Exhibition coming up soon: April 18 and 19

Please click on this invite to enlarge for reading. The exhibition runs for 3 weeks from April 17th in Noosaville, on the Sunshine Coast.
Embiggen Books and Gallery - 'where art meets science' - embiggenbooks.com

If you require further information please make contact through channels listed on invite. It would be great to see you there...!!!
PS: I say that in jest to all my overseas and interstate friends in the blogosphere ....I'm sorry it is SO far away! 2 hours from Brisbane makes it something of a hike for locals. For some it happily coincides with other reasons for heading up that way. Thanks for the good wishes from those far away and/or unable to be there!!

On another tangent - but curiously related:

The Standard of Ur (around 2600-2400 BCE) was excavated by British archeologist Sir Leonard Woolley in the 1920's and is now in the British Museum collection.

        










Its a hollow wooden box measuring 22 x 50 cm (approx) inlaid with a mosaic of shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli. Reading more about this is fascinating - I googled Standard of Ur - it was found in quite a decayed state in the cemetry of the ancient city of Ur which is south of present day Bagdad in Iraq.
 When studying the art of ancient cultures, aged about 14, I came across this particular work, finding it deeply compelling - so much so that I must have imprinted it on my brain. About 14 years later I visited the British Museum  returning on a number of occasions to look at this extraordinary work whilst living in London.



When a dear friend Jen visited recently from out of town and we were in the studio talking rapidly about various things I showed her some small recent works similar to my invitation imagery above and then googled the Standard of Ur and commented that it was remarkable but one day not so long ago I had made a link between my passion for a certain form of composition and colour that had visited me in work on and off over the years and this ancient art work.
As a doctor currently researching on the brain and memory Jen had a most interesting view to offer on how the brain stores memory of something like this small art work, its colour and form which I was so taken by, and years later could offer up aspects of that work as I scoured my mind for inspiration in the studio. We were able to trace the connection in other small works I had saved and kept in my studio...curiously ones I never wanted to sell as they were like talismans.
It was very obvious to her the link to this ancient artwork and my contemporary motifs... and she could also recognise the fact of it having surfaced in this very indirect way. It never came from an  attempt to consciously replicate this work in any way.
No doubt many of us are doing this day in and day out in our studies and elsewhere. To understand the evolution of one's aesthetic concerns however it makes sense to travel back  and trace these important influences on our ways of seeing and appreciating the world. There is no doubt in my mind why something so ancient yet so refined- the panel on one side is titiled "War", the other side is "Peace" is so important to me. The small section above is from "Peace" - the previous panel "War".
Reading a warm comment from Mary-Anne of Blue Sky Dreaming this morning pushed me to go back to the post and add this reflection.
This small ancient work found 70 years ago in great disrepair  still speaks to us today - coming from the site  in a country we have visited our contemporary values of 'War' and 'Peace' on. Thats a thought!