Pauline Woolley: EXPLORATION, DISCOVERY, INVESTIGATION AND EMERGENCE 2005

My starting point comes from the unobvious aesthetics in nature that primarily looks at images of the very close up and the very far away. The source material ranges from photographs of planetary surfaces in space, to the cellular structures of organisms seen under a microscope.

Digital technology provides us with detailed photographs of cellular structures and lets us experience the surfaces of planets, we, as human beings may never encounter. Interestingly, we are handed these images often without questioning their reality and truth.

Like an astronaut or scientist, I embark on my own journey of discovery. Working with the fluidity of paint, the journey travels on an artistic interpretation of these images to create “other worlds”.

The act of painting becomes a documentation of a process which could be seen as an ‘event’. This is an event full of unpredictability and where intuition shapes the organic forms. A dialogue begins and comments on the technique and process of painting and juxtaposes the fluidity of the material used and the fluidity of the biological and chemical substances that create us.

The conclusion of the painting results in a surface that echoes elements of the micro and macro world that alludes to the fragility of existence, and suggests how little we know about our place in the Universe.