In 2019 I was approached by John Leroux,
the Director of Exhibitions at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery to do a large painting on the green wall
of Elizabeth Currie gallery and on the wall there's, to the right, the Salvador Dalí,
What was in my consciousness in 2019 was that everything was about to change,
which brings in apocalyptic themes and the Dalí itself is very apocalyptic with that horse
and the nuclear bomb going off. But I wanted the apocalypse I was creating to
be different — different from traditional ending of the world scenes where some people are being
elevated and some people are being damned to hell. I really wanted this painting to
be about the original meaning of the apocalypse — as an unveiling of truth that was once unknown.
And even if it is uncomfortable or destructive, that we have an opportunity to transform
through it and that in this apocalypse everyone has an opportunity to elevate.
My name is Deanna Musgrave and I'm a painter in Saint John, New Brunswick Canada
So I'm here at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery it's going through renovation
and the painting I'm working on called Transcendence in Process will be
over there so when you see that painting you'll be able to immediately connect with the Dalí.
The horse in Dalí's work is bridled he's rearing — there's a very warrior energy to this work. And
in contrast, I've created a painting where there's a woman on the horse and she has her arms open the
horse is unbridled and this is to bring in a more nurturer energy to the space. So not to say that
warrior or nurturer is better than the other, but to bring balance into the space. I find there's
something really hopeful about being in the gallery right now surrounded by these artworks
that I've become familiar with over the years and seeing them in a sense in disarray, reorganized,
everything being moved around. I feel like it's a metaphor for what we're all going through.
I wanted to go back and look at the history of apocalypse paintings. I feel like that
theme belongs to art history and of course there was the theme of the four horsemen
and I kind of put out to the universe, called my friend and said I need a horse to appear in
this apocalypse painting. And that's when Big Buddy came forward who's an Appaloosa
and grey to be the horse of the painting.
But in the painting, I was thinking that I wanted to reframe this to be
a horse of healing instead of a horse of death and so I painted a woman on
the horse with her arms open. The horse is unbridled.
They're working together and communicating rather than one trying to control the other.
Sometimes when you paint something it may not yet exist in this reality,
but giving people a visual reference to look at can make it become real. So
maybe in painting an apocalypse that's transformative rather than destructive,
it can help people to maybe look within, it can be a mirror of sorts to say, you know,
'how can I take what's happening to me in the world for everyone to become the healer'?
So this giant painting — it's made up of over 50 hexagons and they kind of piece together like a
puzzle and they're going to cover a 20 by 30 foot wall. There's a lot of blue and cloud-like forms
in it, it's very colourful, and there's a lot of human bodies sort of floating into the sky.
Right now behind me is like five hexagons and that's what I can see at one time,
I can make sure that those singular works connect in a way that they read as one
painting and then I can move on to another section of five hexagons. So it's how to
accept that we're all those individual hexagons individual facets but also see the big picture.
For myself and my painting process, I do what I call watermarking. I put out a call
for people to donate objects. I asked for objects at the beginning of 2020,
so the new year, and I said well give me something that you wish to let go of
or honour and amplify so that you can move into 2020 uncovered by the weight of it.
And then I lay those objects on the canvas intuitively and then I spray, I pour
water with pigment to get the marks.
I've been really trying to ask myself what is the artist?
And is it the artist's role to always bring things forward to get us to reflect,
to have more empathy for others, to see the truth?
There's so many things that art does that can help us be more progressive and move toward an outcome
that's positive. So art can give us a space to engage with these things through painting, dance,
music — to have a different conversation than what you might see on the news.
Like when you look at artwork and you see something beautiful, I really I always believe
that people are really seeing themselves. And so it can remind you of what's beautiful or
powerful about you in a time when you can feel powerless.
Maybe that's art's purpose in the pandemic, in 2020, in this apocalypse.