http://www.colleenkerrartworks.ca/newwork daily 0.75 2025-06-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1557879388206-E86DK4CPUJL515XEGUXS/33101831_1699312490187661_6086313591550509056_o.jpg QRArising - Twelve Twelve Links of Interdependent Co-Arising Acrylic on Canvas 24 x 24 inches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1471040455347-WHN7475DS3PS1TNQ1SD8/13923442_999486550170262_2976456795962273644_o.jpg QRArising - Summer of Blood Acrylic, paper, sinew on canvas 24x24 in/61x61 cm, 2016 I was shaken awake by the murders in the Pulse Nightclub early this June. All summer the news has been full of bombings, shootings, murders. I made this work, tallying the lives taken. It came from a sense of gut-wrenching shock and horror. The paper stitched to the canvas is my baggage tag from Anaturk airport to Montreal, in early June. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1557879388206-E86DK4CPUJL515XEGUXS/33101831_1699312490187661_6086313591550509056_o.jpg QRArising - Twelve Twelve Links of Interdependent Co-Arising Acrylic on Canvas 24 x 24 inches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1634425865418-9FY3NR7KMCEKJYM86I6O/1.QROUEVRE1_Ignorance.jpg QRArising - One: Unknowing Cross stitch and Image transfer on Aida Cloth 20 × 20 cm https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1746654039234-56QBYXV20BNQGUNTI3CW/Quoevre3%252Bsquared.jpg QRArising - Two: Volitional Action Cross stitch and Image transfer on Aida cloth 20 × 20 cm https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1717630720606-6LP0ZTYOYSEEWAKFBDNC/QR3_final.jpg QRArising - Three: Consciousness Cross stitch and image transfer on Aida cloth 10 x 10" https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1746653875077-9APKLU0FMY2WS333LX18/QR4_final.jpg QRArising - Four: Mind-Body Cross stitch and image transfer on Aida cloth. 10 x 10" https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1717796801678-CU611YYIDHQZCXU3IL33/QR5_final.jpg QRArising - Five: The Six Senses and what they percieve Cross stitch and image transfer on Aida cloth 10 x 10" https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1634425630915-V0QR7ALHSKAYJRY9THFL/QR5.JPG QRArising - Six: Contact Cross Stitch and Image transfer on Aida Cloth 20 × 20 cm https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1657232568622-38LA2JO6VJISTCXZEDRB/QR7.jpg QRArising - Seven: Feeling Cross stitch and image transfer on Aida cloth 20 × 20 cm https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1719002629002-6GLR5QWJIPV06NGAC0W7/QR8_final.jpg QRArising - QR8: Craving Cross Stitch and image transfer on Aida cloth 20 × 20 cm https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1471039949752-3VQVPVZNP613PCC0YRH4/13923442_999486550170262_2976456795962273644_o.jpg QRArising https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1748904348214-PE9CW66XKV9SZO3MHABS/QR9photo2cropped.jpg QRArising - QR9: Grasping Cross-stitch and image transfer on Aida cloth, 20 x 20 cm https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1471040044292-1FIC0KTODMD57D46MTVK/13923442_999486550170262_2976456795962273644_o.jpg QRArising - Summer of Blood Acrylic, paper, sinew on canvas 24x24in/61x61cm, 2016 I was shaken awake by the murders in the Pulse Nightclub early this June. All summer the news has been full of bombings, shootings, murders. I made this work, tallying the lives taken. It came from a sense of gut-wrenching shock and horror. The paper stitched to the canvas is my baggage tag from Anaturk airport to Montreal, in early June. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1471040302148-HBM6R4RPIYP6X5DQJW5B/13923442_999486550170262_2976456795962273644_o.jpg QRArising - Summer of Blood Acrylic, paper, sinew on canvas 24x24in/61x61cm, 2016 I was shaken awake by the murders in the Pulse Nightclub early this June. All summer the news has been full of bombings, shootings, murders. I made this work, tallying the lives taken. It came from a sense of gut-wrenching shock and horror. The paper stitched to the canvas is my baggage tag from Anaturk airport to Montreal, in early June. