My emotional biography is reflected in my physical body. My past experiences have made deep impressions on the substance and form that I call home.
In this new series of embroideries, I imagine the organs within my body and their emotional content. My issues are imbedded in my tissues. Through the practice of making art, I acknowledge my biography and soul history and develop a conscious imagination of my current state of being.
As the same time, throughout this project, I will be working to create a new imprint for physical well-being. By imbuing my soul with new thoughts and new feelings, I have the power to transform my self and imagine my body anew. Each self-portrait image will be contrasted with an enlivened image that places trust in the process of self transformation.
The four elements FIRE, AIR, WATER, and EARTH are ever present in our sensory experience and we know them well. In the last year I have been researching the forces that effect these elements: the physical, earthly forces and then the level of forces that lie above, the universal or etheric forces. We all have learned about earthly forces in school when we study physics: combustion, pressure, buoyancy, gravity, and friction, which work on the physical matter of the elements. Universal or spiritual forces have not been taught in the same way in school, but exist none the less. They are often called the etheric forces or the ethers: WARMTH, LIGHT, TONE, LIFE. Through my study of the work of Rudolf Steiner and Ernst Marti, I have engaged in an intellectual and artistic exploration of these new concepts. Through the creation of new work, including collage and embroidery, I have begun to interpret what I have learned. While creating these pieces, I continue to ponder and contemplate how I can see and experience these higher, etheric forces as they work in the world.
Warmth Ether Generates
2024
Collage, watercolor painted paper, gold foil
12" x 9"
Light Ether Spaces
2024
Collage, watercolor painted paper, colored pencil
12" x 9"
Tone Ether Harmonizes
2024
Collage, watercolor painted paper
12" x 9"
Life Ether Enlivens
2024
Collage, watercolor painted paper
12" x 9"
Sometimes when I was working, whether it was sketching, taking notes while reading, or cutting colored paper, words and phrases arose. Crafting the form and rhythm of this poem became a sounding board from which new images arose. Returning to a favorite theme of transformation and evolution, I imagined the purpose of elemental participation in our development.
After working on this project for some weeks, I found that I was not able to form and shape the colored paper collage in the way I needed to express my imaginations. Veering away from the more diagrammatic approach, I took the same themes and turned to a softer, more sculptural material, embroidery on wool.
Potent Spirit deeds precipitate
Our advancing transformation.
Wise Spirit Beings weave and shimmer
In cosmic spheres of sacrifice.
Spirit substances are clarified
Through creative activity.
New beings born within this work
Shall fulfill their essential tasks.
One rises while the other must fall
Bewitched to serve World Evolving.
~ Kelly Beekman
FIRE
2024
Embroidery, cotton and nylon thread on wool
10”x 5.75”
AIR
2024
Embroidery, cotton and nylon thread on wool and silk
6.75” x 7.75”
WATER
2024
Embroidery, cotton and nylon thread, glass beads on wool
8.75” x 6.75”
EARTH
2024
Embroidery, cotton and nylon thread on wool
7” x 9.25”
ELEMENTAL BEINGS: Fairies, Gnomes, Sylphs and Undines
2024
Embroidery, cotton, metallic and nylon thread on wool
6.5” x 7.5”
We are all in the state of becoming. From the smallest particles of our world to the great expanses of our cosmos, growth, change and development occur over time and through space, in the physical and the non-physical world.
For several years, I have been considering these mighty forces of change. Through study of the work of Rudolf Steiner, through meditation and prayer, I take these mighty ideas into my contemplation. The drawings and textiles I create reveal the color and forms that arise in my imagination during these activities.
The living activity of the elements of our world inspires me to create. I strive to represent processes rather than things: shifting, moving, growing, shrinking. I invite the viewer to bring the images into motion/vibration, as they would move in a meditative imagination. What were the different stages, the shifting or the stirring that occurred before or occurs after the captured moment?
My work focuses on universal themes of metamorphosis and development, both on a personal and a cosmic scale. My embroidery pieces discuss themes of personal transformation, evolution and the process of becoming.
The exhibition Cosmic Biology was divided almost evenly between textile works (embroideries) and framed pastel drawings. Drawings alternated with textiles in the installation. This arrangement allowed two separate levels of conversation to occur in the room. The embroideries, a medium that suggests that the hand of the artist is much like the hand of the Creator who is deeply engaged and invested in the process of creation, discuss themes of personal transformation and evolution. Images drawn in pastel of what look like single cells could also be imagined, at the largest scale, as planets or the whole cosmos. They focus on universal themes of metamorphosis and development.
September 12 - November 24, 2019
Centerpoint Gallery, Rudolf Steiner Bookstore, New York City, NY
October 8 - November 7, 2021
Lightforms Art Center, Hudson, NY
Gathering / Organization
we are formed and given purpose
2019
PASTEL ON PAPER
24" x 24"
Incarnation / Manifestation
isn't like what you imagined
2020
WOOL, SILK and COTTON EMBROIDERY
9" x 12"
Pathway: Above/Below
2018
WOOL, SILK AND COTTON EMBROIDERY
16.25" x 16.75"
Momentum
when change occurs within the process
2019
PASTEL ON PAPER
24" x 24"
Remnant / Hardening Forces
what remains after the work is done
2019
COTTON AND WOOL EMBROIDERY
16.25" x 16.75"
Solidification / Moon
what is now without was once within
2019
PASTEL ON PAPER
24" x 24"
Release - and then there was Light
after ages and ages of time
2019
PASTEL ON PAPER
39" x 39"
Substance of Light
2021
PASTEL ON PAPER
9.5" x 8.5"
Co-mingling of Substances
earth, life, sound, light
2019
PASTEL ON PAPER
24" x 24"
Mechanism
inner working / outer working
2019
WOOL, SILK AND COTTON EMBROIDERY
9.5" x 10.5"
Inner Mysteries
inner combustion
2019
PASTEL ON PAPER
24" x 24"
Underneath it All
2018
WOOL, SILK AND COTTON EMBROIDERY
9.5" x 8.5"
Blood Tree
personal evolution supports cosmic evolution
2019
SILK, WOOL AND COTTON EMBROIDERY
13" x 17.75"
Persistence of Innovation
2020
WOOL AND COTTON EMBROIDERY
9.25" x 9.75"
Nine Levels
the qualities are what's important
2020
WOOL, SILK, COTTON AND METALIC THREAD EMBROIDERY
11" x 11"
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