The Power of Awareness

Pause is a very personal piece. Although the title suggests a lack of motion, it actually goes hand to hand with the primal, humbling and rewarding process of self-reflection and self-discovery.

Pausing enables me the recognition of the different layers I’ve been creating for myself, attaching and compartmentalizing in different moments of my life. Secondly, the power of awareness has brought to the surface a strong conscious desire to escape from self-imposed limitations and coping mechanisms that do not serve me anymore.

I found the psychological analogy of an iceberg to describe this “pause” very helpful. Using this symbolic representation, I placed myself within a context connected to the source – water – and it is in this environment where the process of rupture takes place. A transition of values from light to dark shows the different levels of consciousness of this process. A smooth brushwork technique was applied to the deep end to indicate the intangible nature of the unconscious.

The composition’s vertical cross section depicts on one hand the emergent part of myself clear and tactile enough to be able to see, explore, question, reframe, sort out, and re-member my core values.  On the other hand, it embodies revisiting a personal journey of detachment within my core as a reactive force. The use of triangular shapes and acute angles along this vertical cross section, while describing poignant feelings, emphasizes the direction of the opposing forces in this dynamic.

The emergent top volume intentionally shows the impact of the rupture revealing part of its interior,while the rest of it remains visually connected to the background, suggesting a slow detachment of pieces. The thin overlapping layers underneath are presented with transparencies to show their previous connections with each other. To address their inherent singularity, I gave each of them a specific colour and I highlighted their sharp edges, without losing the visual connection of the whole fractured piece.

The organic lines around the separating layers do not intend to interfere with their detachment, but suggest a sense of expansion to the pieces as they are floating.

Pause does not imply a completed action – it’s my ongoing learning process to be present and to be in tune with myself in an effort to remember who I am and what matters to me.