Lori Tremblay: Painting the Story

 

When I hear the word dialogue the first thought in my mind is that of a relationship.  In a philosophic context, all meaningful relationships are sustained through dialogue:  it is how we get to know someone or something by spending time and conversing.  As a painter, I am constantly engaged with the work either mentally, arranging, discussing potential connections, or remaining open to various stimuli in the environment around me.  Medium, process, and subject matter are the tools and mechanisms I use to express that ongoing dialogue.

 

 

It is not unusual for people to become overly focused on the subject matter of my work and miss the actual essence of the painting.  My inspiration comes from the story in the stars.  I plot the positions of the stars in their recognizable celestial alignments as the armature of the imagery.  The color, shape, form, and the underlying tapestry of the ancient story becomes the embodiment of that relationship.

 

 

Where thousands of years have testified to the very stars we see at night, there is an undeniable chord connecting all of us within the time/space continuum.  This coupled with my desire to understand as much as I possibly can of the star story told from the beginning of recorded time makes for a very deep well of inspiration and fodder for my life’s work.  My intent is for viewers to look and to see the work with the eyes of their heart.

 

 

The primeval story in the stars is a picture of hope, the restored relationship of humankind with our Great Maker.  It is told through the original names of the stars visible with the naked eye.   Over one hundred star names are still known and used today that have endured since they were identified, somewhere in the neighborhood of 3500 to 4500 years ago.   That alone is noteworthy!  As the stars anchor the work’s imagery I find a deep, old connection with the stream of generations and with our Great Maker as I begin each piece of work.

 

 

This felt connection adds a level of responsibility and stewardship to the work.  My paintings are not disconnected from nature.  Initially, the work appears abstract.  However, taking time to see them, a recognizable order and system of pattern becomes evident as it cycles through the work.  We see the constellations rotating around the earth, so do they cycle through the paintings.

 

 

Notice that the constellation of Capricorn when depicted in the work carries with it the same three side piece constellations.  Its shape remains constant as does its spatial relationship to Delphinus, Sagitta, and Aquila, its three decan constellations from the primeval story.  These four constellations grouped together describe one facet of the narrative.  Pictured here is Sphere of Paradox which features the Capricorn group and an accompanying chart with its named stars.

 

 

In the oldest star charts Capricorn is seen as a dying goat in a falling posture with its tail rising up as the tail of a vigorous fish.  In this chart the star Algedi, meaning the Billy Goat or the chosen of the flock, and Dabih just under it, meaning the cut off or the sacrifice slain, can be found to the lower right.  Deneb Algedi, the tail of the goat, completes the arc of Capricorn from right to left.  Just to the right of Deneb Algedi is the star Nashira, meaning bearer of good news.  Above and to the right is its first decan constellation, Aquila, the pierced eagle whose brightest star Altair, means “the wounded”. This “kingly” bird has taken the heavenly arrow, the second side constellation Sagitta, to willingly die as a sacrifice.  The third decan constellation Delphinus symbolizes a dolphin rising out of the water;  it is the picture of the tail of the goat rising to new life out of death.

 

 

Telling the story of the stars through painting creates an opportunity to balance scientific knowledge of today with the presence of the Great Knowing existing beyond the realm of space and time.  In the words of T.S. Elliot, “Poetry communicates before it is understood.”  The dialogue emerging from within one’s heart is where Art lives.

 

 

Art will not allow you to define it, nor will it allow you to touch it for very long.  Though it seems fleeting, it is rewarding, fulfilling you while it beckons you. This is a living dialogue, it is a paradox.  You will touch its being only as you yourself step aside to allow it through.  We are called to become conduits, part of the grand poem, of something we cannot yet understand.

 

 

I am not doing anything new or anything never before done.  I am merely allowing what is and always has been present to filter through me.  I am part of it and it is part of me.  It is the ultimate dialogue.