Artist at work drawing in studio
Studio shot 2022                                                                                                                                           

Divine days fulfilled nor un-fleshed. Rightways as the small ones call the wind into dynamic dance.   

The invisible nature of nostalgia and grief perplex me. The sensation you feel when trying to explain a dream in a way that can relate to sense seems to consequently unbind and question your understanding of all that is ‘sense’, ‘logic’ and ‘reality’. These qualities can often exemplify those hidden and most personal parts of one’s psyche that become silence for many individuals. The sensory overload that nostalgia creates within us ties itself to a profound mourning for a time that can never truly be lived outside our own immersive minds again. The muddled and hazy glaze that stagnates within our heads as we try to suspend ourselves into that single lived moment in time creates a feeling of bliss and grief and therefore confusion. Whether we are trying to insert ourselves back into the past or become wistful for the narratives that live in our future, there is always a blank field of vision where intrusion lays dormant. This is the place where I want to play, where I want to create and build on my art practice. My practice resides within the void of nostalgia, unpredictable thought, the inner-child, ancestral trauma, invisibility, intrusion and grief. Through my work I try to communicate these notions with a blend of rawness, layering of colours and subtle imagery so that my audience can relate to and find their own positioning within the work. 

 

Rachael McCarthy, Untitled, 2022, pastels on brown paper, 100 x 48 cm.
Rachael McCarthy, Untitled, 2022, pastels on brown paper, 100 x 48 cm.
Rachael McCarthy, Untitled [detail], 2022, pastels on brown paper, 100 x 48 cm.
Rachael McCarthy