Riffs & Ripples from ZenRiver Gardens: Munch's "The Scream" - X-rayed

Sunday 21 April 2013

Munch's "The Scream" - X-rayed - on bad acid

Thursday nite I attended a triple book launch at Q Space Gallery in
Toronto. I went to hear my friend Allan Briesmaster launch his new
book, Against the Flight of Spring. Allan gave an excellent & brief
reading of 6 poems, & I'm now in the process of savouring all of his
poems on the deck of my ZenRiver Gardens shaman shack.

Another friend has an art display at Q Space, & Virginia Dixon's
startling & nightmarish Woman of Belleville series of monoprints
continues to haunt me - thought I'd share them.

MY WORK

Woman of Belleville

As humans living a corporeal existence we are aware in varying degrees of the duality we encounter between body and spirit. Religious philosophy refers to the veil and visual art the picture plane. There is a yearning to bridge this distance and gain or regain a sense of unity thereby relieving us of an underlying feeling of alienation.

For me painting is a form of magic or alchemy whereby through the process I will eventually be transformed into the essence of the matter. The picture is creating me as I create it.

This series of monoprints “Woman of Belleville’ is my latest attempt in this endeavor. I think it is quite humourous that the images resulting from printing my own body onto paper are so alien looking!

“Woman of Bellville” was inspired in part by Giacometti’s sculptures “Woman of Venice”. Giacometti ‘s monumental works are opposite to mine in both intent and practice, depicting the figure in real space emphasizing a distance removed from his subject. I admire this work greatly and am challenged by the differences.

Virginia Dixon lives on a farm north of Belleville. You can contact her through the contact section