Beyond Form, by © Nancy Wait, oil on canvas
(1990) 16×20″

As a visual artist I went into form.

And then one day, I realized I had gone beyond the form.

It’s one of those things that happens when you’re not looking.

It’s like you look and you look and you look, and then incredibly, one day you see.

This is a picture I did over twenty years ago. Today I am looking at it fresh. This is what I see:

• A female figure. Female, to symbolize the feminine, receptive element
• A figure on her hands and knees to symbolize an unmistakable humility
• A naked figure, to symbolize a willingness to bare all, and to bear whatever
• An unclothed figure, symbolizing the willingness to leave everything behind
• A world of shapes, of undifferentiated form
• A world of numbers, symbolizing vibratory rates
• A world of shifting realities

As a process, this shift in my perception did not happen overnight. It was sort of like taking the time to learn what everything was by learning how to draw it. Seeing the lights and the darks, the shape and the mass, the color and the form. Forgetting the names of things. Learning the meaning of space by recording what was in the space. And then letting go of what I thought space was. Because I had found myself in a new space.

I couldn’t find myself in a new space until I was willing to let go of the old one.

I couldn’t let go of the old one until I had learned and experienced what it was all about.

I drew the space. I drew myself in the space. And then I drew myself out of the space.

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