'The times are urgent; let us slow down.'

Dr Bayo Akomolafe

Dr Bayo Akomolafe is a Nigerian born, Western academia trained Clinical Psychologist, with deep connections to his Yoruba culture. I have been inspired to listen to him a lot lately & he sees slowing down as not just a matter of having a weekend off, taking a quick break, fitting a 'retreat' into here & there, around our busy schedules.  Slowing down & 'making sanctuary', means to enquire into losing our sense of coherence & mastery, so that we may enter into a deeper place of spiritual contemplation. This soul stirring & unconventional perspective has deeply resonated with me.

I am reminded in my life lately (undoubtedly personally through the gift that is grief, but also I suggest through the collectively disturbing times we are living - covid, war in Ukraine, world wide inflation, climate change etc) that things often don't make sense; there is deep inequality,  progress is not always a given & there are tangles in most of our relationships. Dr Bayo Akomolafe refers to this disorientating liminal place as 'the crossroads' & to my relief suggests that this place of 'discomfort' is the next place of growth; that we are supposed to 'lose our way' if we want to break out of the cycles of familiarity that have brought us here in the first place. He suggests that our collective grief could & should spill & become like a murmuration of bodies - not private at all, but ethical, social, ecological activism.

It's soul stirring language that turns my usual private ways upside down. But to the canvas I have come again. Three new pieces over the last 3 months, have come - slowly but meaningfully:

1. Mapping the Terrain

100cm x 75cm acrylic on canvas

This artwork is a byproduct of me listening inwardly for the subtle body, that unites my physical & spiritual selves - my soul - as I walk the many trails here on land in Wilyabrup, Western Australia. It's a literal birds eye view of the physicality of this ocean valley (where GPS doesn't work); including my interpretations of all of the elevations, the places where water is held, where the land is dry, the places of rushing & slowing, the grand trees & the new saplings. The old wounds where fences have fallen down & boundaries are put back in place. The short cuts and the laps around. The full catastrophe - as Zorba the Greek would say. The trails have been carefully made by my partner and I, over the last 18 years, at the suggestion of the National Trust, to preserve & enjoy the forest, prevent weed infestation & help care for the waterways.

Like 'The Valley', we too have physicality - that needs tending and caring for. Our Earth has physicality that needs tending & caring for. Somehow, perhaps in the pursuit of empirical science (our mind based ideas of right & wrong), we have lost spiritual connection to the body/our Earth & we are poorer for it. The 'Way of the Soul' calls us back to care & to 'make sanctuary'.

2. Flowering #1

72cm x 72cm acrylic on belgian linen

This 'flowering' is a reminder to myself to let the wild unbridled ways of my soul grow. As we do this we discover a sense of aliveness and possibility, unthought of. It's a reminder to actively cultivate what it is we truly want in our lives, every day. Please note this is not always easy or comfortable - some days I just want to 'go to sleep' with back to back Netflix & several glasses of prosecco. But one truth I know for sure, is that unless we consciously replenish ourselves/our souls, the default (as per the business of 21st century living) will be to fill ourselves up with dry and useless things that leave us thirsting for more. Perhaps this is the root of modern dis-ease & addiction. Certainly there are many visionary thinkers who are suggesting there might be causal links. In my own case, I have wandered a while down both pathways & can safely attest to 'wildness' being the place where my real & enlivening work begins.

3. Flowering #2

72 cm x 72cm acrylic on belgian linen

This piece with its passionate colour & random abstraction, seems to call me on to all of the unknown/unthought of places - both within me and in my wider world. Having just finished the book 'The Body Keeps the Score' I am reminded of how deeply interconnected our psyche and physicality is. I have deeply and humbly felt the chest pangs of grief, the headaches of a scattered mind, the churning gut of anxiety, the heaviness of trying to control too many things. These feelings are real & signposts if we only have the sense to listen to our body, to listen to our Earth. To be honest & admit things are not all stable and clear, coherent & free. Our Earth too is crying out, is my sense, with pangs, churnings & heaviness. And perhaps we don't have the answers.

Anais Nin springs to mind,  'And the time came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.' Now is the time.  It's true - we are all tired/exhausted and don't know which way to go. But what might we discover? What resources have we not even tried? I'm here anyway at the crossroads...getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Humbly,

Nari