Further along the road less travelled…
This latest digital piece, which I’ve titled “Time Traveller,” is a visual exploration of some ideas that have been bouncing around in my head for a while. It brings together two worlds that, on the surface, might seem poles apart: a serene group of monks in Tibet, making their way towards a remote monastery nestled in snowy mountains, and a solitary astronaut moving amongst them. It’s an odd pairing, I admit, but the juxtaposition is quite intentional. For me, the astronaut isn’t just a space explorer; they represent the very idea of time travel, the possibility of parallel universes, and perhaps even our capacity to transcend the usual limits of space and time.
The inspiration for this really comes from a long-standing fascination I have with these concepts. What if we could exist in more than one reality at the same time? Is time truly linear, or could it be more fluid, allowing for journeys between different lives, experiences, or even distinct historical epochs? These are the kinds of questions that can send your mind wandering.
For me, though, it goes a little deeper, a little more personal. A few years back, my sister met a clairvoyant who, in passing, mentioned that I’d apparently been a monk in three of my past lives. It’s one of those strange, intriguing thoughts that just lodges itself in your mind, you know? Especially since, in this current life, I genuinely can’t picture myself as a monk – the discipline, the solitude, it feels a world away from who I am now. But then the ‘what ifs’ start. What if time travel, or travel between parallel universes, was actually a thing? Could I, or another version of me, somehow find myself back on that path, just in a different timeline or dimension?
So, as I look at the image of those monks walking so steadily towards their monastery, I can’t help but ponder that possibility for myself – a future, or perhaps a parallel present, where I too might walk a similar path. Maybe it’s a journey through time, or a glimpse into an alternate reality. The idea that a part of me could return to that kind of existence, in some other form, definitely gives me pause for thought.
The blending of ancient spiritual life with futuristic exploration in this artwork is my way of trying to visually unpack these ideas – of merging what feels like a distant past, the tangible present, and a speculative future into one single, fleeting moment.
Whether this piece is a hopeful glance into a potential future, a quiet nod to lives that might have been lived before, or just a creative daydream, the journey of time, in all its mind-bending complexities, certainly feels like a road worth exploring, even if only in art.
Device: iPad Gen 9 & Apple Pencil Gen 1
Apps: Procreate
