What Do We Know? COSMIC EGG What Do We Know is a new, international, virtual art exhibition from 3-30 June exploring Spiritual art and its multitude of feelings, experiences, viewpoints and forms of expression. Curated by Art Director and Visual Artists Association Mentor, Karen van Hoey Smith. What Do We Know features nine international artists who all work from a deeper space; moving past the noise of modern life to create a physical form of an external presence. The word ‘Spiritual’ has been hijacked to elicit different meanings and reactions. By coming together, these 9 artists ask what does Spiritual really mean, can one word describe a multitude of feelings, experiences, viewpoints and forms of expression, and is ‘Spiritual’ the word to describe this movement?  Ana Delgado - photographer living and working in Brooklyn, New York E. Alana James, EdD - digital collage artist living in Ireland Karen French - author, painter and speaker living in Oxfordshire, UK Kirsten Todd - painter, medium and Reiki Master/Teacher living in Lancashire, UK Kristen Palana – American-Portuguese multidisciplinary artist based in Malawi Ozlem Yikici – British-Turkish painter living and working in London, UK Sadie Bridger - multimedia artist in New York City Sarah Brabbin - sculptor living in the UK Vicky Paul – Scottish artist, intuitive and energy healer based in Bedford, UK
Featuring a variety of styles and meanings, from visual art to photography and sculpture, these artists share the ability to stop or remove themselves from the noise of life, called to make the unseen seen. By placing the variety of styles and meanings together, What Do We Know aims to open up conversation about the inner state that starts creativity and makes that first mark. Most artists that cite Spiritual or Intuitive as the source of their creative process have been advised to keep that quiet, as if there is some kind of shame or embarrassment associated with sharing the truth around their practise. Eleanor Heartney comments in her 2020 essay in ArtWorld that there is now an acknowledgement that previous art movements were inspired and created from a Spiritual basis, and that other modern artists have their stated points of reference, but “none of this has gelled into a collective movement”. Karen van Hoey Smith (curator) What Do We Know is not about creating a collective or a movement. It is the beginning of open-minded humans who wish to explore and converse about the inner state that starts creativity and makes that first mark. Is this purely living in the present and innocence prevails? Or are these artists channelling parts of their brain and psyche that are unknown to them in their daily lives? This exhibition is about having the courage to explore what Spiritual is, so that it can be held as an honourable banner and part of these artists’ practise, life and inspiration. It is also an invitation to the public, and the art community, to appreciate the presence of a non material realm as a genuine source of motivation and inspiration. Karen van Hoey Smith (curator) WRITTEN BY Vicky Paul
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Oxfordshire Artweeks celebrated its 40th year in 2022 and the turnout to all the art exhibitions in May was incredible! Thank you to everyone that came to The Spice of Life, behind the Spice Lounge restaurant in Summertown. It was wonderful to be able to exhibit 'Porthole', 'Sun Light Codes' and 'Sacred Geometry Bots' from my Spring Collection - Circular exploring the sacred geometry of the circle and colour symbolism, as well as some older favourites.  FREE GUIDED MEDITATIONSFor over a year now I have been loading a guided meditation (also called visualisation) virtually every week on my YouTube channel - Karen L French. It all started when with a guided meditation using my painting Wish for a mind body spirit event during lockdown in 2020. Having such a great response I decided to offer a range of guided meditations using my artwork and images for a variety of purposes. As these are channeled I have no idea what they will be about! Except for the monthly full moon meditations that are proving very popular. Every meditation incorporates symbolism, such as sacred geometry, colour, planets, the Elements and they are very effective. A SELECTION of the meditations can be found on this website. For the full range please visit my YouTube channel - Karen L French.
