Painting Pink Floyd — Soldiering Through the Minefield of Emotion

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Avoidance and Pain

“Sometimes our garbage makes the best fertilizer.”

I just want to express from the get go that this has been one of the most difficult paintings for me to bring into manifestation. I started off this journey with hopeful optimism which soon turned into pain, anguish and avoidance. I literally avoided my painting for weeks before returning to finish it.

I even manifested back pain (like there was something I needed to ‘get off my back’) which was a real poke in the ribs to complete this.

Let’s begin…

Firstly, the emotions that I wrote down (on the side of the boxed canvas) during the painting process were as follows:

Discord, revolt, rebel
Suppressed emotion
Metal, cold, steel, cutting, taking lives
Centers around the Void
Paternal painbody
Lost
Relief to be voicing/heard
Yin & Yang balance

Our Hopes and Expectations

It began with me spray painting the black hole in the center which represented a void. Emotions getting sucked into a black hole.

Then I painted little white orbs emerging which I think was indicative that there is and always was hope and a presence that was watching over us (or perhaps it was the light in us) through the whole distortion of life, morality and ethics of the war.

The War Effect

My maternal grandfather, Roy Chegwyn

The male painbody came out big time after that and I was aware that I was entering the murky dark waters of the emotional minefield of all our soul brothers (and sisters) who were forced to go to war.

They were both involved in WW2. My maternal Grandfather was a RAF pilot and was shot and killed in German territory — he was in his early 20’s. His body was never recovered and I don’t think his wife ever recovered either. This obviously impacted my mother and her sisters greatly.

My paternal grandfather, Harry Roe

My paternal grandfather was stationed in Egypt and, thankfully, made it back home in 1945 although he never spoke of his traumas. I never got to meet him as he died before I was born.

I think a lot of men shut down and never spoke of their ordeal when they got home. Can you imagine the pain and suffering this has caused? The ripple effect is felt in Pink Floyd’s music.

Bullets with Butterfly Wings

After the void showed up in the painting, I went ballistic with silver foil. After I had finished pasting this onto the picture I picked up my red spray can and viciously started gunning the canvas with bullet holes. I felt like I was being sucked into the overwhelming emotions of limitless killings — voluntary and involuntary.

It was a very dark place.

The muddy paint (which was done using a kind of clay/sand textured acrylic) represented being in the trenches. I even stuck ‘notes’ on the painting reciting the Ho’oponopono (a Hawaiin prayer for forgiveness and an amazing releasing affirmation for letting go of the past so you can move into the present). I even spontaneously wrote out one of these notes on toilet paper.

The Ho’oponopono goes something like this:

I am sorry, please forgive me, I love you, thank you.

I stepped back from the painting and even though it wasn’t physically there, I saw a massive yin and yang sign in that void. It was energetically present. This confused me. I thought this painting was going to be about the male painbody.

It was, however, morphing into something else…

The Pinnacle Rent of the Sexes

I began to go into another state, I could feel the feminine energies coming in through me. I picked up a pink oil pastel and started smudging it over the bullet wounds and blood. It was as if I was tempering the pain. The colour pink represents passivity, calming and softening.

It then struck me.

This is not only about the male painbody but it also involves the female painbody. The war was like the symbolic peak of the separation of divine masculine and feminine.

Men come back from war shut tight as a clam and the females make them a cup of tea and offer a biscuit.

Containers and Comforters United

Masculine energy is like a container. This energy offers physical support, service, protection, strength and a ‘safe’ place. Feminine energy is that feeling of home. This energy is giving, nurturing, caring and spiritually supportive.

Can you see how this was split apart during the war?

Men came back having had their minds, limbs, spirit and morals blown apart. It was not appropriate in that time for men to show weakness or, God forbid, emotion. So they contained themselves.

