Tanya Hoddinott - Unfinished Journey
Mar 02nd - Mar 13th
"I
am currently working on paintings commissioned for the inclusion in
a book due to be released next year, ironically entitled 'Unfinished
Journey'. I was invited to travel for a period of 3/4 weeks to a country
of my choice. I chose Central America. After travelling for 2 weeks
I met the man who was to become my husband. I eventually returned to
Australia, only to return to Mexico 8 weeks later.
What
started as an interest in the physical nature of these places, has led
me to learn much more about the spiritual qualities of both place and
people. The stories are unavoidable and sometimes unbelievable, Pyramids
that glow in the dark, Crystal sculls found deep inside many of the
sites, said to contain the history of our universe and formed by pure
thought. The incredible soul paths of ascension and descension, which
explain the strange labyrinths of the interiors of these huge structures,
the connection of Egyptian, Peruvian and Mayan cultures, I could go
on and on, but there is no denying the infallible knowledge of the stars
and mathematical precision of the Mayan calendar and the conviction
of the stories lend themselves to the magical nature of the place. You
become a believer.
I consider myself to be a landscape painter, although, not in the traditional sense, I like to break up the canvas using line and this stems from flying and looking down, the natural and man-made lines, the fences of the farmers and the colours of their various crops, the river-ways and natural contours, the way an aboriginal painting works, like an aerial view. I am told that all artists tend to naturally paint the landscape from an elevated position. These lines are like the many roads on a journey, and inside these delineated areas are the people and the animals and the stories. They are to be read in a similar way to the early pictographs or Hieroglyphs. There is no particular story to read, although the title may offer a clue to my own, they are different for everyone. They are to be seen and read according to the viewers own experience and interpretation. Sometimes they are completely abstract, these works are to be experienced rather than read.
Painting in Mexico, in a small cabana that I shared, with quite large canvas's to finish, was an experience to say the least. It was also something I had always wanted to do. Paint on a large scale, in another country, with all of those feelings and senses fresh and alive. I had 6 months before we were due to return. We had visited many of the great murals of Riviera, Orozco, Siqueiros and other incredible Mexican painters and I automatically became bolder in my own use of colour and brushwork. The layers of blue that make up the Caribbean Sea, the stark contrast of the colourful red and yellow birds against the deep greens of the jungle, the heat, the rainbow-like embroidery of the Mayan women, force you to recognize a great love and celebration of life. Learning to read the symbolism of the exterior carvings on the ancient buildings has also brought me to incorporate some of those elements into my work, becoming more conscious of the power of repetitive patterning and design, as both relative to our modern life and connecting to our past.
The image of the snake, for example, now
means something totally different for me, for as in Joseph Campbell's
own words 'Poor Snake' he always gets the blame, whereas the snake, often
shedding his old skin for new, represents 'new life' rather than rejecting,
we should embrace him. Symbolism is not reinventing itself, it is all
there, and in some way we resonate with these old images and shapes, they
strike a chord, just as colour does the same thing, a burning red painting
produces a much different feeling than perhaps a pale green might. Something
that is also very important to me is that the painting has rhythm and
balance in its composition, I like the picture to look like a piece of
music sounds.
Travel and work come hand in hand for me,
and the more I see the more I have come to realise that there are many
things that are different about our separate lands, but the people and
where we come from all have a common thread, all the stories, the architecture
even the religions all have a common beginning, so I feel sure that the
stories and symbols that you see in my work are to be felt and experienced
by all people".
Tanya Hoddinott, 2004
