This is one of the pieces I will have in the Show off exhbition opening on Friday 29th of April at Memorial hall, cnr of Carrington Street and Rockingham Road, Hamilton Hill.

About this Image

I chose red for the boat in this piece for its brightness and as the complimentary colour of the sea green it offers strong contrast. But red also has psychological connotations.  In western culture red is used for love, passion or danger. In eastern traditions red is the colour of the base charkra, the earthy energy centre in the body located centrally to the hips. It is the colour of blood, which I think of as the life force flowing through our veins.
A rowing boat is very basic in nature it has a lack of grandeur. In a rowing boat you are forced to travel backwards to go where you want to go. I liked this metaphor for traveling through life not sure exactly where you are headed, looking over your shoulder to check if you are on track.
The figure in my work is not only moving backwards but also out of the picture, the viewer cannot know what lays beyond any more than she. Although we do have some clues. She is moving into another kind of space as marked by the change in colour of the sea and the lightly falling drops of red rain. Rain often has negative connotations but without rain plants die, we cannot survive. There is also a strange symbol growing behind her. This symbol arose in many of my works at this time and in different images it took on different functions, it was at once a tulip and a trident, a plant or a tool, it was in many ways what the figures around it perceived it to be. One persons disaster is anothers opportunity. Many times we are unaware of the strength growing within us, or behind us.
The placement of the boat is also to allow the vastness of the ocean to be apparent. When traveling on the ocean there are no roads, no well trodden paths to guide you. She may travel in any direction she likes, she is literally “at sea”
This artwork was created in 2008 to see more from this exhibition click here