This piece and its significance is as much about the journey of its creation as it is the finished image, just like the immense value and beauty of our journey through Life, as opposed to any one destination point alone.

It emerged in an extraordinary way over a long period of time and is representative of the greater consciousness of the cosmos dreaming nature and complex life into being.

In the beginning, there was only the sleeping face and cactus-like mountains with the rainbow dotwork “ether” in the background, and the bare surface of the earth in the foreground. The painting then sat like this in gestation for a considerable time after.

When Lara-Jane's 5 year old daughter asked to work on a “real ‘work’ painting with mummy”, she decided to get this one out, as it was well underway, but still had a good area of open space they could work with.

Her daughter added some jelly fish-like creatures, a flying person, a couple of rainbows and some spheres, as well as some indistinct hand-writing, which happened to come out backwards as she was only just learning to write.

Her daughter lost interest shortly thereafter and moved onto other creations. Lara-Jane's interest, however, only increased and she spent the following days, weeks and months elaborating on and “listening to” those curious little doodlings, allowing herself to work in a similarly naïve manner at times. Firstly, highlighting the presence of the beings her daughter had depicted, then discovering and fleshing out the main rainbow threshold, and eventually working on the proliferation of the miniature rainbows throughout the landscape until it felt complete.

The meaning of the words and letters her daughter had scribbled wasn’t entirely clear as it trailed off in a backwards direction, but the first two words were clear: I AM. One of the most mundane things to pass through all our lips on a daily basis as humans, and equally one of the most sacred and profound utterings of our existence – those two sacred words that represent consciousness itself. Based on this, it felt fitting to include “I Am” in the title, and the addition of “Creation Story” in parentheses in respect to the unique and exciting journey of the piece and how it unfolded, as well as its fascinating content.

For Lara-Jane, the image continues to speak to her, revealing new layers of meaning since its creation and she looks forward to the unique meanings and messages it may hold for others as they engage with it from their own perspective and personal manner of interpretation.

*Mixed media artwork (watercolour paint, paint pen, wax pencil) on 300gsm watercolour paper"