After I started taking herbal medicine, the paintings changed. The urge to excavate became stronger. By setting up layers of underpainting, I could then put the Australian Sky Blue colour over the top. Shapes started to be uncovered.
It felt deeply relieving and satisfying to find these new shapes, which often had a container or basket like roundness to them. I started to imagine these as containing me, or the fragments of me that were broken due to the pain of the pandemic. It was as if I was an archeologist of my soul, trying to find the ancient symbols of past lives or times gone by that I could use to comfort my inner world. I was weary at a soul level. It felt like a balm for psychic injuries and these relics were a gift from my unconscious to help me thrive.