Unwinding
(2000-2001)
Artist Statement
The series UNWINDING contains six groups
of three, 18 individual paintings. Each
group represents an area of the body.
These paintings are portals to an event,
abstract floating memories that give
bits of information but also beg questions.
The catalyst for this series of paintings
was an experience with CranioSacral
Therapy (CST).
CST
utilizes an holistic
body view. For nearly
a hundred years it has
been practised as both
science and an art.
CST is a touch therapy
that works to release
congestion through energy
systems of the body.
Within it is the feeling
of rest and meditation
- a nervous system empowered
by deep consciousness,
of physical and spiritual
connectivity that alludes
precise definition.
The
rhythmical energy bundles
I "saw" during
the CST session, I later
came to understand were
a product of electrical
energy (ions,nerve synapses)
viewed by me as living
pictures which appeared
in my "mind's eye" only
during the therapy session.
The therapy event images
could be explained as
phenomenon operated
through a dynamic combination
of human cells and psyche
or discounted as a mystical
experience.
Whether
the UNWINDING images
are exclusively mine
or universal as human
emotion, remains unclear.
We know about subtle
connections in Nature,
the billions of configurations
that are extremely fined
tuned. And I think for
this reason we can go
beyond a single experience
to where we can find
common meaning. My work
investigates how we
accept what we think
we know, what we are
willing to accept as
true. The unwinding
series images are static,
tangible and somehow
as painted metaphor,
perhaps more real.
Shortly
after I'd completed
painting UNWINDING I
became aware of information
from a broad selection
of sources that act
as confirmation to my
experience. Although
I could not duplicate
nor discover new images
one year later with
the same therapist in
the same environment,
I continue to find more
various and interesting
connections. For example:
unwinding painting number
four - green circle
inside semicircle -
compares with an ancient
cultural symbol from
Shodo Kanji Calligraphy
that denotes "in
your hand, I will rest
here".
I
am still haunted by
the fact of the CST
experience and the visual
responses that came
without preconceived
expectation. After the
therapy I actually felt
altered - unwound -
somehow better balanced
in body and mind, and
nearly three years later,
still do.
Note
the attached list; titles
of books, art, scientific
research and note especially
the publication dates
and events which occurred
simultaneous to the
creation of this series
of paintings.
February
2003
Brief
Rerference List:
1) Are We Hardwired? The
Role of Genes in Human Behaviour by
William R. Clark and Michael Grunstein
Oxford University Press 2000....
“The electrical potential across
cell membranes, typically in the range
of 100 millivolts or so, is generated
by a differential distribution of electrically
charged atoms (“ions”) inside
and outside the cell. “
2) Nancy Kedersha’s macrophotographs
of human cancer cells - published Wired
Magazine 2001.
3) Your Future Self:
A Journey to the Frontiers of Molecular
Medicine ; Hank Whittemore Pub.
Thames and Hudson 2001 www.wnorton.com/thames
4) “The God
of Small Things” by
Allen Abel pub. Saturday
Night Magazine June 2001. “What
is the connection between the physical
world and this computer we have in
our brains? Is it biological? Chemical?....
(*scientists) are vexed, not by the
pulsing of the galaxies but by the
puzzle of ourselves.” Prof. Doug
Perovic University of Toronto.
5) Emotional Intelligence,
Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 1990
by Peter Slovey and John Mayer
“ A relatively recent branch of
computer science, known as artificial
life, experiments with just such self-evolving
software. Instead of writing the programs
themselves, computer scientists working
in artificial life generate random sequences
of instructions, and allow these mini-programs
(called genetic algorithms) to compete
with each other for space on the computer’s
hard disk....if this process is repeated
for many generations, the beneficial
mutations accumulate, leading to exceptionally
effective programs that no human could
have designed by normal methods.”
“... In short, the only way we
will really know whether or not machines
can be conscious is by trying to build
a conscious machine.”
“Cognitive psychologist have abandoned
their exclusive focus on reasoning,
perception, and memory and are rediscovering
the importance of affective processes”.
6) Acts of Meaning by
Jerome Bruner, Harvard University
Press 1992;
7) How the Mind Works Robert
Frank New York Norton 1997 Harmondsworth:Penguin
1998. Harvard University Press 1992).
8) Emotion The Science of
Sentiment by Dylan Evans
Oxford University Press 2001 (Evans
is a Research Fellow Dept. of Philosophy
King’s College London).
9) “Science and Neurotheology” feature
article by Michael Valpy
Toronto Globe and Mail Sat.
Aug. 25th 2001 Ideas Focus pg
F7
...” The brain is the hardware
through which religion is experienced,
said Daniel Batson a University of
Kansas psychologist who studies the
effect of religion on people. (but).. “To
say the brain produces religion is
like saying a piano produces music” ...
goes on to report....
“Michael Persinger head of Neuroscience
Research Group at Sudbury’s Laurentian
University is one of a growing number
of scientists around the world exploring
what physically occurs in the brain
during a religious or mystic experience
and how to imitate the stimuli that
cause those experiences to occur.”
further...
“Scientists knew that decreased
electrical activity in the pariental
lobes - brought on by; among other things,
mediation or prayer - lessened the distinction
between ‘self’ and ‘other’.
They also know that increased electrical
activity in the limbic system shouts
out to the rest of the brain that something
important is happening - although what
it actually shouts out, when it’s
highly active, may be a little unusual.”
What had been missing was a way to
make the neurons fire - or to simulate
their firing - to create the condition,
Persinger uses a computer.
the article continues with background
information...
...”Harvard University’s
Mind/ Body Clinic have known for years
that spirituality is hard-wired to
health, that the brain has enormous
influence over all the other organs,
that people who have a sense of oneness
of body, spirit and mind are healthier
people, gamboling down the path to
longer and happier life.”
10) Nancy Burson www.nancyburson.com
New York based artist/photographer
- a) Pictures of Health b) Craniofacial
3) The Human Race Machine.
11) web sites on craniosacral
therapy and related.
www.craniosacral.co.uk
www.sheacranial.com
www.craniosacral.com
12) The Fourth Treasure by
Todd Shimoda Pub.Nan Talese, New York,
USA 2002. Fictional account by a doctor
of Neuroscience, about cerebrovascular
disease;a Japanese American Calligraphy
Artist who suffers a stroke but contines
to ‘draw’; with illustrations
by LJC Shimoda in Shodo Kanji.
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