Paintings For The Divine
Paintings for the Divine is an exploration of the fragmentation of the human condition in a Modern digital age. The collection grounds itself in the artist’s spiritual understanding, with each painting having been birthed as a result of an intuitive top-down communication method with the artist’s Divine Creator. With this collection acting as a self-study, the artist demonstrates their own experiences with interpersonal and intrapersonal connections. Inspiration for the visual language of the collection was pulled from Hilma af Klint’s life-long portfolio, with the artist engaging in an arts-based research process to determine their own sense of creative communication. Elements of binary code are found within some paintings in order to speak to the impact that technology has on human connection. The exhibition is being shown online, through the artist’s personal website, in order to showcase the accessible nature of the internet as a tool of which to communicate divine growth.
Artists
Ashli Towry received their BFA in Art History with a minor in Art Therapy from the Columbus College of Art and Design and is currently receiving their MA in Art Therapy/Counseling from Southwestern College and New Earth Institute with an expected graduation date of 2025. Their artistic work has been shown in CCAD’s Chroma show and has also been featured in publications such as The Ana and Storied Stitches. They have presented their thesis, The Cowboy Chronicles: The Cultural, The Kitsch, and The Camp at the 2022 SUNY New Paltz Undergraduate Art History Symposium. In addition, Towry has completed research regarding the integration of Art Therapy and technology, having written papers such as, “Viewing the therapeutic approach to Queer Clients of Color through a digital lens,” and, “The Overlap Between Addiction and Attachment: Incels.” Their current exhibition, Paintings for the Divine, explores the decentralization of the human condition brought upon by the Modern Digital Age and grounds itself in a divine communication inspired by Hilma af Klint.
Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) is one of Sweden’s most esteemed artists. Today she is celebrated all over the world.
Born in Stockholm, Hilma af Klint studied at the city’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts, graduating with honours in 1887. She established herself as a respected artist in Stockholm, exhibiting figurative paintings and serving briefly as secretary of the Association of Swedish Women Artists. Already at a young age she became involved in spiritualism. Later followed a keen interest in the ideas of Rosicrucianism, Theosophy and Anthroposophy. These modes of spiritual engagement were part of the zeitgeist and popular across Europe – especially in artistic and literary circles – as people sought to reconcile religious beliefs with scientific advances and a new awareness of the plurality of religions.
Af Klint’s conventional paintings became the source of financial income, but what she refers to as the “great work”, realised during her life, remained a separate activity. Only spiritually interested audiences had any knowledge of this body of works. Her attempts to exhibit these paintings to like-minded individuals remained largely unsuccessful and remarks in her notebooks indicate that she felt that the world was not quite ready for the message they were intended to communicate.
Paintings
Divine Love Ethic, 2024, oil paint, 18.5 in. x 18.5 in.
Untitled, 2024, oil paint, 30 in. x 40 in.
Grief Beginnings, 2024, oil paint, 17 in. x 21.5 in.
Rose, 2024, oil paint, 18 in. x 24 in.
Process and Notes
The artist used a personal ritual process when beginning each painting in the Paintings for the Divine collection. Using multi-colored rocks, candles, incense, and tarot cards, Towry channeled intuitive messages pertaining to themes such as love, connection, and self-actualization. In a tarot reading speaking to the generality of the Light Figure process, the artist pulled The Magician tarot card. The figure in the card’s artistic composition is an alchemist, acting as a conduit of creation between the divine and the secular. One might think of af Klint’s purpose in creating her “Paintings for the Temple” collection. This card relays a message of action and creative energy. The Magician is a conduit of channeled action, bringing about change through speaking with the Divine.
Notes
Sketches
Reflection from the Artist
On Beginning...
Quoted from the artist: “When starting this project, I had originally set the intention of creating a relationship with my concept of my ‘divine.’ As I moved through the process, I became extremely overwhelmed. I’ve been dealing with a lot of grief in my personal life: I lost my friend, my dad, and my grandma in the past year. That’s made taking care of myself really hard- honestly, it’s made doing anything really hard. It got to a point where I felt like I couldn’t work on these paintings. As a medium, paint is extremely emotionally charged. I was worried that unprocessed trauma would come out as I worked on this project.”
On Grief...
Quoted from the artist: “I’ve been working on finding ways to support myself through all of this grief. Before I lost my loved ones, I had a tendency to isolate myself or push others away when I wasn’t feeling well. Or actually, let me expand on that- I had a tendency to push others away when I was having really intense emotions, either ones that were “good” or “bad.” I know af Klint had a similar tendency, whether she isolated for the same reasons is unclear. I think she just liked being by herself, as do I. But life gets to be too much sometimes, and the grief I was feeling was way too much for me to handle on my own. I realized I had to start reaching out to people if I wanted to survive my own experiences. I think that’s been working: I’ve been asking friends to hang out, and I feel more comfortable in a space with other people. But in all honesty, I don’t think that’s enough now. Opening myself up to others while I feel intense emotions has definitely helped me to expand around my grief but I think I started to rely on that a little too much. I’ve been running away from the internal work of expansion around grief.”
On Support...
Quoted from the artist: “Coming to that realization helped me to shift my intention with this project. I want to use these paintings and af Klint’s processes to help myself find safety and security. I want to find something within myself to return to when I’m experiencing a trauma response. I tend to shut down completely- I don’t just close others out, but myself too. Holding space for myself seems like it’s going to help me hold space for my grief and others, as well. That sounds so simple, but it’s so incredibly hard. Part of the work I think I wanted to do when starting this project was to find support in the divine. My focus has shifted form finding external support to providing that space I would normally get from others for myself.”
On Space...
Quoted from the artist: “This project speaks to all the resources I have within myself. Even if one were to just do a visual analysis of the artwork, there’d be a lot of material to pull from. Right off the bat, I think there’s a sense of care and variety in these artworks. There’s also a sense of openness that comes through in the use of space within each composition. For example, there’s a lot of empty visual space in each painting. Each artistic element seems to be content just doing its thing and not taking up too much space. The empty space is an element in and of itself, and it’s a very important one at that. It’s like a landing ground for the viewer to rest their eyes or ponder relationships and connections created by the other elements in the paintings. The space gently holds the elements that exist in the painting and the viewer’s gaze. That’s a hard thing to do. I can’t help but feel like that speaks to the space I have within myself, too.”