komorebi

ABOUT KOMOREBI

There is a Japanese term for which there is no English equivalent, Komorebi (木漏れ日), which describes the dappled effect of sunlight filtered through trees and leaves. Along with that term is the related concept of shinrin-yoku (森林浴), or forest bathing: the idea that there is a healing power in being immersed in the forest, surrounded by nature: trees, soil, sunlight, rivers and rain, oxygen, that is, earth, fire, water, air: the elements of life. Time spent resetting ones senses, with an aimless gaze, outward listening, and an overall sense of awe at nature’s scale and majesty, connects us with the earth and ultimately back to ourselves.

Komorebi, then, is the title given to my series of abstracted botanicals which, with their hints of organic shapes and patterns and light, echoed with mandala-esque symmetry, evoke the calming and mind clearing effect of that forest light. In the hard-edged spaces and cacophony of modern urban life, far from the healing forces of nature, even a passing glimpse of these botanical shapes can trigger a reconnection to our primal understanding of the life giving elements of nature, a brief but welcome respite from the stress of daily life.