Meditative Spaces Found While Traversing The Razor's Edge

This body of work is dedicated to exploring the essential characteristics of change. I wanted to make images about the real challenges we face in everyday life. Each morning we wake up and think of the world as a known quantity. We build a vision in our mind of what our life is and will be, but the truth is, life is more about change, and making peace with that idea is what this series of constructed images seeks to explore. With each image I’m pushing into the feelings that we experience when life changes radically. Fear, happiness, confusion, insight, joy...all of these are on the path we are often forced to take. While my first inspirations were based on my own experiences, I’ve worked to go beyond the specifics through the use of archetypal elements such as water, nature and the occasional human character. Along the way, I started to create my own set of symbolic references: home, the ocean, trees and the tangle of vines and roots play repeating roles within this series. At the core of each image is also an exploration of the strong push and pull of longing: whether it’s the longing to find a safe place, or even to feel that we are grounded in some manner. Inspired by a love of surrealist painters, such as Magritte, these images often come to me through meditation, dreams, memories and intuitive explorations. My titles are there as guides, rather than explanation, to keep the possibilities open for the viewer. I’ve chosen to print them on matte paper to further their illustration quality. Ann Mitchell 2014