I am

Thought behind the thought

I am ... this, that, many things at the same time. That is what I think I am. And I will make my choices, decide my path and write my own destiny.

And how do I portray myself? If I am a poet, I show my self through words and I use brush strokes if I am a painter! A sculptor though, can portray his self-image through many materials, like these amazing self sculptures done by different artists.

The art

Every material that is used for sculpture making has its own advantages and challenges. Each allows you a totally different form of expression, and one may choose according to the image one wants to create and project.

'Self Portrait by Valery Yevdokimov

Source: http://www.artparks.co.uk/artpark_sculpture.php sculpture=4473&sculptor=valery_yevdokimov 

Cast bronze Sculpture by Burton Blistein

Source: http://www.burtonblistein.com/Sculpture%20by%20Burton%20Blistein%20-%20Self-Portrait%20I.html

"Geometric Self-Portrait" Fall, 1995 life-size plaster cast © G. Hadd

Source: http://www.sculpturebyghadd.com/geometric.htm

Stainless steel Portrait by Martin Debenham

Source: https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/isMm9jBo1gIJ1Q/wire-sculptures-self-portraits

Ash sculpture by Zhang Huan

Source: http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/ash-head-no-1

Louis Fortier's wax and plaster heads

Source: http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/louis-fortier

time

Thought behind the thought
Time is your greatest friend and your worst enemy at the same time. It teaches you humility, gives you hope and pervades your life from the minute you were born till you take your last breath! Or maybe even later, or earlier than that. No one has been able to understand time fully. And it remains an unknown force that you can combat at times, or simply surrender to!

About the art
The concept of time has been explored by many scientists across the world and there are as many theories about its essence. Some of these scientific facts are put in front of the layperson with amazing clarity in the video below.
Animation, as a form of entertainment, is very popular. But animation to explain scientific concepts and that too, so lucidly, is indeed remarkable. Almost an art by itself!

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrqmMoI0wks

parents and offspring

Thought behind the thought
Parents are the reason why we are here on this earth. But we take them so much for granted! The things they have done for us all their lives, the unconditional love they have showered on us, we all realise it. The only mistake we probably make is we don't remember it too often! And don't express it either!
But when it comes to our children, we expect them to have regard for us and show it too, through their words and actions. Strange are the workings of the human mind!

About the Art
Portrait painting is a very challenging art because apart from the obvious physical characteristics, one has to catch and portray the mental make up of a person for the painting to come alive.

Here are some beautiful portraits of their parents drawn by various artists.

Pierre Denis and his Parents, Oil on Canvas

Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/pierre-denis-and-his-parents-181445

 Raphael Soyer, Oil on Canvas

Source: http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/482007

David Wilkie, Oil on panel

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-artists-parents-the-reverend-david-wilkie-17381812-an210860

David Hockney, Oil on canvas

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/my-parents-199286

Paul Rhys Bowen, Oil on canvas

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/two-parents-178232

Lubaina Himid, Acrylic and mixed media on Canvas

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/my-parents-their-children-34289

incomplete

Thought behind the thought
We all strive to achieve perfection. Try to fill in the gaps. Try to take things to their logical conclusion. But isn't it far more exciting to leave things a little incomplete?
A film that ends just before it actually does, leaves a gap that we fill up with our imagination. And each one of us is free to fill it the way we want. So that many stories are created out of the same story! Sentences left unfinished linger on in the mind, with added layers from our imagination. Visits to people and places that are cut short for want of time leave us hoping for more. And completing the scenes with our infinite imagination thinking to ourselves ...." What if ????"

About the Art
The sense of 'incomplete' makes art really exciting! Like these horseman sculptures created by the Beijing based group of the three artists Liu Zhan, Kuang Jun and Tan Tiawei known as Unmask Group.

The Beijing-based group, a creative formation of Liu Zhan, Kuang Jun and Tan Tianwei, masterfully constructs their hollowed, incomplete sculptures out of stainless steel and marble. The almost-abstract figures leave just enough of the sculpture intact to make the solid figure clear. It's the exclusion of certain parts that add a hint of intrigue. There is also an odd oneness to each sculpture that allows the human figures to melt into and meld with the horse's form. It's hard to tell where one entity ends and the other begins.

