It’s so easy to get caught up in our world of 21st century technology, especially when working from home. How slippery a slope it can be to go days on end without stepping outside! I often spend hours and hours a day in front of a screen ( or several! ), so our Saturdays spent hiking are utter bliss for my soul. Last weekend, Mr. F and I took a coastal hike where we marveled at the power and grace of the waves and the variety of stones washed upon the shore. In her work, Australian artist Carmel Seymour explores our relationship to the magic of nature, as we search for connections in our increasingly unnatural existences.
The artist states, “Natural objects linger in the home like a ghostly presence, an echo of pre-civilized humanity, an aesthetically pleasing reminder of our mastery and our diminutiveness.. Our attempts to bring nature into these constructed places can be seen as shrine to a deity more permanent than ourselves.”
Seymour’s work mirrors this thought of domestic tameness versus wildness in the way she juxtaposes carefully wrought figures and objects against puddles of loose watercolor. For all our “advancement” and self imprisonment, we are each one a wild creature born from a wild earth.
To see more of the work of Carmel Seymour, please visit her website and the website of her representing gallery, Helen Gory, where you can see her work in person if you find yourself Down Under.
Artist found via the Helen Gory Gallery. All images via the gallery’s website.
