:: 2009 :: 60cm x 180cm :: Acrylics, Inks and Markers on Canvas ::
Shamanic tearings-apart are common features of any archetypal journey: the dissolution and reforming of the soul, or the mind, or of a way of seeing, is a powerful method for the artist. And in my own life there have been several times when I have had such a shamanic experience. Each time has been unbidden, sudden and of such a horrifying intensity that integrating the experience into the everyday world has been impossible. We see here, then, a composite representation of such a tearing apart. A forest of spirit hands are seen disassembling my body into constituent parts - in places such as the head, the rending is quite ordered and the vestiges of facial features can be picked out clearly. But lower down in the image, the tearing apart is more chaotic.
