Further Up and Further In
November 2022
Inspiration for this series came while exploring the mountains of British Columbia's interior. The stillness, clear perspective, and peace continued to strike me while painting in these high-altitude environments. The landscapes, though familiar in my BC upbringing, felt out of this world with every encounter of its unrestrained beauty. On each step I felt called to go further up, and further in. It felt like I kept stumbling into pockets of heaven just waiting for someone to see it.
"Further up and further in" is a line from my favourite children's books growing up, the Chronicles of Narnia, where the last book ends with the characters finally arriving in a new world symbolic of heaven, but this ending is only the beginning. As I journeyed and painted I kept seeing a parallel from my feelings to the feelings of those characters which in turn inspired the name for the series.
This series was a reminder to me that heaven is often right in front of us. To see it, all we have to do is step further up and look further in.
