The Abandoned Farmer

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Background to the series:

This series proceeded from the earlier exhibition, The Farmer’s Wife, curated by Penelope Jackson and shown at Tauranga Art Gallery July-Aug, 2009. That show in turn arose from my inquiry: ‘What happened to The Farmer’s Wife after she departed with The Traveller?’ as portrayed in an earlier painting ,The Departure of The Farmer’s Wife, (Norsewear Art Award 2007.) The ongoing inquiry was then extended into this series when I asked, ‘What happened to the Abandoned Farmer when his wife left?’

These questions delivered the visual saga which present the ancient Odyssey theme through the two central protagonists of The Farmer and The Farmer’s Wife. My intentions are central to this archetypal theme, namely, how is the depth, breadth and scope of the human soul expanded through engagement with significant experience.

The works themselves emerged to meet the narrative I had engaged with. There was no prediction or planning. Rather images were derived or ‘divined’ from techniques designed to throw up paintings from unrealized, subliminal sources.

The paintings are intended to function on two levels. On one level they are a literal, narrative image. At another level they may have layered, symbolic, allegorical associations which give them the possibility of functioning as visual parables.

The following is a summary account of the Odyssey of The Abandoned Farmer:

The Paintings:

1:The Abandoned Farmer Cooling His Heels (2009)

When his wife leaves The Abandoned Farmer submits to his primal passions of instinct and anger, represented by his surrounding dogs. In cooling his anguish in the river he has entered the same flow which moved The Farmer’s Wife on.

2: The Abandoned Farmer Immerses Himself and Cries (2009)

The passion of anger becomes grief and despair. Farmer is deeper into the flow and serpentine eels slip about his feet while his homestead forms the crown of his farm ‘dominion.’

3: Farmer Training His Dogs and Considering a Housekeeper: (2009)

The Farmer attempts to control his dogs, (and their associated instinctual reference.) The projected Housekeeper draws back curtains to allow sunlight to penetrate his house.

4: Farmer Restoring the Flow (2009)

The Housekeeper arrives with her daughter and cools,(baptizes?) The Farmer who continues the water metaphor by removing the sludge and restoring the flow. Territorial and aggressive magpies depart, witnessed by The Housekeeper’s daughter.

5: The Housekeeper’s Daughter Calming The Colt (2009)

Housekeeper’s Daughter continues the animal/instinctual control motif in her calming of the colt. Her innocence and gentleness contrast with The Farmer’s attempted control and domination and The Housekeeper’s unseated fear and trepidation.

6: The Housekeeper’s Daughter Showing The Farmer Beneath the Surface (2010)

The water motif appears again as the protagonists leave the land element. The Housekeeper’s Daughter presents the rich and unfamiliar realm which exists beneath the surface to the submerged and disoriented Farmer.

7: The Housekeeper’s Daughter Leads The Farmer by The Bushwhackers (2010)

The Housekeeper’s daughter leads The Farmer into the realm of darkness and shadow to find passage through his fears. The sense of threat may be real or merely imagined.

8: The Housekeeper’s Daughter and The Farmer Follow the Tattooed Man (2010)

The Tattooed Man has ruru as his totemic bird. This is the creature of the night,(the unconscious,) and mythic wisdom. He leads The Farmer and Housekeeper’s Daughter into a place of mystery and transformation.

9: The Farmer Striking Out (2009)

Realising the need for change, The farmer leaves the fenced territory of his life as though driven; as The Farmer’s Wife had been.

10: The Farmer Seeking Harbour With The Fishers (2010)

Having left the security of his familiar land element, The Farmer finds passage through the reef to harbour with The Fisher’s. These are a people who have found community, sustenance and music at the edge of land and sea. From the reef The Farmer’s Wife, who we discover had earlier found passage to The Fishers, sees an unidentified figure approach.

11: The Farmer and The Farmer’s Wife Fail to Recognise Each Other at the Fishers’ Masked Ball. (2010)

Fishers seek, through the mischief of their masked ball, to have The Farmer and The Farmer’s Wife reconnect. Little fingers touch but they remain masked from each other and there is no recognition.

12: The Farmer and The Farmer’s Wife Raise Sole and Recognise Each Other (2010)

In order to establish contact , The Fisher’s place The Farmer and The Farmer’s Wife at each end of the net to drag for sole, (pun intended.) In lifting two sole they recognize each other as the transformed individuals they have become.