"I come from a long line of farmers, and farmers have a natural
alignment with the seasons"
Alignment, a sense of order, and understanding the cycle were
sacred in that prehistoric time. What was built then still inspires a
sense of wonder with such a direct connection between this earth, its
seasons, and the sustaining sun.
"I come from a long line of farmers, and farmers have a natural
alignment with the seasons. They can’t avoid it, working within the
cycle of producing crops and animals. Winter is not a bad time if you
are prepared for it, so they say. Is it possible to find that effortless
rhythm of time, feel the passing of the seasons, and receive the gift of
an agrarian society?
For Plato, time is celestial motion, the movement of heavenly bodies.
Aristotle claimed that time is the measure of change. Neolithic
people of Ireland observed the changing moon, but it was the sun
upon which their lives depended. They needed to know when to
prepare for winter and to be assured spring would return. These
ancient people built structures 5,000 years ago to align with the sun
on specific days such as winter solstice, spring and fall equinoxes.
They captured the relationship between their world and the sun, able
to predict the sun’s annual cycle. In Secrets of the Stones, Rob
Vance suggests “In the observation of daylight entering the chamber
[through its roof box] on the winter solstice, they would have
witnessed the creation of time itself and a glimpse of the fleeting and
unseizable nature of infinity.”
These are the thoughts that produced the paintings in this exhibition
about the changing seasons of Oregon and the ancient cairns in
Ireland."
