What is best for meaningful art creation? What comes first, the theme, the idea, an art commission…. or the actual act of merely putting charcoal to paper or brush to canvas, and creating as you go….? 

I tend away from commission work, towards non-structure, wanting my mind to drift and seize on a direction borne of years of memories, years of art practice. 

I firmly believe that if I am following my gut instinct, painting or sketching what feels ‘right’, then the rest will surely follow.

Often a life sketch will lead into deeper meaningful territory, in a way in which a commissioned artwork could never develop if I was solely focussed on pleasing the commissioner… 

but then what is the definition of a commission…?

In this case the theme that the National Gallery gave to us women artists in early 2023,  ‘Embrace Equity’, was a powerful starting point .. looser than a specific commission, but challenging my brain to push along certain thought paths….

I live and work often in the rural and wilderness areas of Zimbabwe, and the cycles of nature, the interconnectedness of Man and Nature, resonate with me, my mantra being #allthingsconnected ….

Lin Barrie, “Embrace Equity”, Mixed Media on canvas 150 x 200 cm

What inspires an artwork?

An interesting question for me as an artist, since I am always so inspired by having the challenge of a theme or discussion point to inform the development of a painting or art installation…. but I am usually cautious about accepting a specific commission from an individual buyer or collector…

On the one hand I am truly energized by the creative thoughts that inform my art when I am thinking about, or challenged by, a particular theme or concept…especially when that theme is put forward by a collector or gallery as an open concept for the artist/artists to run with…

On the other hand I feel negative about specific commissions from a buyer unless they know my work well, as I honestly feel that a specific commission controls my thoughts too much in the direction of painting or creating something that the specific buyer will accept/like/approve of…. something “sellable”

In this case I was fully energized by the theme, which was ‘Embrace Equity’ for the annual Women’s Exhibition at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare….

myself and Kuda Gwatidzo at the National Gallery…

and Kuda Chakwaz ai the National Gallery….

Here is a short youtube video of the finished artwork….

“Embrace Equity” became a personal testament for me, emboldened by the grief of loss and empowered by the strong theme of ‘Embrace Equity’. 

An evolving story at the beginning of this year as I was sketching trees, baobabs, from a traditional burial site in the wilderness of Zimbabwe, Mana Pools.

I was bereaved, musing on the fragility of LIFE having just lost my younger brother… and inspired deeply by the evocative crucifixion painting by Helen Lieros, our late ‘Lost Queen’ of the legendary Gallery Delta…..on the wall of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral, in Maputo……

The outstretched arms on the cross like the limbs of trees reaching skywards, hopeful.

The trees I was sketching in the wilderness of Chitake, a favourite photographed here by Peta Kean Hammerson, evolved into human torsos…

Echoing the Hill of Golgotha, Despair mixed with Hope, Celebrating Humanity, Embracing Equity in our human condition and in our connectedness to nature, to culture, to the ongoing story of LIFE….. #allthingsconnected

this mix of pure emotion and the necessity of following a theme, ’embracing equity’, resulted in my huge and personally satisfying mixed media painting on canvas…envisioned here in an interior..

Inspired deeply by the evocative crucifixion sketches and painting by Helen Lieros, Lost Queen of Gallery Delta, Life and Death became a consuming expression for me in my sketches…

The trees I was sketching in the wilderness evolved into human torsos…

the Hill of Golgotha, Despair mixed with Hope, Celebrating Humanity, Embracing Equity in our human condition and in our connectedness to nature, to culture, to the ongoing story of LIFE

Resulting in a huge acrylic and mixed media painting on canvas…envisioned here in an interior..

And further….my growing desire to write poetry to express the nature of my paintings resulted in a poem …

Equity
is a state of being…

Unfettered
by social norms…

Released
by uplifting groundswell…

Battered by circumstance,
not equal, by others standards …

Empowered by sacrifice,
embraced with support,
in accordance with individual need…

I have dreamed;
I have traced tree trunks;
I have stared at torsos;
I have envisaged Golgotha.

All Things Connected.

Lin Barrie

Which poem, in its turn, found fertile earth to grow in, in a Poetry anthology called Tesserae, collated by Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure and Marian Christie, and to be published by Carnelian Heart Publishing –  – celebrating Zimbabwean Women Poets!

Tesserae are the tiny tiles which make up the bigger picture of a mosaic… an apt depiction of the various women voices which make up the wonder of the larger anthology…

I envisioned my painting fragmented into tesserae, multiple little stories… #allthingsconnected #storytelling #biodiversity #reinvention, #rebirth

and the final result was this great front cover, powerful in black and white, for the Tesserae anthology…

Honoured to be one of many Zimbabwean women poets to be included in this anthology.

In ongoing evolution of the theme, my “Embrace Equity” painting has found exhibition on a dining room wall …

I will join a zoom meeting Friday 22nd September to do a poetry reading for the online launch of the Tesserae anthology….

So!…. many evolutions and iterations have been born, all conceived of the simple initial theme “Embrace Equity’ which was thrown down as a challenge by the National Gallery of Harare to participating Zimbabwean women artists any the beginning of 2023.