The Automatic Drawings of Alma Rumball

Join Wendy Oke for this fascinating free talk on the life and work of spirit-inspired Canadian artist, Alma Rumball. 

The College is delighted that Alma's work is featured in its summer exhibition, Strange Things Among Us. 

In the early 1950s, when Alma Rumball was around 50 years old, she had a vision of Christ with a panther at his side. Following this profound experience, she became clairvoyant and her hand began to draw, separate from Alma's consciousness. During this time, Alma was also introduced to her spiritual guide, who identified himself as a 'genius' and by the name of Aba Pasha. This spiritual guide may also be known as a 'daemon', or source of inspiration, as with William Blake and Socrates.

Alma's process was Psychic Automatism which is the pure state sought by visionaries who simply stay out of the way and 'allow' inspiration to flow freely, uninhibited by the left brain or by dogma. 

Michael Greenwood, curator for Toronto's York University Art Gallery, who held Alma's first major, one-woman show in 1978, told Wendy he had not seen a more pure case of psychic automatism since William Blake. He wrote in the press release: "History records many instances of the phenomenon of automatism in the production of art works, though seldom found in so pure a form as in Alma Rumball's drawings." 

Alma also wrote and drew a series on the lost civilization of Atlantis and wrote Alma Came to Earth as Joan of Arc. The Dalai Lama's spiritual advisor named 8/20 images as Tibetan gods and deities.

Come along to this free talk and prepare to learn more about Alma and her unique, increasingly appreciated place within the spirit-inspired art world.

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This lecture will be recorded. A link to the recording will be emailed to all participants.

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