Credit and Source of information
http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/incomplete-sculptures-of-a-man-and-his-horse
http://amazingtechzone.com/art/incomplete-horseman-sculptures-revering-humans-by-beijing-based-artists-2/

dreams and reality

Thought behind the thought
It is popularly believed, and scientifically proved, that dreams are made up of bits and pieces of real life that are stored in the subconcious. The events of the day, the people we meet, the feelings and emotions we experience all surface in the form of surreal dreams that are at once real, and at the same time, unreal.
I wonder at times, whether it may really be the other way round! What if our real life is a reflection of, and put together with, bits and pieces of our dreams? That too linked up in a weird sequence? What a surreal thought!

About the art
The concept of surrealism - that dreamlike state, which we feel is real, has inspired great works of art. Apart from paintings (Salvador Dali being the foremost Surrealist painter who comes to my mind), Surrealism has found it's way into other visual and performing arts too. Cinema has very effectively used this concept to entrance it's viewers in to a world of make believe.

The video below shows glimpses of the surreal in cinema from 1920 to 2010

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBLvGOuDCls

Imaginary worlds so vividly brought alive!

Credit and Source of information
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBLvGOuDCls

straight lines and circles

Thought behind the thought
We look at life as a linear progression, from childhood to youth to old age. We also look at many processes and chains of events as irreversible, a one-way affair. We are so fond of laying down straight roads, writing between straight lines and straightening out our problems.
Why is it then, that we end up running in circles all the time???

About the art
Lines and circles have fascinated artists for centuries, and are two of  the basic elements that make up a visual composition. Abstract paintings are at times, pure exercises in putting together these elements together in a visually stimulating way. Like these very interesting compositions by Wassily Kandinsky, one of the greatest abstract painters of the 20th century.

composition, 1923

Trained to be a lawyer, Kandinsky gave up his successful career to devote himself totally to painting. Kandinsky due to his active creativity and organizational skills always attracted anything intellectual, restless, striving, which was in the world of art of that time. In 1901 he founded Phalanx, an art group, in Munich and started a school, in which he taught himself. He, along with other members of his group arranged exhibitions, in which, according to the artist, "the accent was made on revealing associative properties of color, line and composition.

 black and violet 1923

 Blue 1923

Circles in a circle 1923

Opposing the Constructivist artists, who lay emphasis on exact analysis of materials for their constructive arrangement or setting, Kandinsky said that "Just because an artist uses 'abstract' methods, it does not mean that he is an 'abstract' artist. It doesn't even mean that he is an artist. Just as there are enough dead triangles (be they white or green), there are just as many dead roosters, dead horses or dead guitars. One can just as easily be a "realist academic" as an "abstract academic". A form without content is not a hand, just an empty glove full of air".

 in the black square 1923

 parallel diagonals 1925

unequal 1932

After joining the well-known Bauhaus, Germany (the Higher school of construction and art designing), he again taught and developed his ideas. They dealt, first of all, with the deep analytical study of separate elements of a picture, which resulted into "Point and Line to Plane" in 1926. Kandinsky also worked much and experimented with color, applying his analytical foundation and the conclusions in his teaching. Kandinsky's works again underwent changes: individual geometrical elements increasingly entered the foreground, his palette was sated with cold color harmonies which, at times, are perceived as a dissonance, the circle is used differently, as a sensual symbol of perfect form.

Credit and source of information

http://www.wassilykandinsky.net

spring

Thought behind the thought
We all have an optimistic corner in our hearts, where live our desires and our hopes. And they are yearning to spring to life. At times, for years they lie in wait ... for the right time, the right season, the right situation. And when the winds of change blow and bring with them a changing season, they come alive and blossom!

About the art
Spring has figured as a prominent theme in all Indian art, whether it is painting or music or theatre. There is something about spring that Indians cherish and 'Vasant' or 'Basant' as it is called in the Indian subcontinent marks the beginning of a new year in almost all parts of India. Festivals associated with this season are vibrant too, reflecting the fresh greens. reds and yellows that appear on the landscape.

Spring depicted in these miniature paintings reflect the joy associated with it in Indian culture

Vasant Ragini, Raagmala -Rajput painting 1770

Deccan Paintings - Raga Basant, Golkonda, circa 1690-1700, National Museum

Raag Vasant - Bundi raagmala- Rajput painting

Raag vasant - Kangra raagmala

Ragini Vasant Prince of Wales Museum, Mumbai

Ragini Vasanti

Credit and source of information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragamala_paintings
http://www.anistor.gr/english/enback/o041.htm
http://indiapicks.com/Indianart/Main/MP_Ragamala.htm
http://www.dollsofindia.com/product/miniature-paintings/ragini-vasanti-miniature-painting-on-silk-cloth-GK48.html

sandstorm

Thought behind the thought
Sandstorms fill the sky with swirling sand, raised from the dunes on the earth. Just like the thoughts that lay quietly piled up in the mind and are raised in a swirl by some very powerful gust of wind. The air so fills up with millions of particles of sand, that it is impossible to see anything around you. And so with the million thoughts that swirl in the mind at times. The minds pace is so laden with thoughts that it is difficult even to find your own self in the thought-storm!

