Natalie Kahn Aguilar

This artwork is from four series that are part of a continuing exploration. I am interested in the essential nature of reality, the energy forces and matrixes that lie at the base of all manifestation in the universe.

Additionally, I am concerned with creating artworks that invite the viewer to expand their awareness to become a conscious participant in this flow of energy that is around us and part of us.

What we percieve as the real world of permanent, solid objects is an illusion supported by the limitations of our five senses. The universe is actually constructed of rapidly moving particles that are unrestrained by time and space. All matter is forever changing and being reformed.

My work is based on these ideas. I have concentrated on the flux between matter and the void, materialization and potential. The forms swirl and twist together. The edges are active, blurred points of contact where the creative forces that drive the motion merge and reconfigure. The composition and the shapes abstractly refer to transformed matter enmerging from the void of space to spawn all of creation. The surfaces of the pieces are in motion. We may conventionally divide the picture plane into a top and bottom, foreground and background, or a ground and sky, but the surface is a complex matrix of energy without definite boundaries. The reality in this artwork is a dynamic, not and absolute.

Mysterium - (Images 11 - 20)

The concepts behind these drawings come from many sources. The ideas originated from studying women's mysteries and the mystical sources of feminine power and energy, an interest in Earth based religions, and my own experiences and revelations in meditation and prayer.

Lately, my reading on quantum physics and Eastern mysticism has begun to broaden the philosophical impetus behind my work. All of these studies and personal explorations began when I was painting representational canvases of dairy cattle in the 1970`s. I realized that there are essentially "feminine" forms that are common to all female animals as well as Mother Earth.

I also saw that there are bodily rhythms and natural structural patterns that unite us and cycles that guide us. My intent in subsequent works of art was to make images that are universally female and give physical form to the abstract thoughts and concepts that prompted them.

As I have worked and sought personal inner development my concepts have broadened. Along with an abstract expression of the basic forms and processes of life, I am increasingly concerned with exploring the idea that all things in the universe, whether it be planets or people, are connected by a unified energy field. Any dense collection of atoms and molecules is only a bump on the whole fabric of space and time.

The drawings are created rapidly, each one being born in it`s own way. I initially exercise as little logical control as possible to let the essential character of each image emerge before I fine tune it. I want the images to flow through me on to the paper or canvas. I am a conduit for information to be externalized on paper.

The images are abstracted from my visual memories and represented by non specific organic forms that convey multiple layers of meaning. This creates a unique interpretation in each viewer. No two people see the same thing in any of my artwork. The images are not specific, but, the forms, colors, lines, etc. will evoke the emotions and visual memories of each viewer in a different way based on their past experiences. As a person's point of view changes the associations they make in the drawings and paintings will evolve.

The interpretation of my work can range from the openly sensual to the highly spiritual. The artwork expresses the link between the two, which to me is part of the oneness of all life.

Natalie Kahn Aquilar - 2000