The first venue St Columba’s Church, Scarborough, came to me as it is my mother’s local church. My father was a C of E priest & so was my mother’s father who was also a school/ army chaplain. My name is Gabrielle after my father’s first parish church, St Gabriel’s, Plymouth, where I was born.
My grandfather always had the air of a ‘healer’ to me altho’ I wouldn’t have know what that was. He died after 7 heart attacks & 9 strokes when i was 7.
Church as i grew up was a usually cold place where i would ask questions inside myself.. At the age of 10, I saw while everyone around me was singing out hymns, that God with and an extra ‘o’ says good and Devil without the ‘d’ says evil. I had entered the land of metaphor & began to question what those concepts were and the impact of those behaviours, but mostly with little objectivity.
Real healing has to begin at the beginning, and I have no religion as such. On wanting to show others that all spiritual traditions are teaching the same things – it was simple that i should start ‘close’ to me. St Columba’s i found was by reknown architect Temple Moore and from above has the shape of a Dove of Peace.
It’s all about how we respond to our experience. If we only react in ways born from habits, we will always receive the exact same results. Once we open the space for new ways to show themselves – or rather ‘unlearn’ the habits and respond from the heart – the results take flight * anything can happen, setting your self free*
Using the senses in new ways, I found chanting, laughter & focused exercise allowed my senses to expand and release a physical sensation of the spirit taking flight. Some may say these are just endorphins, but long term mean great self esteem, happiness and longevity. I found gym exercise soul-less. An exercise from centeredness such as yoga, taichi or dance especially something outside in touch with the natural world have the longest lasting joy.
It has been of great benefit that i have the earliest memories of any one i’ve ever met. I actually remember my birth, the struggle, the crushing and the being born. I vividly remember having out of body experiences while still a baby in my cot. Being aware of my existence, the sensation of separating my ‘bodies’. Flying to visit the family asleep in their beds and seeing myself holding the cot bars looking back and smiling at myself.
The decision to commit to complete healing required me to explore and analyse literally each and every landmark memory/experience in my life. It meant noting where pain had happened analysing the pain, re-experiencing it and ‘drawing a line through the pain of it’ as i changed the memory into what good came out.. What was the silver lining that came from this? Even down to physical abuse, there is literally always something positive that can be learnt.
All spirtual traditions teach the same things, using different words. Hence why we are drawn to either this or that, depending on which have a personal resonance for us.
We tend to focus of the differences rather than the similarites, which brings about conflict rather than harmony. Ironically the latter is the key thread they all teach
The collection of pieces for Completion #9 seeks to identify the threads that connect them & us as human beings and draw attention to this as the secular yet connected center, explored through the pieces.
*Everything happens for a reason
*With practice the lowest level of feeling is raised to innate *happiness* as all experience offer meaning & insight.
*We are powerful as individuals but united we are more powerful than the sum of our parts
*The highest state of mind is deliberate pure focus and flow
*Finding the space inside is where the connection happens – surrender to grace.
*Love is the key and heals all things
While installing the work i had an incredibly beautiful out of body experience ‘floating’ above the nave.
What is ‘Kundalini awakening’? ~ It’s a physical, mental and emotional evolution that can take place tremendously fast http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundalini#Kundalini_awakening
At the time i felt i must be having a ‘nervous breakdown’ – but rather than take the advice of many and be persuaded to visit the doctor for pills to ‘calm me down’, I decided to spend more time doing the yoga that until this time had taken the form of a weekly class and a few stretches. I began to meditate daily. Sometimes it took hours to find calm. I couldn’t continue to make my work without finding this inner place and saw this is actually what I’ve done since childhood, without realising.
I asked out loud for a ‘mentor’ and assumed it would be another visual artist. But during the focused packing of books into small boxes, two wouldn’t fit, they really ‘spoke to me’. They were ‘The Power of Now’ Eckhart Tolle & The Barefoot Doctor ‘Handbook for the Urban Warrior’, both of which lived on my bed for the next few months, kept me sane and began to bring me joy. By ‘coincidence’ i ended up meeting the Barefoot Doctor who became my mentor and a treasured friend.
As I worked on my own self development my artwork also evolved in that i could see that i have always been making work on themes of ‘centeredness’ and the ‘middle way’. From this evolved a vision of an idea that had occurred while attending the Venice Biennale in July 2011. The pattern broke with my usual minimal style being inspired by recollections of delight and insights from ‘Spirograph’ during the early 1970’s, seeing how each ‘petal’ can be construed as an experience and as part of a whole devoted to personal healing and healing requires 100% commitment. When we take responsibility for ourselves the world becomes a better place!
