Emma de Clario

I have spent the last three years taking photographs on my mobile phone.
Of the roads, and the trees, and the telegraph poles that are in the background of my daily domestic life.
I believe that everywhere around us there is god. Or, as I am somewhat uneasy with that word; Protection, Choice, Signs.
In the West, faith tends to mean faith in the Transcendent Ultimate.
But, in the varying landscapes around me I see signs that faith is really the faith to live without that comfort.
In my photographs, I look for that is invisible. That is only felt, or heard. A road: a choice. A tree: a quiet knowing. A telegraph pole: a conduit of light, of communication. I paint over these images in an attempt to divine the beauty and the mystery of our very existence.
As an attempt to commune with That that is nudging us forward.
As I paint, I listen and I am quiet. I listen to the signals that might guide me and my daily choices: forwardinto light. Or perhaps, to remain still; in the shadows. Both are necessary.
Yet, to know in which direction to move, and when, is the guidance that I am looking for, that we are looking for, in what is around me, in what is around us.
As I paint, my brush guides me and I am quiet, as I am led through to the invisible.
The brush divines and divides for me the messure that does balance the dirt that we sift, as a matter of course.
I am looking for the beauty that will feed my heart, my spirit, so that I may, in turn, feed the imaginings of my children, and the other ones that I nourish, with what I am given.
This is Food, signals, spirit levels for their, souls.
When I look up, around me, around us, even in the shadows, all I see is beauty, and I am calm. And I am quiet. Here, and everywhere, something invisible is unfolding us.
And, so with brush in hand I am listening. And, as I say thank you. I am led.


- Emma de Clario 2009