Letter to my Mother 1 (Yin)

'Letter to my Mother 1 (Yin)' is about a deep Mother wound - both as physical mother and also the Mother 'part' in the psyche. Being Yin, it is a depiction of the inward exploration of this wounding within the Self. The archetype of Mother and the Mother wound is symbolic in the painting itself as an individual symbol, but also of the collective, as something commonly experienced by many. The use of gold paint in the artwork can be read with an alchemical signficance; the gold paint is mixed with black and burnt umber, and is in effect the 'gold within the dirt' as seen in alchemical texts; the everyday gold that is thrown out with the dishwater into the streets, which is stepped over and unseen, without perceived value, yet it is this gold which, once perceived, is what allows for the transmutation and transformation to begin. The making of the artwork was built up structurally through layers of text; layer upon layer of writing, an ebb and flow of the written word, which creates the finished surface seen in the painting: textural, 'textual' and made up ultimately of many marks and scribbles, as if graffittied onto the multiple surfaces in an act of journalling, an exploration of the inner world. The artwork is read best, informed by, a reading with its companion painting, 'Letter to my Mother 2 (Yang)' Energetically, the painting can be seen to symbolise a contraction of movement, a deeply inward movement of exploration and solitude.