it is me you are seeing everywhere
Your love called me aside and asked,
“Why are you passing by and not stopping?”
Then your love told me, “Look at me carefully.
It is me you are seeing everywhere….”
– Rumi [1]
Evening Bliss 2012
116 x 116 cm, colour pencil and acrylic on Belgian Linen
How might this love appear? If I could paint it, what would it look like?
Imagine you are out walking and a large luminous flower appears in the sky, expansive, radiant, petal after petal opening as if this would continue until the end of time.
The answer was about emanating luminosity, with clarity and spaciousness – qualities of the awakened heart, bodhichitta.[2]
Heart of the Mountain Shrouded in Heavy Light 2012
116 x 116 cm, colour pencil and acrylic on Belgian Linen
This same spaciousness is suggested through the dematerialisation of distant mountains and the limitless atmospheric space of Ch’an (Zen) paintings.[3] However, mountains are not needed for dematerialization to occur – the grid works quite well.
The grid-based, luminous paintings of Agnes Martin inspired me through her belief that geometric abstraction can be of service in conveying poetic aspects of human experience. Her intention arrives with strong gentleness.
Between the Rain (Homage to Agnes Martin) 2009-10
150 x 150 cm, colour pencil and acrylic on Belgian Linen
Painted light is not as it seems. Paint from a container of light? Yes, all colour is light.
Choices flow easily following the thread of intent to create touching light space, a silky surface that dissolves into tinted nothing at a certain viewing distance.
The beholder is depended upon; vision completes the work. Up close, the eyes can touch and know how each tiny ridge of linen feels, can sense how each fine glaze caresses the surface.
And then, stand back and surrender to the loss of all that to a vaporous luminous field. Oneness.
– Suzanne Moss
September, 2015
[1] Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, Magnificent One. Selected New Verses from Divan-I Kebir
[2] Pema Chödrön, Start Where You Are
[3] Hal Foster, “The Gaze in the Expanded Field,” in Vision and Visuality
Images copyright Suzanne Moss, courtesy of the artist, RLDI and Liverpool Street Gallery, Sydney.
Website: drsuzannemoss.com
Blog: suzannemoss.com
Book: Painting Light, Touching Space 2005, Canberra – available from Suzanne’s website.
the awakened eye 