For alchemists the entire process of psychic transformation takes place sub rosa (under the rose).
A psychic transformation of the world, a psychic transformation of myself.
In this moment in time, I can think of no other symbol which stronger defines this period in my life than the rose. I want to bathe in it, drink it, wear it, embody it. I emerge from a secretive silence, creating under the rose.
Symbols assert their voices in layers, over time, they are flashes of psychic illumination which surround us. Over an unknown period of time the rose began to show itself to me- through bizarre scents in waking moments, in art I’ve seen over and over again, in my labyrinth walks, in Venus- the rose was everywhere once I began to see it.
Sub Rosa exists to me as a mantra. Sub Rosa- Beauty and silence. Sub Rosa-Poetry in secrecy. Sub Rosa- power in the feminine. Sub Rosa as a period in my life, is a pursuit marked with questioning of purpose which ultimately led me to discover all that has been lost and begin to heal it one symbolic movement at a time. The pursuit required an initiation, an incubation, and a birthing period. All of which, paralleled with my experiences toward motherhood.
It took several years of swimming in literature, silence, and birthing before I could begin. It’s hard to paint before an awakening. I teetered on the cusp of a pulse, trying to understand my own consciousness, but couldn’t quite understand it- so instead I waited for a moment of clarity, when I could paint the purest vision possible. A year ago I stated that I knew I wanted this show to be a reverent sort of healing show, motherly or feminine, womb like. I always want everything to be womb-like: fluid, sheltered, condensed, enriched, self sustaining and pure.
This work, has been mostly painted postpartum, charged with a rich and earthly toned palate, purposely deep and feminine (of the rose)- in an eruption of sudden clarity and cumulation of an innermost understanding of my own personal purpose, power, vision, understanding, findings, impulses. These works have come about from witnessing both the inner transformation and surrounding transformations within a new consciousness in the world.
The desire for a life that no one can see. The richness of the rose, deeply symbolic, divine and unfolding, awakening.
The clarity came to me not in direct answers, but in symbols.
Monica King Contemporary
New York, New York
Novemer 14 - December 12, 2020