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1471040408978-6UMRRN9JKI7G06QWQABI/13923442_999486550170262_2976456795962273644_o.jpg QRArising - Summer of Blood Acrylic, paper, sinew on canvas 24x24in/61x61cm, 2016 I was shaken awake by the murders in the Pulse Nightclub early this June. All summer the news has been full of bombings, shootings, murders. I made this work, tallying the lives taken. It came from a sense of gut-wrenching shock and horror. The paper stitched to the canvas is my baggage tag from Anaturk airport to Montreal, in early June. http://www.colleenkerrartworks.ca/supra-natural daily 0.75 2019-05-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1523941167028-L0EXLJTETHWOFFDELI02/ragnarok.jpg Supra Natural https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528745864900-GHWK0W7P81MQZW5Y2L2Y/fata+morgana.jpg Supra Natural - Fata Morgana, acrylic on canvas, 17 x 17 inches 2016 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528745716834-M2KHBKUZCGE6RS1Z9O3P/10348632_863333270452258_6069607586543899061_n.jpg Supra Natural - The Beacon, Acrylic on Canvas, 16 x 20 inches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1480312711133-YAS6MRA3AXLZU1Q305UW/13174099_1120203384726188_9184284030367694798_n.jpg Supra Natural - Gatekeeper, Acrylic on Canvas, 8 x 10 inches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1465245659744-AGHDBADCQP9UJLXHTZ2Q/10348632_863333270452258_6069607586543899061_n.jpg Supra Natural - The Beacon, Acrylic on Canvas, 16 x 20 inches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528745554073-9SAOCWTJTUG4HS00M7PF/11924940_805589989559920_6650422123879869481_n.jpg Supra Natural - Ragnarok/Twilight of the Gods, Acrylic on Canvas, 20 x 16 inches, (see accompanying text here) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1465245218402-VFMQUMHDY6EFCOT5NLOB/11924940_805589989559920_6650422123879869481_n.jpg Supra Natural - Ragnarok/Twilight of the Gods Acrylic on canvas 20 x 16 in / 51cm x 41 cm 2015 Two ravens (Odin’s eyes and ears). One perished in humanity’s maelstrom the other, now broken and blind. Odin’s Raven clutches the Rhinegold. She cannot tell him the hills, they are moving, alive – no, they are afire, like Brunhilde’s prison. The Norn predicted. The Norn spun our illusions, wove our fates Weft our deeds. Warp our undeeds Their weaving says: “The mighty will fall The gods will die Valhalla will empty of warriors, they and their battlefield deeds like the blood they shed will soak into the earth the burning earth.” And Odin’s Raven clutches the Rhinegold. The Rhinemaidens enslaved long ago, their river poisoned and damned. And Odin’s Raven clutches the Rhinegold. The salmon, containing countlesspearls, the salmon, the Rhinegold, the Grail that holds the holiest of holies. life itself.       https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1412309337030-AMGGUEHSII2FK3Q0IQQ3/1008209_543780802368452_1593544634_o.jpg Supra Natural - Temperance Acrylic on canvas 18 x 20 in / 46 x 51 cm 2013 Two ravens, Thesis and Antithesis, perch on an Alchemical egg, its incubation tempering Synthesis. The shell is covered in hairline cracks as this unified third outgrows its vessel. The ravens have urged open a large crack, revealing molten gold within, still in the process of change. With their beaks, they pull at this new growth of transformation transforming. Seemingly irreconcilable opposites may not be irreconcilable. Any oppositions, fire and water, man and woman, thesis and anti-thesis can be made into a unified third. It is only a lack of will and a disbelief in the possibility that keeps opposites, opposite. Only we keep our universe in twain, holding life and death, material and spiritual worlds separate. In each of us the two could merge. All it takes, is the right proportions, the right vessel and enough faith that the two can