“Button your lip and don’t let the shield slip. Take a fresh grip on your bullet proof mask and if they try, to break down your disguise with their questions. You can hide, hide, hide behind paranoid eyes”

~ Paranoid Eyes, Pink Floyd

Women were in complete avoidance. They probably didn’t know how to handle the enormous magnitude of the war effects and the atrocities their men had witnessed and been a part of, so they swept in under the carpet. Women became the Stepford Wives, fudging the emotions and avoiding the topic at all costs.

Neither sexes were in their integrity. They were doing a dance in the void — the ultimate tango of avoidance.

“Hey you, out there on your own sitting naked by the phone would you touch me? Hey you, with your ear against the wall waiting for someone to call out would you touch me? Hey you, would you help me to carry the stone? Open your heart, I’m coming home.”

~ Hey You!, Pink Floyd

I felt a distinct animosity for women in Pink Floyd’s music. The feelings were that of women being superficial takers, opportunists and cold fish.

In the Classroom

There was also a part at the bottom of the painting that seemed to portray the education system. How we are moulded into little nuts and bolts to keep the cogs turning.

I was even compelled at one stage to leave my studio (almost in a trance like state) and go down the staircase. I thought I was going to get some newspaper but it turned out that I was collecting a sketch I had done about 2 years ago to demonstrate Platonic Solids to a friend.

The book I had drawn it in was lying on my dining room table. I opened it straight at this picture (the book is also the kind of hardcover we used at school with the red margins and blue lines) and ripped it out, marched back upstairs and pasted it to this section of the painting.

I also noticed that I had written one of my articles at the back of this piece of paper and it had relevant wording that I also ripped out and glued to the canvas. I even automatically made a tiny paper aeroplane and stuck it to the picture.

Could this be indicative of childhood fancies — making planes at school, fantasizing about being a pilot? Then stepping out into the real world and being disillusioned by being a traumatized ‘fighter-pilot’ slipping into the void.

Then the Seeds Started to Grow

pf cup 4 The theme of this painting is very sad indeed. The tearing apart of the sexes, the war wounds, the fudging over of emotional debris by our parents and their parents but there is a distinct message of hope.

I stood back and looked at the painting. It needed green.

I couldn’t quite think of where and what to add that was green but the Universe knew. I ended up painting vines and leaves growing up out of the chaos. A symbol of hope and growth from bad experience.

Don’t Let Your Privates Deceive You

It was like all this war, disruption and chaos was leading us to heal the rift in ourselves. As you know, we are both yin and yang, masculine and feminine — no matter what your genitals tell you.

We are coming to a point in time where we are realizing this and balancing our energies. Embracing both in order to lead lives of fulfillment and acceptance of ourselves and each other — unity consciousness.

“We would meet again, some sunny day”~ Vera, Pink Floyd

Sometimes our garbage makes the best fertilizer.

Thank you, Pink Floyd, for the opportunity to unravel this important historical and emotional piece of art.

The Can of Worms is Closed!

This painting showed me the rift in the feminine and masculine energies — the breakdown of balance between yin and yang.

Then it moved to rectify the tear by bringing back the balance of both polarities. This artwork showed me that there is hope for us, that we can mend our broken hearts and bring divine balance back into the world through love, compassion and forgiveness.

“All alone or in two’s, the ones who really love you walk up and down outside the wall.
Some hand in hand and some gathered together in bands, the bleeding hearts and the artists make their stand.“

~ The Other Side of the Wall, Pink Floyd

‘Dancing in the Void’ Rock Art Painting no. 4 (Pink Floyd)
by Cherie Roe Dirksen
30″ x 30″ x 1.5″ — Acrylic and Mixed Media on Boxed Canvas

You can recap on ALL the articles in the Rock Art Series here:

10 Bands, 10 Paintings…Let the Rock Art Begin!

The Grand Band Reveal is Today!

