What do you think of when you hear the phrase “spiritual experience”?  Does a mountaintop epiphany come to mind?  Or beachside meditation?  Spiritual experiences come to us in all sorts of guises, for example, Mr. Forager & I had one last year as we drove up the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park, both awed by the beauty and shedding tears of thankfulness that we were able to share it with one another.  Australian artist Marisa Purcell pursues spiritual experiences in her abstract work– encounters with paint so mystical they embody spiritual sensation.

Floating, ghostly orbs of color appear and recede before our eyes.  We squint to try to get a closer look, but even as we narrow our gaze, the forms do not become clear.

Suggestions of shape, illusions of form, are all the hints we are given.  Light permeates and glows from each piece, enveloping the canvas and the viewer.  We are left with the feeling that something has just happened, yet we aren’t sure quite what.

To see more of Marisa Purcell’s work, please visit her website.

Artist found via Liz Tran.  Thanks, Liz!