November 2023

• Limited edition of 100 ONLY
• Signed and editioned
• 183 x 263mm approx on 210 x 297 mm paper (A4)
• Printed on heavyweight 315gsm archival watercolour paper
• Epson UltraChrome HD inks.

**10% from all purchases will be donated to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières - providing independent, impartial medical humanitarian assistance to the people who need it most. https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org**

This image started appearing in my dreaming and waking movement explorations in September, and on 1st October I felt an urge to realise it on paper.



First I felt it was some kind of protective talisman, or an amulet of good fortune. Immediately the HAMSA hand came to mind - a popular motif throughout North Africa and the Middle East, believed to protect against the evil eye. For a while, the working name for this image was HAMSA.


But as my days with it deepened, other images and stories also came to me. The hands of Tibetan Buddhist deities such as White Tara, associated with compassion, healing and longevity. The eyes in her hands and her feet symbolise her loving awareness and vigilance; her ability to see and respond to the suffering of all beings.

Similarly Avalokiteshvara has a thousand eyes in the palms of his thousand hands, representing his boundless compassion and omniscient awareness, and his unwavering commitment to alleviating worldly troubles.

As the world events of October 23 subsequently unfolded, the drawing seemed to take on more meanings. I found myself overwhelmed at times with the news, and unable to continue the drawing. Yet the drawing seemed to be speaking softly to me: 



“Don’t look away. Keep watching.” 



Even though it was hard at times to stay with the grief, the overwhelm, the tenderness, the impotency - and not be frozen by it all - I found those compassionate qualities of the deities awakening within myself. My movement practice helped a lot with the processing that had to occur.


And the hands and eyes in the drawing held me with their steady unwavering presence. Both compassionate and dispassionate, just observing. Not blinking, not looking away, but also not being caught up emotionally or frozen.

Witnessing.



In the last few days I felt again a return to that original sense of this drawing being an ‘all-seeing eye’ kind of protective device. Hands and eyes compassionately extending their mantle of care around me. So even as I keep watch on the world, they also keep watch on me.

🌿
KEEP WATCH
pencil on paper, 2023

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Beautiful quality fine art print from my original pencil drawing.

All prints ship flat, backed with board in a transparent sleeve, beautifully wrapped in tissue and ribbon, in a robust card wrap. Hand written message included just for you.
Gifting messages also possible - just let me know when you order.
Fully insured and tracked, worldwide shipping.

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With gratitude to Natalia Drepina for her gorgeous hand modelling:
@mourneress on Instagram