Exploring "Topographies"

Exploring "Topographies"

This week, we are providing you with the first peek into the new body of work I have prepared for the upcoming show. The series is named "Topographies", a title that lends itself to questions and conversations.

The terrain explored is not of the coastal, rugged sort that collectors are acquainted with, but the landscape of the internal spaces, the mysterious and uncertain contained within.

This year of uncertainty and disruption, this year that is 2025, has challenged us to be braver, clearer, and trusting, not of the established powers and patterns that have held societies together but of the inner and collective wisdom, the wisdom of ages, the wisdom that sustained humans before the artifice of control became our north star.

The topographies emerged as I began to explore what it means to release control over my process, learning to trust the wisdom of my hand and muscle memory as an artist. This "release" required working within, on my internal "topographies," unfolding decades of control and measured execution to return to the joyful spring of creative emergence, which is the gift of our birthright and also quickly forgotten by most, even artists, as we face the requirements and pressures of life. The joyful, childlike curiosity is often buried beneath the burden of our expectations.

In uncertain times, the old wisdom is most wise.

In building a creative app for artists, we have learned to face the questions that hold us back. These questions, posed by ourselves and our community of artist beta testers, are the ones all humans grapple with as we attempt, often in midlife, to liberate ourselves from the constraints of life that become strangleholds once they expire beyond utility. What I mean by this is that our unassessed beliefs, fears, and certainties may have paved the way for our current situation. Still, they are unlikely to be the tools we need to grow beyond the experiences and understanding we currently possess.

If we wish to grow, to understand, and to become our fully realized selves, we must consider the landscape of our mind and curate our consciousness to orient toward the future we wish to inhabit.