Barbara Schaefer- Multi disciplinary Artist
Article by Penelope MacEwen
(MA Fine Art Oxford University/ Psychology Uel Postgrad, UK.)
Footfalls of memory, the eons of time open chasms as their depth is revealed: continuing cyclically; resuming the wheels of fate.
When the volcano at Pompeii opened her heart, the people were engulfed. Even slaves and their masters were equalized. We reflect now upon the year that has passed as we tried to reach out to others yet were physically locked down. Schaefer, as one single artist depicts herself; yet she infers the many, as they seek contact across cyberspace, which has now become our new normal.
Ways to communicate…the sense of a disaster having been experienced is present and alive in this recent work: we are all invited to reflect upon the years that have just passed and upon the pandemic that took the lives of so many. Yet there is a reaching out to the future in this work too: will others heed our warnings; will we change in time to avert further destruction? What do we need to give to the future in order to heal the present? Will we rediscover our intuition and find that love that lifts us from this ghostly realm to allow our spirits to soar?
So many questions…. only we, the artist and the viewers can attempt to answer.
For now, Schaefer handles the layers of sepia, golden ochre and pure yellow that layer one dancing arm over the other as two figures touch in the darkness. They mirror each other; the face of the one evident in profile as we assume she is the alter of the other, the mirror, the beloved, the one longed for, yet close and deeply known.
Layering arms as they reach across to each other, the archetype of the dancer is invoked.
One last question: so does the dance continue?
We think it does, eternally reverberating across a multi-dimensional universe…..