TRACY PAYNE SACRED YIN
michael stevenson Hill House De Smidt Street Green Point 8005 PO Box 616 Green Point 8051 Cape Town tel +27 (0)21 4212575 fax +27 (0)21 4212578 info@michaelstevenson.com www.michaelstevenson.com
Tracy Payne
Sacred Yin
Coffee in October Miss Tracy Payne, Miss Tracy Payne, Painting and painting and painting again, Over and over, the pink and the pain, Never say never, Miss Tracy Payne. I tried to meet up – Miss Tracy Payne. What was she doing? Painting again! The pink, and the pink, and the flowers again ‘Twas ever thus, Miss Tracy Payne. “It is coming from within” – Miss Tracy Payne “Coffee in three months,” she said once again, It’s strange how those words: pain and Payne So very similar in pink, don’t you think, once again! Miss Tracy Payne, Miss Tracy Payne It’s a day at a time or you’ll do pink again! The flowers, the females, the stuff and my brain! Return in October, Miss Tracy Payne Return in October, Miss Tracy Payne. John McGlashan
And the day came when the risk (it took) to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. Anaïs Nin
There is pink in this work, but less pain. The women, still fragile, are out of bondage; they have broken free, the bubble of isolation has burst and they join together in the dance of life. Flowers bloom. Working in oils on canvas I choreograph imagery handled with photographic precision together with the abstract language of washes and drips. This demands focus and discipline, and it is within these strict confines that I find the time and space to meditate. I love painting and the act of painting calms me, it lowers my heartbeat and slows my breathing. It takes time for my paintings to grow, sometimes months, each one demanding devotion and attention until its completion. Sacred Yin is a kaleidoscopic interpretation of my exploration of the rebirth of the feminine principle. My paintings mirror the sacred geometry or archetypal energy forms that underpin all creation. I am not alone in recognising that our world is out of balance – we have been living in a left-brain, male-dominant society for centuries. In my paintings I consider this imbalance by working with the geometrical form that the six vibration generates: the hexagon and its internal form, two perfectly balanced, interlocking equilateral triangles. This is the most evocative symbol of the spiritual axiom, “As above, so below”. Six illustrates the relationship of the divine and the human, indicating the importance of the balance of the spiritual and the physical, the eternal and the transitory. This is the founding principle of sacred geometry. Six shatters the illusion that polar opposites are totally separate from each other. Six unifies the male and female aspects of our psyches, and the perceptual consciousness of the right and left hemispheres of the brain. Six represents cooperation, proportion and harmony. Tracy Payne, Cape Town, September 2005
Toward Late Spring 2005 oil on canvas 208.5 x 180.5cm
Diagram showing the geometry underlying the Sacred Yin paintings
Wildflower I 2005 oil on canvas 94cm diameter
Maybe Sometime Soon 2005 oil and epoxy resin on canvas 208.5 x 180.5cm
Figures from Pose File 4 (Erute Publishing)
Pray for Rain 2005 oil on canvas 208.5 x 180.5cm
Stills from documentary video by Tracy Payne
Wildflower II 2005 oil on canvas 94cm diameter
Wildflower III 2005 oil on canvas 94cm diameter
Protection 2005 oil and epoxy resin on canvas 208.5 x 180.5cm
Photographs by Tracy Payne
Vygie 2005 oil on canvas 94cm diameter
Chi of Love 2005 oil on canvas 94cm diameter
Together We Can 2005 oil on canvas 208.5 x 180.5cm
I would like to thank Michael Stevenson, Sophie Perryer, Kathy Grundlingh, Andrew Da Conceicao and all the staff at Michael Stevenson for their wonderful support.Thank you to Rosalind Tate for her teachings on Sacred Geometry.Thank you to my Mom and Dad, my sister and my dear friends for their love.
Tracy Payne was born in 1965 and lives in Cape Town. She graduated from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, with a BA Fine Art in 1987. Her debut exhibition – Introducing: Lisa Brice,Tania Smith and Tracy Payne – was held at the UCT Irma Stern Museum in 1989. She held solo exhibitions in 1998 – HUSH… HUSH: a love story at her studio in the Bo Kaap – and 2001 – Flashback at the João Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town. Her third, acclaimed solo exhibition, Post-Tokyo, was held at the UCT Irma Stern Museum in May 2004, and she exhibited new paintings alongside Deborah Poynton and Diane Victor at Michael Stevenson in August 2004.
Catalogue no 17 September 2005 Editor Sophie Perryer Photography Kathy Grundlingh Scanning Tony Meintjes Printing Hansa Reproprint