Guest post by Nikki Eriksen: With the Rising Tide
Our forebears understood, millennia ago, that Artists conjure magic.
Not only do they create images – no small feat in itself – but those images work wonders in our heads. They bring to our minds both objects and experiences which exist elsewhere. And in doing this, they trigger memory, emotion and reflection. Simply magic.
This is not, though, the kind of magic which arrives with wand-waving. This magic comes from the practised Eye which saw the image before ever a pencil or brush was grasped. It comes from the open and sensitive Heart which dared to listen. And it comes from the skilful Hand which managed material, form and tone.
In this artwork, the Artist presents us with a delicate print, the result of graded etching and carefully chosen pigments. And what do we see? A dappled, rippling effect which must surely be water. Or is it light? Perhaps it’s both, but which is which? And how far does it matter?
Meanings shift and slip like rainbows on a puddle’s surface.
At one time, we are looking at a corrugated seashore, infiltrated by water and reflecting the blue of the sky. Our feet are on firm (if soggy) ground. We feel the valleys and curves of impacted sand beneath us, and sense the passing of Time and Tides. And we know that this is about so much more than just one occasion; we know that it embraces and carries with it all those other occasions which led to this moment. And from this moment.
But then it slips. With barely a blink, the world turns upside down and we find ourselves beneath a mackerel sky which seems to race way from us, sinking into a western horizon. And with it, the associations which our mind contrives turn too, finding a response deep within our being.
All this.
All this, which begins as a visual response to something beautiful, and becomes a whole-of-life encounter. Magic.
