ALCHEMY Process

                                       

2024 - 2025   Exhibitions  

I have decided to concentrate on a body of work that will be used in my next two exhibitions.

I will produce six 60x60cm paintings for BIA for 2024 and Six  60 x 60cm for Esk Glen Rock Gallery for May 2025.

 BIRD  exhibition at The Brisbane Institute of Art November 9th - 19th, 2024 

Sharon Lee    Linda Black    Lyn Derrick

Our group have been exhibiting together for over twenty five years.

Following on from our exhibition in The Esk Regional Art Gallery, 2019-2020, our group has decided to continue with the theme 'BIRD' 

We booked gallery NONA for 2022, but the flood and renovations meant the exhibition was postponed. We re-booked for 2024. In a way this delay was a blessing. It gave us plenty of time to develop a better series of works. 

For me the theme of BIRD and TOGETHER are tangled-up with the threats to the ecosystem.

I want the viewer to ask of themselves and our society : when will we accept that there is a symbiotic relationship between nature, humans and the environs, and that we are all the same when threatened by catastrophic conditions?

   

I tend to want there to be a concept. So to start, I look for inspiration.  For this body of work the inspiration started when my own adult children told me they were disinclined to have children.

They did not want to bring children into a world threatened by so many environmental disasters.

Combining this with the observation, that birds are threatened and undervalued - ideas started percolating.

1/ In a world threatened by catastrophic conditions not only will we loose our birds but we could also loose our children.

2/ Which birds? Just the threatened or should I include the common? 

    Australian or worldwide?

3/ Using photographs of my own children when they were far younger, I started the process with drawing children and birds separately.

  

When I came across this jigsaw, that my own children once adored, it gave me an idea. 

What if humans were physically and psychologically joined to birds? 

If what happened to one, happened to the other?

Through environmental storytelling I have decided to portray birds with human bodies, to signify that no ecosystem exists in a vacuum. What happens to animals, birds, vegetation and humans is inevitably tangled together.

3/ Cut them up and arrange so the amalgamated child/bird looks as if they are one species.

                   

     

Draw them with the chosen combination. Then decide

 

4/ Medium - Oils or acrylics?

5/ What will they be doing? Will the backgrounds highlight catastrophic conditions?

6/ Size? Color's? Atmosphere?  A reckoning?  Warning? 

    Or should I make the threat more subtle? 

ALCHEMY

 

ALCHEMY

We are travelers on a cosmic journey,

stardust swirling and dancing in the eddies

and whirlpools of infinity.

Life is eternal.

We have stopped for a moment 

to encounter each other,

to meet, to love, to share.

This is a precious moment.

It is a little parenthesis in eternity.

-Paulo Coelho

In this painting Alchemy, it's about the seemingly magical process of transformation, or creation, or a combination. 

When I think about the children that will live in the future, I feel that the world will desperately need magic, transformation and creation.

The girl in this painting is the gift giver.  She has a plant in her hand, representing new growth. The other is the storytelling. The recorder of history. 

The temple represents fire, earth, air, water and the unknown of the void. The sea represents strength, endlessness and hope. The mat shows new growth. The taking of tea represents harmony, balance, hospitality, and friendship.

The sky has a blush representing the world’s ability to reset. 

It represents HOPE

So, number one completed now to work the process to created 11 more !!

Artists statement

   

Growing up in Papua New Guinea, living on an isolated Island in Bougainville, PNG and then moving to acreage in Crossdale, Queensland, I have always felt fortunate to be able to observe and interpret the kaleidoscope of colors and designs, in habitat with areas of natural biodiversity.

 

I managed both an art supply shop at the Brisbane Institute of Art and an artist’s retreat in the beautiful Somerset Shire for over a decade. And both of these ventures allowed me to learn many creative, technique-based processes. Intaglio, Lino, mono and screen printing, have influenced the way I approach line, composition, design and color. Learning the processes used in sculpture, ceramics and jewelry-making has contributed to the way I process ideas and express spatial form.

