Brisbane Institute of Art
November 9th - 19th Exhibition BIRD
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 is 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 have never been interested in simply regurgitating images from books, or copying pictures without there being an idea behind the process. I tend to want there to be a concept. So to start, I look for inspiration.
1/ Which birds? Just the threatened or any, including the common?
Australian or worldwide?
2/ Start the process with drawing birds and children 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/ Color's, atmosphere. A reckoning? Warning?
Or should I make the threat more subtle?
Love this process . . .
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
60cm x 60cm
Oil on canvas
In this painting Alchemy, it is 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. HOPE
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 2020-2024
