'Vision of Eternal Freedom', or 'Eyes of Infinity' as I sometimes call it, was painted it in 2008 while still living in the Byron Shire. The opportunity was given to me by my dear old friend D to paint a banner for the DJ booth in 'The Tipi Forest Stage' at 'Splendour in the Grass' 2008.
The original measures approx. 250cm wide x 110cm deep. I began with chalk, free-hand on a black piece of fabric, then painted the first layer with white undercoat, then layered acrylic colours for depth, then a final thin layer of fluorescent paints over that, so it glows under UV light too!
Another peacekeeping banner, watching over everyone! Wandering by it some nights with it rigged up at festivals I've heard it called different things: "Yeah cool, meet you back here at the 'Night Owl'."
Haha, nice!
At the time of painting I was in a whole new situation in my life, a new place, new chapter, relationship, way of being in the world. It held a lot of love, promise and excitement, but also a sense of restriction on some levels. Re-finding my self after a turbulent past and trying to integrate rapid growth, I painted this piece like a prayer for clarity, balance and strength.
I wished to See (eyes), with clarity and insight (crystal), and the knowledge of my experience (sun rays going towards the ground suggestive of ancient wisdoms), through the mystery of infinite possibility/ all that is constant or eternal (Infinity). I sought truth, compassion, peace, freedom of spirit (bird), ultimately the magic, beauty and gentleness of all life, in all-ways. ♥ a blessing ♥
It has dressed many East Coast events since its creation and almost become iconic. I feel in a way that everyone owns my festival banners now!
In the photos I am using for print, it has had a painterly photoshop filter applied over it. The reason for this is, like many of my large-scale festival banners, I didn't have enough digital knowledge at the time of their completion to photograph them in high res! Or often it was such a massive last minute effort to have them ready for event deadlines that I didn't immediately photograph them at all! By the time I finally found platforms to reproduce, they've had so much wear and tear I'd practically have to re-paint them... enter photoshop filters, that although lost a lot of my brush detail, brought them back up to 300dpi for quality printing!
Available on-
- Mens T-Shirts or Women's T-Shirts
-Stretched Canvas Print
- Wall Hanging/ Tapestry
- Prints on Paper or Cards
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