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HELIOS SERIES
Helios Series paintings create an equilibrium of mind and body. Helios, meaning sun in Greek, refers to an “inner light” and the regenerative powers of human creative energy. In each painting, a rhythmic layering of archaic letters and grids are traces of a process of internalized balance and unity. Primitive societies achieved a similar ritualized unification through structural beliefs, habitats, dances and chants. These rituals contain a dynamic rhythm and structure which connects us to the universe. From the drum rhythms in the African forest to the emotional reiterations of the Bible, these repetitive structures are mirrors of the heartbeat and pulse; they are expressions of the divinity of nature of which we are a part. The paintings in Helios Series are a spatial analogue to ritual chanting—they are psycholinguistic fields which trace an ancestral history.
Of the various building elements in Helios Series, language has been significant as a universal focus—language is a biological tool linking human experience on the evolutionary chain. Like the snail who carries its house on its back, the human connection between self and society is built on the structure of language. Language is an inborn, aboriginal extension of nature; its elements are cellular, interlocking patterns which project spatially from our individual experience and provide a connection with our species. In a society where language in its mundane forms seems to surround us and mitigate its essential power, the archaic source of linguistic form has been a source of healing and regeneration for me, and the paintings reflect a balance of emotional, gut response in the painting process and a sense of connection with nature and the world.
My paintings are like calendars with cellular frames recording my emotional and spiritual relationship to my past and to the people I have evolved with. The research of archaic language that went into choosing the letterforms is forgotten when the painting process begins. The language forms are used as ritual and spiritual excavation tools which establish emotional connections with my genetic heritage. As I am painting, the moment-to-moment passing of this special time is recorded in the linguistic and expressionistically intense visual harmonic.
The structural gridwork in the paintings functions as a network implying the infinite expansion of space, yet appears as a web isolating events on the canvas. Girder-like structures with the use of metallic paint give the paintings an overall technological frame of reference. In contrast to this urban, architectural framework, archaic language and formal painterly elements emerge; the resulting conflict creates an emotional intensity. The complex layering of images implies an extension in time—just as the grid pattern extends spatially. Repetition and transformation of archaic letterforms establish links with our past and draw on our collective unconscious, allowing for a deeply shared communication.
The letterforms and variations are like marks on an archaic calendar, denoting the passage of time and events in a primitive sense, providing me with a record of the excavation, the deep mental experience involved in the painting process. Language elements are considered to be in the domain of the left brain hemisphere: verbal, sequential, intellectual. While I am painting my attention resides in the right brain hemisphere—experience is visual, comprehensive, and very non-verbal—but the linguistic elements allow for an integration of these basically different brain processes. The total effect of this painting experience is more than just the combining of the two alternating “everyday” brain functions. The experience provides me with a deep mental focus which has a rejuvenating spiritual effect—the paintings of Helios Series are a concrete record of this experience.
The individual paintings in the series show a visual resonance between a psycholinguistic influence of form and the expressive response to deep mental imagery which the structure of the experience allowed. As I painted repetitions and transformations of the Greek letter “B”, the structural formations merged into an idealized psycholinguistic field. A visual and mental reverberation occurred, like echoes of sound waves or patterns of multiple reflections. A new state of balance and wholeness emerged with “B”, bridging my inner and outer worlds. Running, chanting, singing, building, and staring at a marigold are other human rituals which provide a re-entry into a centralized life force. It is through this re-entry, or identification with nature, that we are able to regenerate and grow by encircling the roots of our own mind and body.
As the series progressed the linguistic symbols became more complex, allowing for a more holistic experience in the ritual process of painting. “AKH” is a result of my research into ancient Egyptian symbolism which produced a deeper intuitive response. In ancient Egypt the spoken word AKH was the pure light of the immortal spirit. KHA was the physical body. I’ve used the letterforms in the painting to combine the two words as a symbol of the transfiguration or regeneration of the self which is implied in the original Egyptian concept. AKH is light, the inner light which radiates from within and connects us with the universe. The sound of the word guided me as I structured the painting, each letter symbolizing visually the process I was internalizing as I worked. “A” is the origin, the emergence of consciousness; “K” is symbolic of human-made constructs, i.e. Language, dwellings—the expression into matter of the spiritual light; “H” is heaven; the letter is silent in most archaic language, and as in the Hebrew tradition is the God-given gift of breath, associated with heaven by the Kabbalists as a mantra for high meditation. As I painted and chanted the word AKH, an energy flow developed which was a passage from ordinary time and space. Like a shamanistic ritual, my re-emergence from this sacred spatial coherence signified a transformation of my self and connection with society to a higher plane, through this assimilation of ancient religious values.
“Helios”, the seventh painting of the series, is an exploration of the relationship between classical space and the elements of nature. It is the most vividly focused on the visual and auditory qualities of an ancient place and time. The ancient Greeks assimilated the elements of nature in the construction of their temples, and the gold structural and linguistic forms refer to the temple pillars and solar influences which were incorporated into their culture. Against a background of blue-green, the etheric and watery surround, repetition of the word Helios provided a neurolinguistic connection with that culture, and visual and auditory patterns emerged in my consciousness, perhaps genetic memory traces of a cultural heritage. A “circular” sound pattern resonated within me and is reflected in the transformation of the linguistic pattern. A sense of renewal occurred with the recognition of the influence on my consciousness of this ancient culture.
The artist, like the shaman in primitive societies, cleanses perceptions and creates balance. Functioning as a therapeutic healing force, the artist recognizes subliminal relationships and patterns in things that are clouded by their form or context. By seeing the sublime in everyday life, the artist binds the mundane to the infinite, and in so doing, creates a ceremonial aural field that permeates temporal existence and draws us into the realm of nature and religion. We are at once the stars, the trees, the waters, and without this essential connection with our evolutionary roots, our civilized constructions, such as language, architecture, and cultural styles emerge inherently imbalanced. Archaic societies, as seen in their myths and rites, shared a sense of divinity in life. Living in an open world, they embraced the divine structure of the universe; as their own creations echoed the myriad regenerative processes of nature. It is only in our recent society that our humanmade structures have become disengaged from the esthetic, pleasurable and purifying value of nature. My paintings are a form of basic worship which connect me to the source of myself in nature. They are a form of ritual communication establishing a bond between myself, others, and the world.
Marlene Oliver