be unified. http://www.colleenkerrartworks.ca/ibili daily 0.75 2019-05-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528912891719-EY37GXDW195TOKWMX4FC/33101831_1699312490187661_6086313591550509056_o.jpg Spheres https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528911599374-FFEX7DKAQR2VIHKP3JAY/20992889_1372533176198929_3798440575364594507_n.jpg Spheres - The Tristan Chord, Acrylic on Canvas, 35.5 x 47 inches. "The primal cloudless heavens ebb and flow, swell and condense, through vast eons of time til the visible world is created" https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528747175427-2QVAOF0Q8TD4HQ9JSZ7H/Emovere_acryliconcanvas_60x60_2016.jpg Spheres - Emovere, Mixed Media on Canvas, 24 x 24 inches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1495831864698-84CD2PR6SBNJZ9JIBUSD/Emovere_acryliconcanvas_60x60_2016.jpg Spheres - Emovere Mixed media on canvas, 24 x 24 in / 61 x 61 cm 2016 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528910968785-ZW5PQ4UZTGJZS6SLC4M5/27972176_1582903018495276_2921857470629646468_n.jpg Spheres - Pseudoscience, Acrylic and Ink on canvas, 24 x 24 inches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528911094859-E1ETBLD7KFBB1YEQE0C7/33101831_1699312490187661_6086313591550509056_o.jpg Spheres - Twelve, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1558987707393-PQKFM0FNYQQ58B60MI79/Alchemical+Tryptich%2C+Gold+Atom.jpg Spheres - Alchemical Two: Gold Atoms Acrylic on Canvas 26 x 30 in /66 x 76 cm 2012 As the second and central panel of the Alchemical Triptych, this work shows a simplified and creative representation of the Alchemical process of death, decomposition, rebirth and the combining of opposites to create a higher state of being. This painting is based on an image of two gold atoms colliding. In the Alchemical process, the desired result is essentially Gold. Surrounding it are Mercury, Salt, and Sulphur, symbolic elements which are, in Alchemical philosophy, the necessary components to achieve gold. Near the centre top is an Alchemical symbol for gold. The surrounding text is composed of measurements and attributes of the element AU/Gold. Interspersed are quotations relating to the state of "purity" in enlightenment. Philosophical alchemists consider the Alchemical process a metaphor for enlightenment and achieving inner knowledge of "the gold within". https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1407451379795-DHWM9FJOCP09ZQ4KIKPR/Higgs+Bosen+II.jpg Spheres - Higgs Bosen I Acrylic on canvas 17 x 17 in / 43 x 43 cm 2012 This painting is based on a theoretical image of the Higgs Bosen or Higgs particle, an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics. The Higgs boson is predicted to exist for theoretical reasons, and may have been detected by experiments at the Large Hadron Collider. For me, these images and ensuing paintings demonstrate the intense beauty & infinite knowledge of the universe. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1412308340121-KO7I53KCHDWY2V4PAE7P/image-asset.jpeg Spheres - Biography Acrylic on canvas 17 x 17 in / 43 x 43 cm 2012 The Alchemists wrote of combining base elements in a complicated series of steps with the aim of producing gold. Although some certainly did try this, for many then, and still, Alchemy is a spiritual practice and this painstaking process is a metaphor for finding the "pure gold" of enlightenment that lays in potenia within us all. Within this Alchemical retort (or cauldron) simmers traditional Alchemical and mystical symbols: Mercury, Sulphur & Salt; the Sun & Moon; the dragon and the serpent's egg. From Qabbalistic philosophy, the hand, the eye, the sword, the anchor and the key. And of course, a skull to represent the death of one phase of existence. Eventually, all the superfluous, leaden and toxic elements boil away and we are left with an elixir of our own unique pure gold. Written around the top three edges of the canvas in gold, are the following words: "Vista