About the art
Sand is a powerful medium to express thoughts too. Sand sculptures may be static, but convey a lot of meaning. And when sand turns in to a medium for performing art, it is simply amazing. As demonstrated by Israeli Sand artist Ilana Yahav.

Give peace a chance by Ilana Yahav     source: https://youtu.be/WWepVUYn54s

Sand art, into which Ilana has put all her energies and talents, is a unique and minimalist art form in which she uses only that which God blessed her with: sand, hands and soul. It is this very simplicity that fascinates her and which makes it so challenging and exciting to her and to her audience. “I was always captivated by the ability of hand gestures to express emotions such as anger, compassion, and love… Just as in dance, such movements create emotions that play a major role in the creation.” 

Ever since you left by Ilana Yahav     source: https://youtu.be/4-1W-lhz0DE

“The experience of direct contact with sand enthralled me already as a child.” Ilana says: “It was a happy childhood along the shores of the Mediterranean, which I would visit every day on my way to school. I would draw a personal story, a kind of living diary in the sand. I would draw quickly, trying to finish it all before the wave would come and wipe everything out. I was totally spellbound. I would stand and watch until the drawing disappeared, realizing that everything is transient and temporary…”
Credit and source of information
http://sandfantasy.com/

tomorrow and today

Thought behind the thought

Today and Tomorrow, like two siblings are forever connected, yet maintain their own identities. The judgemental older brother blames the younger one for everything, and the younger one hardly cares! He is so busy living his life and making his mistakes! If only they came together! Life would be so much better for all the value they would both bring to it. Enthusiasm and adventure on one hand, wisdom and maturity on the other!

About the art

The special bonding between siblings has inspired a lot of art, and these oil paintings done on Copper vouch for the same.

 Iris and Edward by Lauren Palte

Sonia and Sister by Lauren Palte

Untitled  by Lauren Palte

Untitled  by Lauren Palte

Tilley and siblings by Lauren Palte

This is what the artist Lauren Palte has to say about this amazing work in a very innovative medium

"In this project, oil paint that is dissolved in solvent is poured onto a horizontal sheet of copper. The non-porous surface of copper causes the paint to flow, pool and disperse across the surface. The luminous ground shines through the thin layers of paint.

The importance of the medium and a search for exploratory processes of painting underpin this project. But the formal concern of light and transparency that is offered by the copper surface ties into my interest in x-rays of paintings, in particular recent autoradiographs of works by Dutch Masters, Vermeer and Rembrandt. X-ray images of such paintings reveal things that would otherwise remain invisible to the unaided eye. These images present an opportunity to engage with the changeability of technique present in paintings. The human forms that were whole in the original paintings become ghostly shadows in x-ray.

This project brings together x-ray images of paintings with fragments from well-known paintings and personal images from my family album. While diverse in their origin, the activity of painting seeks a moment of recognition or empathy with the painted figure; searching for lost moments, hidden in memory or behind new layers of paint."


Credit and source of information
http://laurenpalte.com/

life

Thought behind the thought: 

Henry Thoreau says, “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it”. It so true about all of us, we have all exchanged something very dear to us in exchange for life. Not always, are we able to do so with acceptance. This exchange scars us of life and makes us vulnerable to pain. Oddly some people seem happy and content all the time and you begin to wonder how life is so sorted for them. Truth is that they too have paid a price and if you look closely, chances are you will find the price clearly imprinted in their eyes.

About the art: 

Yuki Matsueda is a Japanese artist who has done some remarkable work in 3D sculpting. His sculptures seem to be in suspended animation and he manages to pull out the core or the crux out an object and separate it from the whole. Just as we pay a price for life and are bereft of our core or our crux, these objects look like something vital is missing or has been pulled out of them with force. It would be interesting to imagine how we look, visually, separated from what we imagine to be our core. Matsueda’s works show us the part, the whole, the crux and the absence and presence of the crux in the same frame at a single point in time.

Credits:

http://artboom.info/sculpting/yuki-matsueda-extruded-art.html