Galleries

An Essential Nature

In everyday, "normal" life, I take color for granted because it is everywhere, in everything.  But there are times when I find myself stopped, entirely entranced in looking at the colors in an object.  I receive deep pleasure from the saturations, the subtle variations, how they change as the neighboring colors change.  I am in awe of the mystery that color penetrates through all matter, even through me.  I am amazed how color vibrates, that I do not need to use my eyes to feel its energy.  This energy is in all things, even in myself.

Each human finds or does not find his or her own pathway to being connected.  I am grateful to know that color is my guide into this realm.

 


In the Beginning ©2009 Toni Littlejohn

Translucent Beings

from Above and Below the Equator
At the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Petaluma through April 14th, 2010

Spiritual practices take us out into the infinite and bring us more fully into the present moment; they offer us a taste of freedom in the unknown and remind us that we are part of the whole.

My artwork is infused with the spiritual/psychological process of strengthening the ego structure in order to surrender into spaciousness and return embracing the ordinary.

"In the Beginning" represents the basic ground in which this transformative energy practice takes place.  In the post-Equatorial paintings, such as "Gathering Light" and "The Leap," I attune to bodies translucent in their aliveness. I begin with the invisible, using an acrylic gel that dries clear but adheres to the paper adding texture and mass. Next, I apply transparent acrylic paints followed by glazing media to build up alternating layers of luminosity, which I then partially erase by rubbing or scratching, to dig through to underlying strata of color. I repeat this process, sometimes adding powders, ashes, earth, shellac, until I connect with the physical presence of the emerging being.

In 2009, I traveled to Central Eastern Africa, below the Equator - a  metaphoric tightrope between awareness and the unconscious, sophistication and the primitive, between trust and fear.  My experience with Masai warriors as they danced and chanted around the fire -- colors streaming in and out of light and darkness -- sparked recognition of the transparency, luminosity, and vibrancy I strive to create in my artwork.  Witnessing their ritual movement took me beyond anything I had known, awakening a transformational process for the whole person, through the body. It was like a homecoming, as if I knew in myself the primal power of the dancers, their singing and leaping as they have done for generation after generation.

"Translucent Beings" includes paintings from both before and after my journey below the Equator.