Series:

Finding Footing

Continuing to use my body as a visual element that reflects nature, I observe my feet rooted to the earth. This is the starting point of the Yoga postures and Qi Gong movements that I practice each morning. In this artwork, from Aging Into Full Creativity, some kind of magical thinking has overtaken me at the very time that I am searching for footing, for ground. I had already created a suite of drawings examining hands when I came upon this quote:

“Every part of you has a secret language. Your hands and your feet say what you’ve done.” –Rumi

IN THIS SERIES:

Celestial Rub

Foothold

Drawn Inward

Terra Incognito

Ingrained

Gravitas & Levitas

Coupled

Crone’s Feet

On Our Path

Imperfect Offering

Uncommon Ground

What Lies Beneath

Butterfly Effect

Down to the Bone

Sole to Sole

It’s not so much the secret, but the speaking parts of our body that captivate me. At first I thought of feet as less interesting than hands and less reflective of age. But as I studied the way the skin wraps around the bones and how visible the underlying veins, tendons and connective tissue have become, I saw how full of character and personality feet are. And what visual weight they possess as they hold us to terra firma.

My footing stories are told in a body language poised between the real and the imaginary. As I play with what’s below, above, beyond and in-between, I address the figure/ground relationship as composition and metaphor. Even though the work originates in a desire to find my center, it also reflects my feelings of ambiguity about the ground on which we stand, especially in a world so filled with madness and destruction.