One Night I Awoke to My Imagination when My Imagination Woke Me…
I’m not sure if it was exploring the work of Brett Whitley, and overindulgence in the works of William Blake or beginning to plunge into Patrick White’s Rider’s in the Chariot that had me lying in bed, wide eyed and no closer to sleep than I had been upon first lying down. Likely, it was the combination of the three that found me leaping out from underneath the covers with a furious desire to create something – it was an Alf Dubbo-like experience that I still don’t understand, given I have never been a particularly visual artist in my past. But, spring from my bed I did and quickly rummaged through my posessions before landing on the tools necessary for my creation:
An old, unused art diary salvaged from my old school supplies, still yet to be tossed away
Some pencils, given to me as a gift to compliment an unused colouring book and,
…a variety of makeup and accompanying brushes
I laughed to myself once I had madly assembled this hobnob supply kit. Had I gone mad? What was this deep felt urge I suddenly became aware of, urging me onward, ordering me to create. But create I did. After about half an hour or so, most of this time taken trying to achieve desired colours from a limited aresenal, I was finished. No time was taken in either forming an idea of what I wanted to depict, or surprisingly in considering my ability or technique (unusual for that group of individuals to which I belong, often found to be so uniquely critical of themselves).
Once the visual was lying in front of me I was able to perceive a connection that may not have inspired the urge to create, but certainly the meaning behind the creation itself. It was William Blake’s ‘To Tirzah’ I saw before me. Often thought to be one of his more difficult works, I had come to my own understanding and interpretation of the poem, renewing it and making it my own through visual representation. I connected with the idea that humans often rely too heavily on the sensory experience, rather than focusing on the consciousness and understanding (of oneself as well as others) that can be found beyond this realm, on a more deeply spiritual level. I had thus depicted two individuals, naked and eyes closed, heads bowed in submission, ready to achieve or receive (I’m not yet sure which) this deeper connection – but the connection between them is blocked by a physical barrier. The tree between them was chosen to resonate somewhat with the story of Adam and Eve, giving not only the necessary physical barrier I wished to depict but adding that allusion to the presence of our imposed barriers to deeper connection and understanding, ever-present, since ‘the beginning of time’ in common Western understanding.
Without the explorations of ‘The Visionary Imagination’, such an epiphany of creative spirit would never have been possible.
taramichelle 
