Under One Sky, 2020

This dyptych artwork was created in response to the end of the last lockdown. There was a huge sense of relief and release that I personally experienced and heard about from my clients. This newfound sense of hope seemed to influenced this work, with a sense of various elements that have been captured in other artworks coming together into a whole.

There are fragments, five dead trees and puffy clouds which I hadn't painted before. The childlike 'Simpsons clouds' have a sense of fun and lightness about them and bring a smile to my face. The number five seems to show up a lot in this show. From a Jungian point of view, "the number five also represents the makeup of the human psyche which is composed of five major elements: the ego, the persona, the shadow, the animus for a woman or anima for a man and the Self. These elements are the subjects of nightly dramas that occur within the five dream theatres of the human soul". Jean Benedict Raff, Dream Theatres of the Soul: Empowering the Feminine through Jungian Dream Work.

And for the first time in this series I painted a moon. This may have been a reference to the pink moon that I witnessed while visiting the Green Patch campground in Jarvis Bay in 2021 just before we were caught up in the covid scare when we returned home. We were at the campground when an infected family were visiting between 19-24 May, 2021. The pink moon on the 26th May was described as "a big surprise with a super flower moon and total lunar eclipse blood moon visible from most of the country."

Seeing the beautiful moon surrounded by stunning natural wilderness after swimming in the warm ocean that day was incredible. After months of stress and uncertainty it was a moment of presence and peace that will remain with me always. When I look at this painting now I am transported back to that feeling of presence and how even though I had no idea of the stress just around the corner, I enjoyed every second of this mysterious experience.