„THE CREATIVE JOURNEY, detail 1“

The Creative Journey

Rosie Jackson 2005
100 x 80 cm. Acrylics on canvas


Tiny green seeds of pulsating life gather in the stem of the flower, awaiting their turn to grow. They are born of a turquoise bloom which is an integral, inseparable part of a turquoise universe. When they wind their way through the golden ribbon of potential enlightenment, they are made aware of their crushed emotions (symbolised by a stunted butterfly), their potential (symbolised by a snake), their options (indicated by letters), the value of stillness (echoed by the snails), the influence of their past (symbolised by roots), their strategies of self-protection (indicated by “sentry leaves”), their erroneous blame of others (pointing finger), and their guiding intuition (water). They can listen or ignore, forget or remember, following the path of their choosing, selecting doors to new experiences at will until they finally rise to die and reincarnate from the spores of the next turquoise flower at the very top.

Path of Self Discovery – ochre and green
The ego – symbolised by the thumb and letter to “myself” – enables survival in the early stages of life, but further along, beyond the golden ribbon, voyagers lose their self-constructed crowns and masks to discover new parts of themselves, recognising the automatic behavioural patterns which repetitively throw them into the same potholes. The candles – symbols of new knowledge and hope - can help them avoid the holes in future. Alternatively, they may choose to travel the sky-blue or purple river where holes do not exist.
 Path of Manifestation – petrol green  The hanging head, overloaded with inspiration and responsibilities, cannot actively realise its dreams before it reaches stillness and the faith to create its visions. The realm above the golden ribbon shows physical manifestations of spiritual beliefs; the lying Buddha and monuments of Ayuthaya in Thailand, St. Mark’s Square in Venice, the Egyptian pyramids, the rebuilt Dresden Cathedral, and the Mayan ruins of the Yucatan.    Path of Concentration – pale green  The blue woman is surrounded by bright haphazard objects, which may be exciting and interesting or tedious and meaningless by turn. She is directionless, overexposed to this surplus of information and opportunity perpetrated by the multimedia, and so turns away towards simplicity. Her path above the ribbon, however, is well defined, cutting its way though a myriad mosaic of experiences, arriving swiftly at the gates of change, surmounted by a large alchemysnake.    Path of Unity - pink  The brown woman has extended her close relationships with partner and family – symbolised by the womb below - to include all living things. She is entranced by the beauty of the flower she holds, a flower whose pattern is echoed in her own hair. When she proceeds through the door of universal love, she joins hands with all other beings in the knowledge that they are all one.    Path of Responsibility – magenta, purple, red, green  The path below the golden ribbon is smooth and uneventful. Above, it is punctuated by seemingly negative experiences – imprisonment, admonishment by the pink finger, death, discrimination and categorisation (chest of drawers). However, we are not victims but creators, and our challenge is to recognise our role and responsibility in everything which befalls us. In the end, all evil is a path to good, and death is a path to life. The Egyptian God Ramses welcomes us to the next life, and Hathor, Goddess of the Dead, appears in the guise of a cow promising resurrection.