comments:

Nick said...

Love that Wayne!! And the two pieces (differently shaded) of paper attached...with that spacing...with the drawing overlapped...with that tape (?) - you've done it again: Why didn't I think of that???? (A: I'm not Wayne Roberts). Have you seen the pieces Alex Kanevsky does that are taped together (in similar incongruous fashion)? I think you'll agree the wave pic currently on his homepage is Masterpiece. http://www.somepaintings.net/Alex.html
I hate you guys!!! ;)
This is a timely piece on so many levels. We're peering over the precipice of a crux in history, and the world is nowadays such a small place that if we don't follow your lead we're doomed.

Hope you're well out of the fire zone.

wayne said...

Thanks Nick for your kind comment so quickly after i posted this! Yes the two pieces of paper are taped together with ordinary tape.

No i hadn't seen Alex's work but have only just now checked that link you provided, and... Wow, i see what you mean by large taped-together sheets of paper to create that abstract seascape!

Here in (EC2) i wanted to show all workings-out, the struggle to interconnect the hands through instinctive direct drawing. When i reached the edge of the paper (which wasn't intended!) i slipped another sheet of paper underneath, taped into position, and kept drawing. As I continued drawing (off the page, 'outside the square') i reflected on the fact that we humans (as individuals, communities, cultures, societies, nations..) have to (urgently) learn to think outside the square, and fast, in many areas, if we're to find solutions to global problems (imo). [As you know, my PON work is connectd to this.]

This most recent drawing (as you can see from the link i provided to the Red Cross) is strongly influenced by the devastating turn of events here in Australia over these past several days (ravaging bush fires in Victoria). These bush fires are (so far as i know) the worst in Australia's history. There have also been terrible floods in Australia's north. The international news also makes for sobering/upsetting reading/viewing (this is an understatement).

Many Australians and people from around the globe have rallied together to help out in numerous ways. The Australian Red Cross has already raised many millions for this disaster but needs much more.

It's challenging to try and create a painting or drawing that points to the friendship of neighbours and nation, to rebuilding and hope on the one hand, and, on the other, is also in empathy with the devastation, suffering, and grievous loss of loved ones. The the circle of hands is intended as that: a symbol of empathy and healing.

Thanks again Nick,
cheers
wayne

perugina said...

Wayne, On seeing this latest work these words immediately sprung to mind…

Love
Connectedness
Comfort
Support
Powerful

Relating it to EC…
Insieme si pensiamo Together we think

Insieme si trova Together we find

Insieme si fa
Together we do

Together we find solutions…Together we find a way…
Your need to tape another sheet of paper in order for you to complete this circle a solution in kind – Nothing is impossible!

These were my thoughts anyway.
PG
PS...I love it too!!!

wayne said...

PG, Thank you for this inspiring comment! You have a way with words i could never equal. You have created a poem whose words and concepts are crystal clear and as global as the language of music itself, a poem that rhymes beyond itself, in higher dimensions, resounding in Italian and in English and, by inference, all languages of the planet.

Your triad of Italian phrases reminds me of the triad of three primary colours. An equilateral triangle: powerful, symmetric, connected, beautiful, balanced, whole. These qualities also resonate with your opening word-sequence:
Love
Connectedness
Comfort
Support
Powerful

Your Italian phrases and your translation of them are most inspiring, challenging, full of promise and of hopes realised.

Thank you PG for this :)
ω

William K. Moore said...

Wayne - glad to see you uploading your recent creations to the web. The circle says it all, the ultimate teacher. Lost in the desert one crosses one's old footsteps made hours before, there is no more water so that one must die. All things circle - tension/release and shades in-between. Your work points to hope and progress.. but what's on the other side? Personally I have an aversion to pain, unhappiness, poverty and boredom. It's funny how the circles in my life drag me through each of those areas... and yet I go on amazed at it all. Seeing your circle of clasping hands makes me think.... like that.

David Burge said...

