A thought for art...

I am in a great little book group here in Maleny; we meet monthly and read books and talk and eat cake!  Earlier in the year we read "Shantaram" by Gregory David Roberts. It was an intriguing choice and people had diverse reactions to it. I loved it and I loved much of his writing.  

I found much of it poetic and beautifully descriptive; and also enjoyed many of the concepts he explored throughout. Of course there were dull bits and parts where I thought he lost the plot; but it was worth it for me.

One passage has really stuck with me:

I'd lost Prabakar and Abdullah and with them I'd lost my mark on the psychic map that says "you are here". Personality and personal identity are in some ways like coordinates on the street map drawn by our intersecting relationships.  We know who we are and we define what we are by references to the people we love and our reasons for loving them. I was that point in space and time where Abdullah's wild violence instersected with Prabaker's happy gentleness. Adrift then, and somehow un-defined by their deaths...


I keep thinking about how we exist in relation to others, especially the important people in our lives; and how their losses leave us untethered and unsure where our point on the map now is.

I have begun exploring this theme of maps, marks, points in time, home etc in my art. I am not sure just what I am trying to express or capture; but the making of the marks is helping.