Brenda Molesworth Sageng
"Anatomies"
"Skin and Bones" 2' x 6' banners, dye on silk and rice paper
Artist's statement: The core curiosity guiding these works is my enduring fascination with the forms, related functions and essence of the small parts of larger organisms. My questions are both scientific and spiritual in nature: How does the shape of the leaf relate to the tree from which it grows? Why does a butterfly wing carry the same skeletal shape as the cells of a leaf? Why is the Golden proportion so prevalent in nature that we unconsciously replicate it in our own creations?
Thus intrigued by pattern and form in nature, these paintings were born of a spiritual exploration into “the world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wildflower” described by the 18th century artist/poet William Blake. Experiments in silk dye and traditional Chinese paper mounting were used to achieve translucence and actual movement, as well as an imposing scale, in the butterfly and leaf banners, while contemporary Western watercolors were combined with ancient Eastern ink & brush painting techniques in the watercolor paintings. This synergy of East and West energizes these investigations of delicate, ephemeral structures of leaf, wing and branch to offer a moment of contemplation of the essential, but often invisible wonders of our natural world.
"True Gold No. 1" watercolor
"Ice Branches No. 3" watercolor