This drawing is a protest at the failure of the medical profession – with a few notable exceptions – to care for the needs of people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). Words are powerful and they have been used to trivialise the suffering and diminish, and disguise, the impact of the illness. This acts to further isolate those affected from the community, and in some cases discourage them from seeking even symptomatic relief. Categorising an illness by one of a myriad of symptoms is as ludicrous as labelling heart disease  ‘Dizziness Syndrome.’ Oncologists Professor Olav Mella and Øystein Fluge M.D, when discussing CFS stated that,  ‘When we have cancer patients that are as sick as many of these patients are, they have a very short life expectancy. That says a lot about the quality of life for many of them’ (Eiksdal, 2011). Most don’t die so the suffering is ongoing and can last for decades.

This situation has forced many patients to become their own advocates. To assert their right to be treated with respect, and to call for high quality research that will provide answers, and an effective treatment. They have become what Bernie S. Siegel M.D. calls ‘exceptional patients,’ something he believes is necessary in the fight against cancer (Siegel, 1990).

This drawing also recognises the comfort, care, loyalty and unconditional love provided by companion animals to those with a disability. It acknowledges a Veterinary profession that offers care – without judgement – to those same animals.

Lastly, this is a remembrance for those with CFS who have died, including those who grew so weary of the fight that they took their own lives – a ripple of consequence that touches, and perhaps implicates, us all.

Eikesdal, B. TV2, 19 October 2011. English version: Norwegian research breakthrough can solve CFS-mystery. viewed 7 May 2012, <www.tv2.no/nyheter/innenriks/english-version-norwegian-research-breakthrough-can-solve-cfsmystery-3615631.html>

Siegel, B.S., 1990. Love, Medicine and Miracles. New York: Harper Collins.

This exhibition explores the artist’s interest in biodiversity and conservation. Biodiversity encompasses the variety of life forms present on planet earth. It includes the macroscopic (plants, insects and animals) and the microscopic (e.g. bacteria and viruses), and the ecosystems that support them. Major threats to biodiversity in Australia include habitat loss, fire and introduced weeds. The artist became fascinated with the paradox provided by our innate and spiritual need to be connected to nature, juxtaposed to our ability to wantonly destroy whole habitats. We often see nature as something separate from ourselves, denying not only our place in it, but also our obligation to the system as a whole. Urbanization may contribute to this sense of isolation, and the cost of this disconnection may be habitat destruction and species extinction.

Extract:

What could be his goal? It could only be coherence – a brace against dissolution. He had a lyrical dependence on oneness. But there were no points of reference. Time did not pass in recognisable units. Could the blink of an eye become a cockroach? They could exist anywhere. He felt that he was caught in a meditative solemnity. There was little left but thought. Thought filled the spaces. Thought was lush.

He used his thoughts like a scaffold, to build an understanding. Understanding would lead to cohesion. He didn’t expect perfection. Perfection was impossible. No one was perfect. But there was beauty in consistency, and interest in misunderstanding. He believed he could create a reasonable or logical harmony between parts – a resonance. There was no joy for him in separateness. He wasn’t unique in this. Individuality and expression involved giving in to the fluidity of chaos.

Investigating concepts dealing with emptiness, space and the void may lead to dark and shrouded places. Those shadowed recesses that contain doubt, anguish, loss and the fluidity of chaos. Colour itself is suggestive. Black may create a feeling of space, void or chasm in an artwork. It can be solemn and mysterious, with both positive and negative associations. It is failing light. It is night and deep space. Odilon Redon said that, ‘Black should be respected. Nothing prostitutes it. It does not please the eye and does not awaken sensuality. It is the agent of the spirit much more than the splendid colour of the palette or the prism.’

Citation from - To myself: Notes on life, Art and Artists, trans. Mira Jacob & Jeanne I. Wasserman (NY: George Braziller, 1986), 103.

The archetypal motif of man and beast reappears throughout art history and in many different cultures. The human/animal bond is deep and instinctive – we are interdependent for survival and companionship. Studies have shown definite physiological health benefits may result from pet ownership. Yet we have a tendency to anthropomorphise our pets – to project onto them our own way of seeing, and being, in the world. Art may, ‘… capture the truth of things’ (Sakendo in a preface to work by Hokasai) and this truth shows the ‘otherness’ of animals – that they look out at the world with a distinct, unique and separate perspective.

She arises fresh from sleep – fair, bright and brilliant. Though solitary by nature she is a kind and gracious friend. She can taste a scent on the breeze and unlock its secrets. There are eyes everywhere and they are all on her.

Autumn suggests change and the passing of time. Autumn leaves fade and the colours blur at the edges. Colour is expressive of meaning, and expression is the end result of thought. It’s about forming images and ideas in the mind and getting lost within the imagining. Art can find beauty in decay, and poetry in suffering. Art is both a protest and a dream.

Artists have a history of responding to the issues of their time. Perhaps this is inevitable. Seeing something in all its complexity and detail forces a confrontation with reality. Goya responded to his horror of war with graphic images. Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ was a visceral response to the devastation of war and it’s effect on innocents. When confronted by the Nazi’s demand to know if he had painted the picture, he reportedly countered, ‘No, you did.’ Many artists of the present time respond, with increasing unease, to the state of the environment. We have an innate and spiritual need to be connected to nature. Our interconnectedness with nature informs our choice of subject matter when this relationship is threatened. Subject matter includes our responsibility to sustainable resource management and minimising our impact on the environment. If beauty should be, ‘convulsive’ as the surrealists believed, artists are using this paroxysm as a metaphor for the state of the planet. Art acts as a form of sign language and the signs suggest an increasing unease and frustration with the current situation.

Balance and unity are important elements to consider in an artwork. Balance may create a sense of formality, or informality, as required by the subject matter. Radial balance establishes symmetry around a central point, such as a spiral. Unity within a work of art relates to the wholeness achieved through effective use of all parts. The choices are essentially instinctive. When the elements and principles of design are organised harmoniously there is unity and balance.

Cicada’s crisp chant shatters the silence yet
Takes small part in the running of thought’s dark stream.
Which flows past blindly as consciousness bends double
And finds no peace in chatter, or in things.
These merely distract from the fractured self
Struggling to find meaning, and to disclose
The sad foetal burden; it is as though
To fight some destiny – for thoughts aloud
Become a thing of power, that may dawn
Upon a hidden ground, filled with silent men.