eNigMatiC iNNoceNce: September 2007

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

soul release..

finally, after a few weeks of hard work, i managed to come up with this painting entitled "soul release," which was inspired by salvador dali.

basically, the painting is about letting go of someone whom you love, be it through death or an unfortunate incident in which two people could not be together anymore due to unforeseen circumstances.

in this painting, you can see that a girl is releasing a butterfly into the air.

salvador dali uses animals to symbolize emotions, for example he views eggs as a symbol of love.
he connects the egg to the prenatal and intrauterine, thus using it to symbolize hope and love

for me however, i view butterflies as a symbol of a person who yearns to break free from something in their lives.
i connect the butterfly to their wings, because they are always flying off and not really settling down in one place. till their heart has rested and at peace, only then will they lay down to rest.

in my painting however, i modified the butterfly by personalizing the wings to make them look like a human face from the side view. i also added eyes on the other two wings to make them look largely interesting and more visually attractive.

the balls also signify memories. i was inspired by the gypsy's fortune telling ball in which one can see the future from looking into the ball. however in my painting, the balls signify memories and emotions that are deeply embedded the girl's heart.

i did not really put much detail into the balls and made them out to be rather sketchy and vague, so that the viewer can come up with their own interpretations of what they think is inside the balls.

the first ball from the left which shows a girl crying bloody tears speaks everything for itself.

the second ball shows two people revelling in the warmth of the sunset, but if you take a closer look, you will notice that the ball is emblazoned in flames. it signifies a memory which is burning away slowly, perhaps fading away very slowly into non-existence.

the third ball depicts two silhoulettes walking on a path hand-in-hand. it is my intention to make them look unclear and vague because when you make something out to be unclear and vague, the emotions that are displayed in the painting are also unclear and vague, thus giving the viewer a list of open possibilites of the emotions that was once felt in the past.

lastly, in the fourth ball, it shows a man kissing the girl's forehead. you might notice that the colours that i used are highly contrasting to the rest of the dark, sombre colours that was used in the rest of the painting. it is pink in colour with white details to further accentuate the prominence of the ball. it is my intention to make it evergreen, radiant and lighthearted, because that memory is something which the girl will always treasure.

the circles in the background and the swirls add to the confusion, hurt and solemness of the painting. however, my first intention was to make it look cheery and graceful. however, with further developements, i realized that there was no point trying to live a lie. letting go is a painful release, no matter what the reasons might be.

thus, this is the rationale for my painting which is entitled "soul release," :)

love
-eNigMa-
;)

eNigMa posted at 6:08 PM 0 comments

fusion

i tried to incorporate some of salvador dali's style into my artwork, and i tried to implement the symbolic and surrealistic way he paints in his paintings..

i first started off with this rough sketch. i had an idea in mind which is a girl releasing butterflies into the air, i was trying to portray the idea that she was releasing something that she treasured deeply which she deemed beautiful in her life.

while doing this painting, the song "butterfly" by mariah carey was also an inspiration. i had meant for it to look peaceful and full of serenity, by following the background taken from deviantart that's below the picture.

however, shirlyn told me that it doesn't look surreal enough, and prompted me to come up with an earlier work, and modify it with a little bit of inspiration from the artist.

so i chose this painting of mine which I had done 2 years ago, and I tried to form another painting that has a style similiar to Salvador Dali's, but at the same time I used this painting as a template.

with help and guidance from shirlyn, i managed to come up with these two sketches which I find surrealistic and very emotion-provoking.

the first sketch signifies balls which symbolizes memories coming out from the girl's heart, and from the release of memories, she lets go of the butterfly, which signifies someone whom she loves dearly. the background is full of curvy lines and messy circles to signify the confusion, heartache and hurt in her mind.

however so, she is seen waving goodbye to the butterfly and the memories.

in the second sketch however, the girl is standing on top on a ball which similar to the first sketch, signifies her memories. it's also seen as a release of memories, but unlike the first painting, she chooses to let it be buried deep in her mind, and not choosing to release all of them yet. she chooses to keep it deep inside her heart, because she knows that memories are something that no one can ever change and take away from her.

i tried to modify the butterfly to make it look more surrealistic, and with shirlyn's helpful suggestions, i added eyes to the butterfly's wings to make it look like a mystical object.

i came up with a few colour schemes before i finally chose this particular scheme, and voila! the painting is done! :)

overall, i had fun while doing this painting, because it gives me a chance to explore my inner surrealistic self, and it also gives me a chance to release my emotions and show the world my eccentric thoughts, just like what salvador dali has done.

i felt that if i had more time, i would have improved on my painting style and the shadings. however, overall, i am happy with my work and i would appreciate it if you have any comments to say regarding my work. ;)

thank you! :)

eNigMa posted at 5:34 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

salvador dali.. :)

SALVADOR DALI

Salvador dali is a man best known for his striking, bizarre, and beautiful images in his surrealist

work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters.