This is great!
Like the best of ideas it is simple and so damned real and to the point.
Very apt in the current situation.
Locally and globally.
The best we can do is think and behave in an optimistic way. Do the best with what we have.
I love this piece, it's enthusiastic and loving!
Like a John Lennon song.

Wayne said...

Hi WK, please accept my sincere apologies for a considerable delay in response to your kind comment here on EC2! My drawing is intended as a sign or symbol, an emblem of empathy and healing even though imperfectly circular, imperfectly drawn.

Your comment put a new perspective on the work, yet i see how you arrive at this viewpoint, so i've had to give myself time to reflect on that. There is no doubting that there's a common human experience of 'cycles' of numerous kinds. Some of these can "drag through" periods of suffering in various forms. It occurred to me that perhaps, because the image is/was viewed vertically on a computer monitor, it might very easily have conveyed (at first glance) the feeling of a kind of 'wheel' that just goes around and around. But I drew EC2 on the floor which means that for me there was no "up" or "down" consciousness as i was drawing ...just a ring of interconnected hands, an emblem of togetherness. [Maybe I should exhibit this piece horizontally somehow! Transposed into a woven sign within a rug on the floor?!]

The *emlematic* nature of EC2 may, in some respects, resonate with the "flag" you allude to in your commentary under your own painting Invisible Blue Line(viz.): "...the missing flag [that] waves across town...". The values we 'salute' may have been lost sight of, the ends frayed, tattered, the flag 'off-stage'; just as here in EC2, the circle of hands has had to be drawn 'off the stage of the paper', to be inclusive of another, of otherness, and togetherness, in order to complete its circumference, its circle.

Speaking of *water* reminds me of one of the most ancient cultures on Earth and arguably one of the most advanced (imo) the indigenous culture of Australia. It is remarkable that the indigenous owners of this land (the Aborigines) can find water in the desert, where there may seem to be not even a drop, can traverse featureless land without retracing steps, navigate across its deserts and through the cycles of wet and dry seasons. Respectful of all of Nature as alive and, as you say, "amazed at it all". They have songs for the land, for animals, for Nature in its diverse forms, all alive.

Darryl Reanney says this in one of his books: "If we want to see the the universe as consciousness knows it we should stop thinking of it as a machine or a process or a system and start thinking of it as a song."

Thank you again ωκ for your kind comments and taking the time to write about this drawing :)
best wishes,
Wayne

wayne said...

Hi David, Thank you so much for your positive, optimistic feedback! Please accept my sincere apologies for delayed replies! [Your recent 'kitchen table series' of watercolours is outstanding! Modestly presented and commented upon, they communicate a rare wonderful deftness and immediacy in the handling of the medium.. (Should be putting all this as an 'addendum' on your blog, ..a good idea me thinks)]. Anyhow, i'm therefore pleased you find in EC2 a clear, simple, and apt message for our times that's "real and to the point".

Glad you found it *enthusiastic and loving*, like a John Lennon song!! Does this mean i get to sleep in all day??!! [Only kidding, and i'm most respectful of and appreciative of your kindness here and, of course, the great JL.]
Best wishes,
wayne

William K. Moore said...

The ability(ies) of the Aborigines in Australia is truly astounding and it's nice you mentioned it. Don't know much about them but there are no negatives of which I am aware ... except those pesky white men interfering with their mind waves. Glad we can pass around ideas and words and pictures in this zone - receive feedback and wonder what awaits in dream-time.

wayne said...

It's beautiful how you worded that ωκ. You have a real way with words (understatement++) as we have all come to know!!! So too with composition, figuration, paint (also understatements ++), so too with thinking and with nearly any discipline i can imagine. It's one of many reasons i highly esteem and respect your input here and on the other blogs i visit. There's a lot of very bright and skillful artists around here on the blogs, each in their own way/s, imo.. And it is so very refreshing and inspiring i find..Thanks again, best wishes,
wayne