Radiohead — A Teaser Pictorial ‘Rock Art’ Peek

What Radiohead Looks Like Through The End of My Brush

Song Playlist — Radiohead Albums That Made The Art

Rock Art Series — The Beatles

What The Beatles Look Like From the End of my Paintbrush

Rock Art Series Painting no. 3 — Jeff Buckley ‘Raw’

How I Got ‘Raw’ With Jeff Buckley

‘Dancing in the Void’ — Pink Floyd Rock Art Painting No.4 Photographs

Other articles you may find interesting:

The Secret to Excellent Living

The Fine Balancing Art of Yin and Yang

The Shocking Truth About Gender Equality

The Fine Balancing Art of Yin and Yang

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Tried and Tested — A Tale of Two Countries

In the past 2 years I have experienced the delights of visiting Thailand and being bowled over by their inherent sense of beauty and creativity to their humble way of life and their desire to please. I have also recently been to Egypt and have encountered, firsthand, the very friendly yet domineering patriarchal way of their culture.

“The ancients envisioned their world in two halves – masculine and feminine. Their gods and goddesses worked to keep a balance of power. Yin and Yang. When male and female were balanced, there was harmony in the world. When they were unbalanced there was chaos. ” ~ Dan Brown

Both cultures are clearly trying very hard to make their way in life off the tourism trade and I felt like a walking ‘dollar’ sign (if they knew I dealt primarily in Rands — South African currency — they probably wouldn’t have bothered!).

I do, however, understand this and hold no judgment for them, in that respect — we all need to make a living. The difference however was that the Thai people came across as being very gentle, artistic and what I would like to call matriarchal people. The Egyptians left me with an impression of being aggressive, zealous and patriarchal.

Balancing the Yin and Yang

I only figured out, some time after both of these excursions, that they each reflected the opposite side of the scale.

I saw massive potential in both cultures and met and made wonderful friends both in Thailand and in Egypt. I have to say that the youth of Egypt certainly show the most signs of growth and thinking out-of-the-box. My encounters with the more belligerent Egyptians were definitely steeped in ’old energy’ thinking and customs. This is something I am obviously not used to, so it affected me quite deeply.

However, both these cultures lack something. They are missing the balance of both left hemisphere (linear, structural, orderly, etc.) and right hemisphere (passionate, artistic, expressive, etc.) thinking, the marriage of divine masculine and divine feminine — the coming together of the yin and yang.

When either one of these attributes is out of alignment or missing, there is unbalance.

“Most men are very attached to the idea of being male, and usually experience a lot of fear and insecurity around the idea of being a man. Most women are very identified with their gender, and also experience a tremendous amount of fear and insecurity.” ~ Andrew Cohen

Creativity versus Order

In the case of the Thai people, they were extremely creative and inventive yet they were incredibly submissive and this leaves them open for exploitation.

With the Egyptians, they had a system of order and controlled interaction that would not budge. It was either their way or the highway. With the obvious lack of female energy (as it is tradition for their women to be at home and not in the workplace), you had a definite sense of escalated anger over small things. They could go from 0 – 10 in a matter of seconds. As friendly as they were at times, they also lost their cool very quickly. This is because there was too much masculine energy and no feminine presence to temper the storm of emotions that arise.

You need both masculine and feminine energies to complete a fully charged and functional system. This brings me to dimensions.

Harmonic Dimensions

We live in a world that is deemed as 3D, however, it is very compartmentalized. This is a true reflection of the statistical mindset of the world at present. What we need is to incorporate the uneven trait of creativity and sensitivity to balance out this equation. It is okay to have organization and order as long as you also have an even balance of creative expression. The world is coming into this balance as more and more people are seeking to express their imaginative flare. When we reach a tipping point, you will see how fast love and happiness are spread on a global scale.

Can you see how this dimension theory brings in the concept of left brain order and right brain inventiveness? When humanity realizes that all we need to do is to direct ourselves creatively amidst the structure, we will have stepped into the new paradigm — a New Earth.

In Closing, Let’s All Say a Prayer

In closing, I would like to ask that you all say a little prayer for that brave young Pakistani lady, Malala Yousafzai, to make a full recovery.

“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” ~ Joseph Campbell

She is a symbol of great courage and hope for so many. May the seed she plants for women’s rights today blossom into the tree that represents balance and equality in her society.