black forms is the second publication in this series of Meditation Activated Art Projects (MAAP 2)

it records the shift between the figurative paintings begun in the summer of 2019 and what succeeded them post january 2024 after learning and practicing transcendental meditation.

by this time i’d lost all fear of change in fact embraced it; the unavoidable evolution, it made sense; intuition founded, secured, it felt good, liberating. one door closed and another previously unseen one swung wide open; a gate unlocked a channel unblocked and when all was still, the passing thoughts, the mish mash of random ideas, the inner monologue fell silent and took the form of dark structures and shapes that filled or splintered the landscape within; objects that rose from the ground or floated across the firmament; independently placed; eruptions; huge buildings and vegetation. i came to recognise these forms as containers for decoding jumbled thoughts, for untangling the knots of mental stress and for editing undiscovered or unresolved ideas, they were in fact hangars of the mind. the creative bunkers of inner space. the molecular housings of existential expression. the text and haikus are leakage.

all of the drawings are rendered in either charcoal or oil stick or combinations of the two on fabriano paper and are between 25 x 35cm and 35 x 50cm in size.

phil thomas
2025