FUSION: Paintings and Tapestries Inspired by India 

Title:	Maya:1
Date:	2010
Media:	mixed media
Size:	74 x 61cms.

India is an artist’s paradise, visually and culturally, where the sacred is still a deep part of Indian life. Ireland is also a rich, ancient culture, where the land and the soul are deeply lconnected. This can be heard in both Indian and Irish music. In the past, Janet Pierce has collaborated with the Irish traditional singers, Maighread and Triona Ní Dhomhnaill, a collaboration which helped Pierce realise her deep connection with landscape. She was honoured to respond to a request for a painting for the front of their CD, 'Idir an da Sholas'. She was also honoured to respond to a similar request, by the internationally respected Fermanagh musician, Cathal Mc Connell. She produced a painting for front of the two CD’s 'Hidden Fermanagh', out of her respect for the traditional music of Fermanagh. Indian Hindu music is subjective, spiritual and individualistic. It aims not at symphonic brilliance but at personal harmony with the Divine.The ragas, [melodies], pertain to certain hours of the day and certain seasons of the year. All this found an echo in Pierce's heart, which translates into her art practice.. This change in the direction of Pierce's work came about as a result of a highly mystical experience at the source of the holy river Ganges, high up in the lower Himalyas in India. Pierce spent a month meditating and painting there in February 2005.

When Pierce returned to Ireland, she found her work had changed, she could no longer go back. A certain peace had entered her consciousness and therefore the imagery had altered appropriately. Janet returned to India for four months in 2006. 2007, 2008 and 2009. She now divides her time between Ireland and India, exhibiting in both countries. Using gold and silver leaf from Old Dehli, these abstract works on Paper, have resulted in an intensification of earlier considerations, her hunger for transcendence realised through the contemplation of landscape and of the cosmos. In 2008 and 2009 Janet decided to extend her interest in Indian imagery and go back to making tapestries, which she had studied briefly as a student. India is the country of textiles. So she went to the Tasara centre for Creative Weaving in Kerela, South India. Pierce painted in her studio amongst the coconut palms and worked on designs that fused her sense of the environment and European sensibilities. The heat, fecundity, humidity and abundance of life in the tropics seemed like paradise. Yet as one got to know the culture of the Hindu joint family life, she realised there is a very strict code of conduct that is hidden, unlike our open Western way of life. This is where the title ‘Hidden Paradise’ came from. Echoing the gold in her works on paper and canvas, Janet used gold thread and silver thread in her tapestries.