Interioraterrae Rectifiando Invenies Occultum Lapidem... Visit the Interior Parts of the Earth: by Rectification thou shalt find the hidden stone." http://www.colleenkerrartworks.ca/chotto-motto daily 0.75 2018-11-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1499129702470-QA1Q4SJBDW8CF6Y7PBNA/Bus+Stop%2C+oil+on+panel%2C+2017.jpg Transmissions - Bus Stop, Oil on panel 8.5 x 10.5 in/22 x 27 cm 2017 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1499129702470-QA1Q4SJBDW8CF6Y7PBNA/Bus+Stop%2C+oil+on+panel%2C+2017.jpg Transmissions - Bus Stop, Oil on panel 8.5 x 10.5 in/22 x 27 cm 2017 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1495831994291-NRT1M1GNTY0WSR7VFEHA/SummerofBlood_mixedmediaoncanvas_60x60_2016.jpg Transmissions - Summer of Blood, Acrylic, paper, sinew on canvas 24 x 24 in/61 x 61 cm 2016. I was shaken awake by the murders in the Pulse Nightclub early that June. All summer the news was been full of bombings, shootings, murders. I made this work, tallying the lives taken. It came from a sense of gut-wrenching shock and horror. The paper stitched to the canvas is my baggage tag from Anaturk airport to Montreal, earlier that month. http://www.colleenkerrartworks.ca/american-portraiture daily 0.75 2019-05-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528748658573-T5NLTVZXO66O1BA9MZBE/20597500_1353329558119291_6346260746534778250_n.jpg Between - Taylor Oil on Canvas 36 x 48 inches 2017 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528748658573-T5NLTVZXO66O1BA9MZBE/20597500_1353329558119291_6346260746534778250_n.jpg Between - Taylor Oil on Canvas 36 x 48 inches 2017 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528748310220-CGGOE4ESD03PIFB0B144/20597500_1353329558119291_6346260746534778250_n.jpg Between - Taylor, Oil on Canvas, 35.5 x 47 inches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1558983490735-YQZ0DDZNABCE5R07APUO/DSC_0224.JPG Between - Dae Acrylic on Canvas 36 x 48 inches 2017 http://www.colleenkerrartworks.ca/brine-pickles daily 0.75 2020-05-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528913472529-FQP3UPZ8J4E6RPFYWE2C/The%2BEye%2BKnows%2Bmore%2Bthan%2Bthe%2BHeart%2BKnows.jpg Seeing you seeing me - The eye sees more than the heart knows, acrylic on canvas,20 x 16 inches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528913472529-FQP3UPZ8J4E6RPFYWE2C/The%2BEye%2BKnows%2Bmore%2Bthan%2Bthe%2BHeart%2BKnows.jpg Seeing you seeing me - The eye sees more than the heart knows, acrylic on canvas,20 x 16 inches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528913414988-JT98CHBD04ZLG59YMAZE/6.+Circe%2C+38+x+50%2C+acrylic+on+panel%2C+2015.jpg Seeing you seeing me - Circe, acrylic on panel, 38 x 50 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1524428006529-22K47F3E7VLTHRASCRWY/The%2BEye%2BKnows%2Bmore%2Bthan%2Bthe%2BHeart%2BKnows.jpg Seeing you seeing me - The eye sees more than the heart knows, acrylic on canvas,20 x 16 inches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1524428321963-YTCBFU92I6YPWTIWJITI/observer.jpg Seeing you seeing me - Observer, oil on panel, 8 x 10 inches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528913310591-YWDILTJFN7D5A4BEJ39E/The%2BEye%2BKnows%2Bmore%2Bthan%2Bthe%2BHeart%2BKnows.jpg Seeing you seeing me - The eye sees more than the heart knows, acrylic on canvas,20 x 16 inches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528913997356-ZBMOV9OOZWENODJADV0B/DSC_0006.JPG Seeing you seeing me - Diplopia, mixed media on paper, 24 x 24 inches http://www.colleenkerrartworks.ca/death-by-xoko daily 0.75 2024-09-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528746324824-DRFMW2XLBBAG4ZTR4CED/image-asset.jpeg Mother Georgia - Sakartvelo Anahata, 39 x 47 inches, Acrylic on Canvas, Collection of City of Mtskheta, Georgia (see accompanying text here) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528746324824-DRFMW2XLBBAG4ZTR4CED/image-asset.jpeg Mother Georgia - Sakartvelo Anahata, 39 x 47 inches, Acrylic on