I blend my appreciation for compelling narratives with the excitement of manipulating nature’s complex and transient structures. It was Max Ernst (1891 – 1976) who said, ‘an artist must have one eye on the outer world, while the other eye looks towards the inner world.’ And it is with this in mind that I create multi-layered paintings evocative of the landscape, while inserting an irrational or troublesome idea. However, unlike the melancholy of Ernst, I hope my works are a joyful experience, each a visual haiku of a memory I yearn to keep, while encouraging the viewer to connect with their own memories, to generate their own unique narrative.

Birds have always represented wisdom, adaptation, diligence, rebirth, and courage. All the attributes we will need if we wish to repair and maintain our ecosystem. By portraying birds and human children combined, I question, if birds were considered priceless treasures of worth, perhaps our relationship with them and the ecosystem would be more considered. Perhaps if we considered birds as being as valuable to us as our own children, we would apportion them more value—more care?

By using environmental storytelling I hope the viewer will not be instantly repelled by the horror of the concept, but take the time to look at the bright colors, scenery, toys, and allow the images - the time needed - for them to ask their one overriding question: when will we accept that there is a symbiotic relationship between nature, humans and the environs, and that we are all the same when threatened by catastrophic conditions?

Sharon Lee 2020-2025

Process IF NATURE WAS WATCHING WOULD YOU BE KINDER?

 IMAGINE IF NATURE COULD WATCH WHAT YOU WERE DOING.

  

 Sculptural wall art. Ply backing board

Paper clay, acrylic paint, gold leaf, resin. Step by step.   60cm diameter

 

 

ICHI-GO ICHI-E

 For this time only  -  Japanese proverb.

To what shall I compare this life of ours?

Even before I can say, it is like a lightning flash

or a dewdrop, it is no more.

 -Sengi

   

The inspiration comes from photographs of my own children. 

I wished to capture the fleeting nature of life. The ephemeral.

I deliberately made the mat they are on look crumpled, to show that it is an uncertain foundation that barely supports them. I wanted to convey that it could disintegrate at any moment - just as bubbles do - as does time, and if we are not careful - as does life.

I spent a fair time making the eyes look more human rather than bird like. I wanted to show that they are aware of the  precarious nature of life. They know each moment is precious. They are aware that all the many small joys this life has to offer, should be celebrated.

No ecosystem exits in a vacuum. What happens to animals, birds vegetation and humans is sequentially, and inevitably tangled together.

TENALACH - The connection one has with nature

 The idea for this painting is:  Consume less - consume better.

 

 

 

We have bees and roses and both are proving difficult to maintain in a healthy condition. They are constantly threatened by viruses, bugs, mold and heat.

In the painting, Tenalach, I wanted to emphasize the fragile relationship we have with the land, sky, and water. The deep connection that allows us to hear the earth sing and to be one with nature.

To what shall I compare this life of ours?

Even before I can say,

It is like a lightening flash or a dewdrop.

It is no more. 

- Sengai

The mat floats on the rising water.

It is covered with purely decorative growth that will not sustain bees.

There is only one single surviving bee.

I Miss Earth Worms. Do You?

                                                            

Main story - understory - in a monoculture worms and bugs no longer exist.

Bees, fleas, worms, germs,

humans are but one part of the ecosystem.

We have become the impatient species. Too busy to let nature replenish itself and too puffed up with our own sense of importance to acknowledge our utter dependence on its generosity.

- David Suzuki

                                                        

   

                     I MISS EARTH WORMS. DO YOU?     

      

                 

Travelling around the world and Australia, we have seen various monocultures. Large expanses of a single crop. And while these are hugely efficient for crop production and harvesting, they have devastating environmental impacts.

I MISS EARTH WORMS. DO YOU?

In this painting the child/birds are eating processed food stored in small plastic containers. The mat is plastic. There is no diversity in the crop in the background. A monoculture. A system recognized to destroy biodiversity of creatures in the soil, including worms.

You-Are-Here

Be the catalyst for a revolution.

Do the difficult things while they are easy

and do the great things while they are small.