It is the opening night of the art exhibition, “A Kind Of Magic”. Our works are hung side by side and it is brought to our attention that two of our paintings included in the show share the same title, ‘So Above As Below’. This would start our extensive dialog, our Journey Into Silence, Visualising the Invisible.
We are two artists, Paris-based Tal Waldman and Vermont US-based Fiona Morehouse, engaging in a collaborative experiment from a distance. Integrating our spiritual studies and mindfulness practices into art making. Our project, “VISUALIZING THE INVISIBLE, A JOURNEY INTO SILENCE”, is a multi-layered dialogue formalized in art works, writing and testimonials; and assembled into a journal-like online blog- http://www.in2visible.com/ which continues to grow along with the project.
Asking the questions- How does a committed inner study affect a regular art practice? How can invisible processes be explored and communicated? How does open dialogue and transparent documentation impact the art world? How does a physically distanced collaboration impact a research project?
Our attitude towards ‘Visualizing the invisible’ varies between experimental gestures, automatique drawing, and intellectual visualization of ideas which are synthesized into consecutive but not homogenous chapters. Our natural choice is a form of communication and documentation that values a process rather than a result. Exposing our most intimate insights and sharing our resources and life experiences, it is a practice in VULNERABILITY through TRANSPARENCY.
This is AN ALTERNATIVE WAY of SHARING ART, We believe that our deep interest in art and mindfulness supports a much needed movement in context to the current global landscape. Adhering to the principles of ‘slow living’, resisting the notion of faster is better and emphasizing quality over quantity, we are focusing on highlighting the use of art and mindfulness as as an INTEGRATIVE TOOL, proposing an ALTERNATIVE ATTITUDE to life that goes beyond the traditional art making and art sharing, and promote a more self aware and compassionate life.
BIOS
TAL WALDMAN
Tal Waldman is an iconoclastic artist who uses different mediums: sculpture, drawing, painting, installation. She mobilizes all possible means to explore the signs and symbols of the universe. An inspiration that also feeds on the different cultures that she encountered during her residencies and studies in Israel, India, Germany, Greece and Paris where she now lives.
After international and multicultural studies of art and architecture, she worked in the offices of famous architects such as Jean Nouvel, Christian de Portszamparc. In 2006, she decided to devote herself to her art and since then she divides her time between creation, research and publishing.
In the past 25 years Tal has been searching to deepen her mindfulness and has installed a routine of daily practice. It has gradually become clear that her art and mindfulness paths should join. In recent years, she has begun consciously integrating mindfulness into her artwork as a living experiment. Such is the case in “Directed Randomness” (2017-2019), “Golden scars” (2019-2020), “Alphabet” (2019-2020) and now In(2)visible – “Visualizing the Invisible” project (2020 ongoing).
Passionate about the transverse nature of visual arts and craft, the pursuit for keeping alive ancestral traditions gained importance in her work where glass, embroidery, wood, up-cycling and drawings are harmonised into a hybrid history. Motivated by a strong personal story, she explores her identity as a mother, a woman and an immigrant, where social themes such as immigration, identity and collective memory, as well as mindfulness and sustainability are explored beyond her personal narrative. It is the case in “Embroidered Memories” (2012_2016) which explores themes of uprooting, identity and collective memories as in “The duality of Mother-Woman in 3D stained-glass” (2016-2018).
Committed to an environmental approach, Tal is a member of the international project- Art et Society. Her work was presented at the World Congress of Humanities in Liège (2017) calling for challenges and responsibilities for a planet in transition.
Winner of several awards, her work is regularly exhibited internationally: Museum of Art and Industry ‘La Piscine’, Roubaix; MPP Museum, Rixheim; Art History Museum, Colombes; Autumn Fair; The Madeleine Church and numerous galleries.
FIONA MOREHOUSE
Seeking the unifying threads between cross cultural understandings of universal truths, Fiona paints predominantly with a palette knife and sometimes with her fingers, creating an energetic narrative that transcends time and space. Moving between oil on canvas and gouache on paper, her style of expressive realism provides an invitation to explore themes of interconnection and mutual human understanding. Both a personal interrogation and a reflection on humanity, she continually seeks to deconstruct a mechanistic worldview, aligning with a reality consisting of networked relationships and living systems.
Interested in symbolism and the metaphor, Fiona has 3 bodies of work that reflect her desire to create a common visual language serving as a bridge between worlds- Threshold (2018-ongoing), acknowledging the interplay between exterior and interior influences on the human experience. Axis Mundi (2019- ongoing), exploring the tree as a sacred thread connecting heaven and earth. In(2)Visible (2020- ongoing) experimenting in collaboration with integrating mindfulness practices into art making.
Fiona is a global artist who has studied art in Italy, made art in India, and taught art in New Zealand and Central America. She has founded and directed 3 studio art schools, owned and operated an art gallery, and has multiple permanent public art installations across the United States. She has developed integrative arts curriculums as well as facilitated several workshops integrating art, yoga, and nature immersion.
Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and her work can be found in private collections around the world. Fiona studied fine art and music at McDaniel College where she received her BFA in 1999. She continued graduate study in ceramic art at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland followed by coursework in painting and encaustics at The Art Students League in New York.