From pain lane, up rocky road to Galley Hil

Identity .....
From pain lane up rocky road to sunset boulevard.....
The flag pole has moved.
Art is a bridge between inner and outer worlds.
Ernest Jones from 'the theory of symbolism' 1919.
What interests me right now is the dualism of identity.
One signal out one signal back.
Inside outside
public secret
yin yang
ego id
positive negative
black white
certainty doubt
living dead
love hate
past present
space matter
good bad
attract repel
Hot cold
Up down
Conscious unconscious
The list is as long as we make it.
scales....balance ....this is life this is the energy of connection..... except the scales keep tipping so it feels clumsy. I try to keep a balance to remain in control yet I learn more when things go out of balance.
But back to the flag, now the flag pole occupies it's own bigger more suitable and fitting space, now it can reach over the water, to other towns to other shores, to northern france. Now that would be interesting.
From up here literally and metaphorically I can see further, a wider view, a sense of scale and context. It was hard getting here, a big climb involving personal sacrifice.
Letting go of everything creates the space for new things to grow.
I see two sides to everything and this reflects in my work.
Finding edges and exploring connections.
Where you have contrast you have interest and where you have interest there is creativity.

As Graham Sutherland once said 'tension between opposites, the precarious balanced moment'
So am exploring the meeting of opposites. 2 people, 2 halves, 2 sides, 2 ways and the subsequent layers or impact of connection between.
I have built layers on a surface in painting
I am building layers of relationship through partnerships
I have unearthed layers of buried emotion
The big flag is traditional and contemporary through it we can explore connective layers of history and modern culture. I love the fact that Wilfrid settled in this region briefly circa 600 he brought even then a contemporary edge to a settlement entrenched in tradition. The order he belonged to was the rule of saint benedict. The spirit of St Benedict's Rule is summed up in the motto of the Benedictine Confederation: pax ("peace") and the traditional ora et labora ("pray and work").
Compared to other precepts, the Rule provides a moderate path between individual zeal and formulaic institutionalism; because of this middle ground it has been widely popular. Benedict's concerns were the needs of monks in a community environment: namely, to establish due order, to foster an understanding of the relational nature of human beings, and to provide a spiritual father to support and strengthen the individual's ascetic effort and the spiritual growth that is required for the fulfillment of the human vocation, theosis. (Thanks wikipedia.)
Wilfrid brought this way of life to Sussex. The tension between bringing order and encouraging relational understanding is still present in our culture today. Isn't this what is at the heart of regeneration?