Canvas, Collection of City of Mtskheta, Georgia (see accompanying text here) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528744418111-ZGBANJK8DF7F5EFVZI7J/13174099_1120203384726188_9184284030367694798_n.jpg Mother Georgia - Gatekeeper, Acrylic on Canvas, 9.5 x 12 inches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528744606149-8DKMXJVODFU0VB034XK8/IMG_20160509_114111+%282%29.jpg Mother Georgia - Angry Bird, Acrylic on Canvas, 9.5 x 12 inches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528744350398-5B6CQW3I6BZ5EU5YJU8Z/IMG_20160514_104715+%282%29.jpg Mother Georgia - Planet Georgia, Acrylic on Canvas, 32 x 32 inches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528746432509-WGK64SYB74PCAKGBOFCL/1464381124411.jpg Mother Georgia - Mirror of the Soul, Acrylic on Canvas, 47 x 39 inches, Collection of TBC Bank, Republic of Georgia https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528743938937-CC7K74U8WDRWUQ7EY1Z1/arise.jpg Mother Georgia - Arise, mixed media on canvas, 24 x 24 inches https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1457982070695-9EAL73LKEEMMLGAVFB1M/image-asset.jpeg Mother Georgia - Sakartvelo Anahata, 39 x 47 inches, Acrylic on Canvas, Collection of City of Mtskheta, Georgia (see accompanying text here) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1480131288353-RCV2YGSH5F6RB8RASAT2/1464381124411.jpg Mother Georgia - Mirror of the Soul Acrylic on Canvas 47 x 39 in / 120 x 100 cm 2016 Collection of TBC Bank, Republic of Georgia https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528747542547-J6117M841RL9DKW0PSN5/2.+Stargazy.jpg Mother Georgia - Stargazy, Acrylic on Canvas, 31 x 31 inches 2016 http://www.colleenkerrartworks.ca/moodboard daily 0.75 2016-05-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56f96a558a65e2431339cdaf/1461605452797-QA7MI71TS32XTRI3GVOU/Untitled-1.jpg From the Vault http://www.colleenkerrartworks.ca/innermost daily 0.75 2024-09-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1407451018448-7ET3SSI05MGC8OD145YJ/1797428_512400965545492_722918504_n.jpg Body Territories - Stalemate Acrylic on unstretched canvas, grommets 26 x 46 in/66 x 117 cm 2014 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1407451018448-7ET3SSI05MGC8OD145YJ/1797428_512400965545492_722918504_n.jpg Body Territories - Stalemate Acrylic on unstretched canvas, grommets 26 x 46 in/66 x 117 cm 2014 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1528748212558-AYBZL6WTRZD6QVVXW3F6/4.+H%28EAR%29%2C+16+X+20%2C+acrylic+on+canvas%2C+2015.jpg Body Territories - (H)ear, Acrylic on canvas 20 x 16 in/50 x 40 cm 2015 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1524427122398-871RY8D8EHIZ9A12TI34/3.+Genius+Locii%2C+16+x+20%2C+acrylic+on+canvas.jpg Body Territories - Genius Locii, Acrylic on canvas 20 x 16 in/40 x 50 cm 2015 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1524427099588-52165VRAMWVNIKUSHDOC/4.+H%28EAR%29%2C+16+X+20%2C+acrylic+on+canvas%2C+2015.jpg Body Territories https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1543347900792-WGVFG4VJYDQ3YJIRAEHK/1420748669455.jpg Body Territories - SenseMemory, Acrylic on canvas 20 x 16 in/50 x 40 cm 2015 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1412308960307-25JZ6SJFM1B88T9474UE/image-asset.jpeg Body Territories - The Encaged Heart Acrylic on canvas 18 x 20 in / 46 x 50 cm 2013 When I was a little girl, my mother had a canary named Mickey. The wire cage on it’s metal stand, the cag'es cover carefully placed over top every night, the little bird’s cheerful twittering and singing were constants in my childhood. By the time I was 8, it was my job to put food and water in the little plastic cups that slid into the sidebars, and to change the paper and pour a little gravel on the cage’s floor. I regarded it as a serious responsibility, because there was always the danger of Mickey escaping, flying out the cage’s open door as I was reaching in, or out the bottom if I accidently lifted the cage while