BCA FINAL SHOW

quiet

into the light

hands

darkness

          turns, wind, swirl

          Our final show at BCA is tonight from 6-8, so come if you're reading this and you're in Ireland. 

I've been making these self-portraits all year with blackberries I collected in the fall. Now they are all together in one place. There is no real conceptual reason that inspired me to make these. It just started because of an excitement for drawing faces and using materials that come as a result of intimacy with the earth-mother around me. But as they've evolved, I've noticed an interesting theme. I am, we all are, part of this magic mystery. Isn't that exciting!! I watch the ocean as it manifests the tides every day, effortlessly. I watch all the little birds collecting bundles of little twigs and making communities up in the trees. I watch the spiders dangling from their strings wiggling all their little legs. So delightful! I look up at night and I see the magic of all the stars. So magical. And I think, I am part of this! I am part of this amazing magical world! What a gift! How exciting! Nature never gets stuck wondering what to do next. It always knows exactly what to do. Following its delight. 

Now, I have read Jane Goodall and I know that there is a dark side to nature too. There is certainly a dark side to us humans. This year has been about embracing all of that in all of us but mostly deliberately choosing to embrace the light, first for myself and then for everyone everywhere. I've been reading Anam Cara, by John O'Donohue, who grew up and lived right here in this very region of Ireland. He died seven years ago and is buried in a cemetery not far from my apartment. He writes,

"The faces of death in every day life;

There is a gravity within that continually weighs on us and pulls us away from the light. Negativity is an addiction to the bleak shadow that lingers around every human form. Within a poetics of growth or spiritual life, the transfiguration of this negativity is one of our continuing tasks. This negativity is the force and face of your own death gnawing at your belonging in the world. It wants to make you a stranger in your own life. This negativity holds you outside in exile from your own love and warmth. You can transfigure negativity by turning it towards the light of your soul. This soul light gradually takes the gravity, weight and hurt out of negativity. Eventually, what you call the negative side of your self can become the greatest force for renewal, creativity and growth within you. Each one of us has this task. It is a wise person who knows where their negativity lies and yet does not become addicted to it. There is a greater and more generous presence behind your negativity. In its transfiguration, you move into the light which is hidden in this larger presence."