:: AIB MFA Alumni

Wendy Savage | Spring 2005

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

The interrelationship of water, evolution, and spirituality is the essential subject of my work. My Water Mark series began as an experiment and subsequently became a fascinating vehicle to communicate my ideas and interest in the evolutionary process. Integrating my skills as a medical photographer with an adapted form of brush meditation techniques, I paint in Petri dishes filled with water and oil, simultaneously photographing the transformations of my marks. What I record in my camera are moments in time that signify cycles and transitions. For me, these images embody an atmosphere evocative of primordial development, as if I am watching the basic foundation of life come into its being. These marks are a metaphor for the evolutionary process: they are about a living creative force that has infinite potential, enabling the viewer to see into a fold in time and space that would normally be invisible to the eye.

During the creation of the Water Mark series I experienced a meditative consciousness. I discovered elemental principles within the process that transcend the art itself. Through self-exploration and discipline, I focused on mark making in great detail, guiding me towards understanding life from a universal prospective.

Master calligrapher H.E. Davy writes: "A 'do' form is an art that allows you to grasp the ultimate nature of the whole of life by examining yourself in great detail through a singular aspect of life: to grasp the universal through the particular." *

* "Shodo" is the Japanese word for the way of calligraphic painting. Sho means bush and Do means "the way."
From the book, Brush Mediation: A Japanese Way to Mind and Body Harmony, H. E. Davey, 1999.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION