Acrylic on paper

Signed on the back.

By purchasing this work you become part of my Rhizome.

Though the word rhizome is derived from a Greek word meaning “to take root”, the rhizome is not about the common tree structure whose branches have all grown from a single trunk.

Rhizome subverts such traditional hierarchies.

Rhizome offers liberation from these structures of power and dominance.

Rhizome has no beginning, no centre and no end.

Rhizome can be entered from any point, and all points are connected.

When injured or broken at one site, rhizome simply forms a new connection that emerges elsewhere.

Rhizome is not about what is or what was, but about what might be.

To quote Deleuze and Guattari: “The surface can be interrupted and moved, but these disturbances leave no trace, as the water is charged with pressure and potential to always seek its equilibrium, and thereby establish smooth space.”

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Picasso said “The world doesn’t make sense so why should I paint pictures that do?”⁠⠀
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Piet Mondrian said “All painting – the painting of the past as well as of the present – shows us that its essential plastic means were only line and colour.”⁠⠀
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Leslie Dick said “The work you do as an artist is really play, but in the most serious sense […] Like when a two year old discovers how to make a tower out of blocks. It is no half-hearted thing. You are materialising – taking something from the inside and putting it out into the world so you can be relieved of it.”⁠⠀
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Regardless of how I feel about the artists themselves, I resonate strongly with these sentiments.⁠⠀
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I see abstract art as cathartic mindfulness.⁠⠀
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If you look into the history of abstraction, it always seems to rise when the world is in turmoil. People turning away from the intense struggles of the world for a quiet moment, to try and cope within their own human body so they can continue to be part of the fight to leave the world a better place than we found it.⁠⠀
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You’re in body pain and mental anguish, but you go to your art materials, and distract yourself. What follows is like alchemy - as your focus is pulled into the artwork in front of you, the body pain lessens. The anxiety reduces so much sometimes it even goes away. Sometimes, at the end, you might have even created something that you enjoy looking at, and are proud of.⁠⠀
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You have transformed your physical pain and trauma, into a piece of art that you are proud to share, and that tells the story of your pain in a positive way. And through that, you are sharing how important art is in self care. How important colour is. How important that act of creativity is to our well-being.⁠⠀