Tonight I looked at some pics of the desert online. My first thought was that a lot of my paperfolds remind me of these desert shapes! I have been drawn to the idea of the *desert on many levels for decades. Is it possible that the majesty, power, austerity, silence and emptiness of the desert are what undergird the beguiling simplicity of my paperfolds? Wow!
Painting since 2012, by 2014 I had already intuited that the seed bed for my artwork was my subconscious. By 2017, I speculated that my work wasn't random but rather came from some nameless, unified perspective embedded somewhere in my psche, perhaps from my earliest childhood. In 2019 I landed on the concept that my work has a deep spiritual basis rooted in my search for truth, for God (https://carolynellisart.com/blog-1) - a total surpise to me.
Here in 2020, I find yet another mind-blowing insight connecting the sublime simplicity of my paperfolds with my admiration for early monastics, the so called Desert Fathers. Discovering this new insight connecting my spirituality and my art practice is astounding to me. O the wonder!
*The desert is both fascinating and terrifying...In those desert combats (with self) you will have no support worth having except God. THE HERMITAGE WITHIN is full of insights about "desert spirituality" that go back well over a thousand years.