changing the paper. He did escape once or twice, flying throughout the living room, against the drapes, seeking the window and the open skies beyond. After a while I realized there had been many Mickeys over the years; one day we would wake up and there would be a silent, still little yellow bird laying on the floor of the cage. I began to feel that it was a great injustice to keep anything in a cage. It was in my late teens, just as I was leaving home, that the dreams began. I dreamed that I had forgotten to feed Mickey, that a whole week had gone by before I remembered and that I would find him, dead, laying on the bottom of his cage. These dreams carried on for years, until I finally realized that the bird represented me, my soul, my very essence. My unconscious was telling me that I had to nurture my soul if I wanted to survive. This is how the image of the birdcage began to emerge in my creative works, beginning in about 1990. In The Encaged Heart the canary cage is at the centre of the composition, It now serves as a perch for the raven, a free, autonomous being, not an enslaved creature. This empty birdcage is enclosed in yet another cage, a ribcage. The physical heart is housed within the ribcage. Yet the heart is not just an organ of the body; it is also an energetic and philosophical dynamo connected to love, pain, fear, joy. It’s blood vessels reach out, searching, yearning. To let it escape from it’s cage, to fly free devil may care in love and compassion is perhaps our greatest risk and freedom. From these flights we grow, set roots, and learn that life and love is set with thorns as well as green garlands. Sometimes we still have to leave a trail of breadcrumbs to lure our heart, that tiny bird, back to the safety of it’s chosen cage. http://www.colleenkerrartworks.ca/subversive-samplers daily 0.75 2019-05-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1558981112190-BBWL8YAME3DCFQJK2LMQ/faceny_ckerr_2010.jpg Subversive Samplers https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1558981112190-BBWL8YAME3DCFQJK2LMQ/faceny_ckerr_2010.jpg Subversive Samplers https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1558981649933-HNEXBK6OQO9LV1J04OMM/20180808_151913.jpg Subversive Samplers - Faceny According to Leehallfae Embroidery on Canvas, 14 x 14 inches, 2000 This work references David Lindsay’s philosophical/fantasy/bildingsromance novel “A Voyage to Arcturus”. Leehallfae is of a species neither female nor male. Faceny is an all-encompassing entity which is both within and without us and has a multitude of eyes. As my eyes are blue, I chose that colour for my interpretation of Faceny. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1558981161359-M60HKXNYDG57IANCQQH8/NoPermission_ckerr_99.jpg Subversive Samplers - I Need No One's Permission Embroidery on Canvas 12 x 14 inches, 1999 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1558981770482-YIAWWSQ5VSVQ2RS8EYHO/Beware_ckerr_2010.jpg Subversive Samplers - Beware of The Risen People Embroidery on cotton, steel rods and screw eyes 12 x 48 inches 2010 This paraphrased quote is from Padraic Pearse’s poem “The Rebel” was scratched into the wall at Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin in the early 1920’s by female inmates. Pearse was a teacher, barrister, poet, writer and revolutionary who was one of the founders of the Easter Rising in 1916. He was executed by firing squad with 14 other leaders on May 3, 1916 at the age of 36. I made this piece as a rallying cry for all those who have been abused, held captive, and silenced. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1558982960501-70HEFYX73ZFUULGKRERK/20180806_111058.jpg Subversive Samplers - Beware The Risen People (detail) http://www.colleenkerrartworks.ca/home daily 1.0 2020-11-04 http://www.colleenkerrartworks.ca/about daily 0.75 2024-09-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dc0042e4b0c054455db449/1543351760319-WXFGF6ZNS1T8GN5ZERO3/20180914_115052.jpg About