Rosie Perl. Heartsease

This work employs symbols but is the sum of its parts

The landscape is mirrored like hands held in prayer; the code "P-121" (Psalms 121 - "look to the mountain from where my help comes") directs my hope and despairs; our family, like others, has been sorely tested. Nothing is certain.

The central drawing - extracted from Fra Angelico's San Domenico Altarpiece - makes clear that this is a devotional object in the Christian tradition, a location for spiritual meditation. The linework could be a barrier through which we may cross, defend, tear down or abide by. Like a house.

In PNG pidgin English, all women are "Mary"; this central female figure has two children, reflecting my experience of motherhood. It is blood red.

The attributive frieze of individually hand cut 'Heartsease' ornaments surrounds the work, amulets of love, constancy & protection.

The landscape begins as John Glover's already fantastical "Tasmanian Gorge"; I have made it golden, precious, glowing; God's grace covers the land.

Virgil's text, Sunt Lacrimae Rerum; God weeps with us, all things shed tears but also: beauty. Future. Light a candle.

Maybe the bravest thing to do at the moment is to just sit, and have faith.

More details & progress pics here