Cracked Wide Open

It began in early autumn, and the leaves have begun to fall, blanketing the weeds, and grass still reaching for light through fog. Cracked Wide Open is a meditation on the power of science, one of the many names of God.

The work draws from neuroplasticity, alongside the teachings of Neville Goddard and his interpretation of Golgotha.
The work explores the idea that we are always writing on the walls of our own inner cave. At any moment, we can erase and begin again, not simply by replacing words, but by transforming them. Meaning itself becomes fluid, as language is rearranged and flipped upside down.

The process began with a personal mantra, which evolved into an exploration of language. As affirmations emerged from that mantra, it became clear that more space would be needed for the scientific method and ancient wisdom to actually work.

Evenings now longer, the sounds of birds a whisper, the crisp cold air, cracks the lips and pinch the tips of toes. Winter will arrive soon, with warmer heart and heavy clothes. A 7 x 10' structure, originally intended for outdoors, was constructed inside as a symbolic cave wall. And the last autumn leaf falls gently to the forest floor.

The act of painting became an act of revision. Words were written, erased, and transformed. Even near completion, mistakes required correction, with letters reshaped and carved out with precision. This process mirrored the very idea the piece represented, that transformation is deliberately imperfect and actively ongoing.

During the creation of the work, which began physically demanding, became emotionally revealing; near the end, I was dancing. Is it morning? Is it morning? A breath of silent air... The sun is still asleep; now snow lands, bright, and pale.
Moving further forward, dipping brush in voids, black veil filling up the spaces between letters, feeling words.

There was a moment of realization that the act was not solitary, that ancestry, not as something supernatural, but as a living presence within, throughout, and all around, was working with me.

The skull within the composition reflects this awareness. It is not a symbol of death, but of continuity. a cityscape, emerging along the crown, suggest that those who came before are never truly gone, but live on through us, forming the very foundations which we continue to build upon.

The painting concluded in the early spark of spring. The composition faces a window, awaiting the sun on wing. A subtle horizon line echoes the form of an arrow, Like a weathervane points to the wind; this points toward light, planting a new seed.

Awe... a sciencespiritual Easter egg? Cracked Wide Open was received, and with gratitude, honoring lineage, I, a father's progeny, document this imagery now preserved for posterity.

Follow me through the process as this imagery unfolds,
and share in the journey by film—nay, a video. https://www.youtube.com/@IAmCatheyArt