STEP 1 - First a Brusho water colour background was created, a chaotic cloud of potential, of many vibrant colours in the void. Then I had the urge to create circles in random locations. 3 'major' circles resulted, each a container and also a point, placed a-round a central copper circle. This middle copper circle is the focal Point of the painting. Creating accurate circles with clearing defined edges is tricky. Any slight deviation or indent immediately shows. Straight edges are much easier! All the circles were made using 3 layers of lustre, applied with circular strokes, then polished and sealed.  Step 1 STEP 2 and 3 - More circles of copper lustre were added, moving freely about the energetic domain. They all lie outside of the space delineated by the Trinity. Each of the 'major' circles in the Trinity were haloed by a geometric shape - red circle:green square (space), green circle:pink circle (time), rose pink circle:green octagon (Directions). These 'major' circles are bound by force fields (symbolised by the yellow lines) to create a sacred space. 3 is the number of creation, of Mind Body Soul, different states of Being (such as liquid, solid, gas). From the Centre of 3 a created Being emerges. The central copper circle, or sphere, has a crystal code within it that is the basis of the structure of the Being emerging out of the quantum field. In Step 3, gold lines and patterns where then added around each of the shapes. Recognising the sacred nature of the creative process through the use of geometry and colours from light.  Step 2  Step 3 QUANTUM BEING - So much like the emergence of a form of being out of the Void, constructed out of geometry and light, so too did the geometric grid in the painting Quantum Being emerge out of the canvas. Using it as a meditative tool for visualisation you can either focus of the centre and move outwards to see what form of being emerges, providing you with some insight for interpretation depending upon what is created. Or, you can choose your own body, or that of another object/animal/person/plant, and move inwards into their central code in the quantum field. At the end of your meditation move back to the point where you started. Reflect on the impressions you had as you move in and/or outwards, and also any insights you gained.  Spring flowersWhere better to see sacred geometry, colour, the Elements and pure creative intent - the components of alchemical art - than in Nature. Spring flowers provide us with a feast for our senses and overtly display the use of sacred geometry and colour to perfection. As living yantras they can be used for meditation and reflection. And it is not surprising that we have given flowers additional symbolic meanings, then presented as gifts to convey these meanings in an intimate and personal way. Personally I could look at flowers for hours as they are fascinating as well as beautiful - within them we can find all the rules of the geometric blueprint, colour combinations reflecting harmonious musical notes, pattern making, fractals, stimulating scents...and so much more. But mostly because it is such a pleasant experience to be with flowers. It came to me to do this post while wandering through my garden, enjoying the spring flowers and taking the photographs below. Until using them in a gallery I hadn't realised how all except one (the red one at the end) include the colours purple, yellow and white. Something I will reflect on... Keith Critchlow's -sacred geometry of flowersKeith Critchlow's book "The Hidden Geometry of Flowers - Living rhythms, form and number" is a masterpiece of work examining the sacred geometry within flowers and also flowers as the original source of human life. To hear more listen to his presentation on the youtube video below.  Alchemical artAlchemical Art is transformative, changing anyone who works with them. This can happen merely by looking at the artwork or being in its proximity. Each piece is contained within the sacred space of its boundaries and is a fusion of the dynamics of geometric forms, emotive colours and one or more of the Classical Elements. The latter may be symbolically represented in the image or made out of specific materials due to their symbolism or vibration. In this instance crystals were placed on four paintings of my alchemical art paintings to incorporate their qualities. The results were stunning to look at and to work with. It would have been interesting to add further Elements, such as bowls of water and burning essence for air and fire, and also to use sound to activate them. Each of the alchemical art crystal grids were made by some participants of a crystal group run by Karin Bain. Karin has written an e-book called Networking With Crystals that will soon be available in paper form as well. Crystal GridsCrystal grids take many forms, they can be simple, intricate or complete. Invariably there is sacred geometry in their layout and so they are actually a yantra, or "thought form", the principle of all man-made sacred geometry artworks and structures. By adding the vibrations of specific crystals the crystal grid yantra becomes a pulsating vehicle for connecting your Mind to the underlying basis of reality. The effects are very personal. Yantras are covered in detail in The Gateway Series books and I also recommend the book Yantra by Madhu Khanna. Any sacred site using sacred geometry and specific earth materials brings additional vibrational qualities to their function and use. For example, Stonehenge and its bluestone rocks that were deliberately brought a great distance for their vibrational purposes. In the aerial image below notice how the central stone grid is enclosed within a larger Circle. It is part of a larger site that has several smaller yantra that all work together. This sacred structure is a huge crystal yantra that still has the capacity to draw thousands of people to it.  Aerial view of Stonehenge (Google Earth) |
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Gateway to the Heavens Do you realise you actually shape your destiny and shapes influence your destiny. If you want to understand how this works ask Karen to give a talk about it or read her excellent book. You may have hated even the mention of geometry at school, but Karen's simple and illustrated explanations will give you a real insight into this fascinating topic. |
The Hidden Geometry of Life The attentive audience was enthralled by Karen's introduction to the principals of this truly multi-dimensional topic ... The energy in the room, by the end of the evening, was well and truly charged! |