Ciel Bergman (Cheryl Bowers) 1979
Artist’s Statement
I believe painting will remain a relevant expression for as long as Homo sapiens survives.
“The struggle to recover what is lost’ and ‘the notion of some infinitely gentle, infinitely suffering thing’ are two phrases from T.S. Eliot which seems wholly applicable to our contemporary environmental circumstances and that guide my vision. References to the Sacred Molecule WATER whether abstract or pictographic, has been consistently in my work for 5 decades. It is pressing for a larger presence in the future projects. I have become obsessed with conditions developing in our OCEAN. What has this to do with being a painter? Everything!
We are in the midst of confronting the greatest convergence of crises in our very brief human history. We will choose between self-discovery or self-destruction. Philosophically and politically, it is my opinion that among the major tasks of the Arts in the 21st Century is the re-linking of Culture WITHIN Nature. It’s a big job for art considering the decades of discussion and tomes of writing on whether art can change any thing. As more and more artists become engaged in this struggle, I hope my work serves as one beacon among many which might contribute to a compassionate and sustainable paradigm for a planetary culture yet to be creatively realized.
What drives my vision is a need to locate a ‘genetically felt’ devotional space in which a simultaneous multiplicity of disparate realities coexists. If I write that I am in search of the deep feminine, I plead not to be misunderstood. Why is ‘the feminine’ aspect of cognition, perception and experience worth less, in so many cultures? Why executed, contravened, and revoked? I want my mature work to flagrantly illuminate The Feminine. I am searching in darkness………… I have strived to create work that is sensuous, luminous, alive with emotional heat, honest and transcendental. To pulse with heart, Psyche and soul.