Floating Worlds/Strange Landscape, Rouge #2 Painting

This series was made by working half of it one way, and then turning it upside down. So that "Which Way is Up?" became the question. The idea. I remember what it felt like to float underwater when I was learning how to dive. Sometimes I didn't know which way was up. I kind of liked it! This series is about what it's like to question your own sense of gravity. It's the first series I made after surviving an 8.8 earthquake, quitting my job, and taking the opportunity it afforded to re-orient my life. When I was painting this series, I wanted to give you the feeling of floating, of being untethered and unmoored. I wanted you to question your own sense of gravity, the way I did when I was learning how to dive. And again, when I was blown off course and had to re-orient my life after a personal crisis. Sometimes you didn't know which way was up. And yet, I kind of liked it, that feeling of hovering and the chance to re-orient yourself, and the direction you're going in. Now, it's your turn. What will you find hidden in the layers? Where might you like to float off to? What serves as the centre of gravity in your own life? What anchors you?