Original: oil and acrylic on canvas, 48 by 72 inches; © Lee Robinsong 1987
“The Intimate Persuasion of the Timeless” is a portrait of the land now known as the Hollyhock Retreat Centre.
In the early 1980s, shortly after moving to British Columbia’s Cortes Island and co-founding the Hollyhock Farm, Lee walked a seven-circuit labyrinth into the grass of the Hollyhock beach. In classical understanding, the labyrinth is a map of life that brings one closer to and then farther away from the centre, until the end of the labyrinth – and one’s life – is reached. Walking the labyrinth is a reflection of one‘s own mortality and the finite nature of life.
The Kiakum rock is an erratic deposited by the glaciers of the last ice age. This huge piece of granite has been a guest on the land for over ten thousand years.
Lee juxtaposed these two elements of the special piece of land where he lived in “The Intimate Persuasion of the Timeless”. Together they spark each other into the language of a prayer, offering a reminder of the sacred and a celebration of being alive. While the labyrinth and life are finite, the rock sticks around after everyone is gone. Both are timeless and very intimate aspects of being human and in the moment.
