The journey of self-discovery is really the greatest journey to be hard during the time we each have on the planet. It seems to me that many of us miss this opportunity to truly discover the essential nature of ourselves. I have always used my art for that purpose and at the same time am aware of any shortcomings in the creative process to achieving that end, if you can call it an end.
This has led me also to exploring many Eastern traditions of religion in my quest to bring meditation into my life and a fulfilling sense of my own self-discovery, which is as your question suggests a long journey.
I think it’s a great journey and I’ve been immensely nourished and continue to be nourished through my own practice as a meditator and one who is involved in my own sense of personal growth. This is also as I mentioned supported by my art practice, where I see the necessity to create art that is essentially silent at its core, suggesting a certain meditative quality in its very being. Not all artworks are capable of having this essence, however the intention is there with every work that I create.
Take for example my latest piece, the artwork “Monumental Environmental Artwork”. This is a work that I learnt so much from. I would like to tell you here about the whole process of the creation of this work which led to many comments being stated to me about how the artwork reminded people of the whole of humanity and that they could sit or stand in front of it and go into deep space of meditation simply because this work of art had that kind of quality. This sculpture is made from the trunk and root ball of a Camphor Laurel tree and, was made over a 2-year period between 2008 and mid 2010.
It began with my receiving a call from a local eco farmer who knew my work. He told me he had a gift for me if I wanted it. I could do what I liked with it. At my first viewing of it I was pretty mixed with both overwhelm and excitement. I knew the project could be a success, having seen smaller versions of tree stumps transformed by fire and elevated into sculptural shapes around the district. I knew that my work with this wood would be unique and preferably highly polished, but it would take a huge amount of work and persistence and an ongoing need to stay focused in the moment.
So work on this piece began around the beginning of 2008. Firstly, I saw that the root ball was completely crammed tight with very hard sandy soil. I needed to get a pressure washer, one that was very high-pressure, in fact one with four and a half thousand PSI pressure, to begin the process of cleaning away this embedded soil. I could only just see fragments of the snapped off roots at the surface of the soil, I was aware that underneath the soil there was a whole story waiting to unfold.
I returned again and again to the sculpture over the two-year period with the same pressure washer. Each time I worked on it blasting away for 4 to 5 hours a time. I was decked out in my wetsuit, hat and goggles and my gumboots and always within the first 15 minutes I was completely black from all of dark soil spitting back at me. I became accustomed to this and actually came to enjoy the process, as I was getting to see further and further what was underneath.
It was really a joy to see its beauty being revealed. Hard work bought out the true essence of this tree and the more I worked on it, the more I feel it spoke to me about what it wanted me to reveal. So I just went with it, coming to terms with the regular sense of overwhelm, by simply working on section by section until at the end of each day I had covered a great deal of territory.
At one point it became very important for me to start fashioning the overall shape into what I believe became a very streamlined one. There were two trunks coming out the back, I had one removed with chainsaws and the face and overall roundish shape of the root ball, I also determined by the use of chainsaws. Later towards the end, I was able to use grinders, sanding machines and other woodworking tools to smooth off all of the edges and prepared the work for its final air blowing, which removed all of the last fragments of soil and wood shavings.
Then it was time for the application of the organic oils, which I ended up applying three coats of. Later as a completing gesture, I applied a couple of coats of beeswax mixed with Jojoba oil, which really made the wood sing.
As a final way of saluting this beautiful piece, I arranged for 2 beautifully prepared concrete polished plinths to be made for the root ball face and trunk where they met the ground. These plinths provided the final elevation of this work into its glory. I learned so much from working with this piece. I was also very happy to receive the honour of the People’s choice award at the “artsCape Biennial”, which was held in my hometown of Byron Bay during June and July of 2010 and to also receive the Environmental Art Award at the annual “Swell Sculpture Exhibition” in Queensland later in September 2010.
I tell this story as an example of a great journey had during the course of creating art. It was a journey that resonated with me very deeply on the inner level, one, which provoked an enormous amount of self-discovery not only to myself but also for others who viewed the work once it was finished.