Salvador Dalí's artistic repertoire also included film, sculpture, and photography.

He is widely considered to be greatly imaginative, and had an affinity for doing unusual things to draw attention to himself. This sometimes irked those who loved his art as much as it annoyed his critics, since his eccentric manner sometimes drew more public attention than his artwork. The purposefully sought notoriety led to broad public recognition and many purchases of his works by people from all walks of life.

Below are some of his works that inspired me:

The rose-Salvador Dali
Image courtesy of http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:FC4MOd3yTQ-L6M:http://www.leninimports.com/salvador_dali_gallery_the_rose.jpg

Dali's depiction of "Wood Of Suicides" from "Inferno"
Image courtesy of
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/rbx/exhibitions/Dante/Dante%20Exhibition%202006%20temporary%20folder/Images/Item24v1plate13.jpg

Senicitas-Salvador Dali
Image courtesy of http://www.leninimports.com/salvador_dali_senicitas_postcard_1_med.jpg

Allegorie de Soie-Salvador Dali
Image courtesy of http://www.leninimports.com/salvador_dali_allegorie_de_soie.jpg

Lonesome-Salvador Dali
Image courtesy of
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/rbx/exhibitions/Dante/Dante%20Exhibition%/Images/Item24v1plate14.jpg

Butterflies-Salvador Dali
image courtesy of http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:3gxyTJ2x0X7jjM:http://silent.rave.org/jpockele/treasures/Salvador_Dali-Paysage_aux_Papillons.jpg

I rather liked the way he arranged his thoughts and feelings and composed it into a painting which has so much soul and depth. He also managed to portray emotions through extensive symbolism.

For instance, the hallmark soft watches that first appear in The Persistence of Memory suggest Einstein's theory that time is relative and not fixed. The idea for clocks functioning symbolically in this way came to Dalí when he was staring at a runny piece of Camembert cheese during a hot day in August.

His paintings also create a sense of phantom reality.

He uses animals to symbolize emotions.

Foe example, various animals appear throughout his work as well: ants point to death, decay, and immense sexual desire; egg to the prenatal and intrauterine, thus using it to symbolize hope and love and finally, the snail is connected to the human head and locusts are a symbol of waste and fear.

He also views elephants as a distortion in space as its spindly legs contrast the idea of weightlessness with structure.

"I am painting pictures which make me die for joy, I am creating with an absolute naturalness, without the slightest aesthetic concern, I am making things that inspire me with a profound emotion and I am trying to paint them honestly."

—Salvador Dalí, in Dawn Ades, Dalí and Surrealism.

I chose Salvador Dali as I feel that he is an eccentric man who is no doubt largely interesting and dares to be portray his quirky thoughts and feelings to the public. He enjoys painting and drawing because it is his passion and it is also an outlet where he can let his inner self shine.

I deeply feel that behind the eccentric yet artistic being, lies a tortured genius who has a lot of stories and emotions to share with the world.

Somehow I feel that I share some similar traits to Salvador Dali in the sense that we are both random such that people think of us as eccentric, and that to truly express ourselves, we turn to painting to express our feelings and as an outlet for our emotions.

I am also very much inspired by his ability to bring the art of surrealism and symbolism into life, and I hope that I can accomplish that in my next painting. :)

eNigMa posted at 2:57 AM 0 comments

my portfolio! :)

MY PORTFOLIO
looking back at my portfolio that i had done in recent years, i realized that my work are usually inspired by very colourful objects of nature, and that i like to create a cartoony and cheerful version of the world around me.

this is what you could expect to see in my portfolio:

1) i love taking snapshots of nature or still things, especially in its colourful brilliance.
2) i love drawing caricatures of people and enriching them with colours.
3) i am also a very detail-oriented person, and more often than not, i like to add details in my drawings/paintings/sketches/photographs.

here are some works that are derived from my personal collection.

a plant that seems to be bursting with colours.

a colourful bathroom tile.

a painting of a girl termed "mystical loneliness,"

an array of colouful umbrellas.

golden confetti.

a tree bark which seems to be illuminating.

a shirt that i had painted for a friend.

cartoony sketches.

another painted shirt.

rainbow tiles.

another painted shirt.

colourful caricatures of a friend.

my version of the emoticons.

even though this does not have any colour in it, i added a lot of details such as shading and cross-hatching in it.

however, i would like to try something different for this module, and that is to be inspired by the art of surrealism, the idea of living inside one's head.

Surrealism is a 20th-century literary and artistic movement that attempts to express the workings of the subconscious and is characterized by fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtaposition of subject.

I have chosen to do Salvador Dali as my inspirational artist..
wish me luck!
:)

eNigMa posted at 2:42 AM 0 comments

Read free brainteasers

i chose to love you in silence

because in silence, i find no rejection.

i chose to love you in loneliness

because in loneliness, no one owns you but me.