October 22 - November 7, 2010
Opening reception with the artist, Friday October 22, 7-10 pm

Poems from the Moon Garden

My painting of the past several years has been strongly influenced by the archetypal concept of pilgrimage. This current work has increasingly become more experimental and exploratory, turning inward and moving toward abstraction. As I began this body of work, I decided to drop all my known reference points—to step off the edge of what is familiar to me.  In Buddhism, this attitude of setting aside, for the time being, preconceived ideas, beliefs and expectations is known as 'beginner's mind". Beginner's mind is like a child’s mind, just present to explore and observe and see things as they are.

As time went on, I returned to a combination of abstraction and representation, each influencing the other. Images of flowers in a moonlight garden came back into my work. I see the garden at night as a metaphor for life and death—which are inextricably bound to each other—and the creativity that comes out of that darkness. The darkness is what mystics call the ‘inside’ of things, the essence of things. Meister Eckhart, a German theologian and philosopher observed, “The ground of the soul is dark”. It is where the true self lies. The idea of walking in a garden in the moonlight is like a dream, or a journey through the underworld.

This new body of work approaches the painting surface in an entirely intuitive way. I work in colour fields, spreading many layers of oil paint mixed with cold wax medium, on a wooden substrate. Poetry and songs are embedded into the surface that they might live inside the work. The cold wax and oil paint, applied layer upon layer, imitates the way that life writes upon us year after year, with its scrapes and healings, traumas and joys. It holds these memories as our bodies do, as our lives do.

Janice Mason Steeves, October 2010

Poem Series: 10106 2010, Oil and Wax on Panel 29.75 X 29.75 inches, 76 X 76 cm. Larger View	Poem Series: 10110 2010, Oil and Wax on Panel 12 X 12 inches, 31 X 31 cm. Larger View	Poem Series: 1058 2010, Oil and Wax on Panel 42 X 42 inches, 107 X 107 cm. Larger View
Poem Series: 1065 2010, Oil and Wax on Panel 40 X 36 inches, 102 X 91 cm. Larger View Not Available	Poem Series: 1075 2010, Oil and Wax on Panel 32 X 32 inches, 81 X 81 cm Larger View Not Available	Poem Series: 1079 2010, Oil and Wax on Panel 50 X 50 inches, 127 X 127 cm Larger View
Poem Series: 1080 2010, Oil and Wax on Panel 36 X 36 inches, 91 X 91 cm Larger View	Poem Series: 10113 2010, Oil and Wax on Panel 29.75 X 29.75 inches, 76.5 X 76.5 cm Larger View	Poem Series: 1083 2010, Oil and Wax on Panel 24 X 24 inches, 61 X 61 cm Larger View
Poem Series: 1084 2010, Oil on canvas on Panel 36 X 48 inches, 91 X 122 cm Larger View	Poem Series: 1085 2010, Oil on canvas on Panel 18 X 18 inches, 46 X 46 cm Larger View	Poem Series: 1090 2010, Oil on canvas on Panel 24 X 24 inches, 61 X 61 cm Larger View
Poem Series: 1091 2010, Oil and Wax on Panel 36 X 42 inches, 91 X 107 cm Larger View