ABOUT THE WORK

Speaking in tongues is a kind of abstract language that The Holy Spirit gives you so that when you are praying and your own language simply does not have the words to express what you need to say, your spirit starts to speak in a language which just kind of overflows from your mouth. You don’t always understand exactly what you are saying but it releases some deep need or frustration.

Sometimes I don’t know exactly what my paintings are about but I know I have to say it. I spent many years as a child frustrated that I couldn’t draw, I didn’t have the language I needed in order to express what I wanted to say. Now I have that language and paint, charcoal and other materials are the tools I use to bring it forth.

Of course I am influenced by what I see and feel and some of these visual and emotional influences are more obvious than others but most of the time it is an outpouring of the inexpressible joy and awe within me that is just too big to fit in my body. It has to come out or it will burst out. It will bubble over. I will either explode or implode.

You could say that each piece of work is a prayer.

Alison Lilley Berrett 2006