By Amanda Aluthge
Earth is a bright, living planet, in a seemingly empty, dark cosmos. There are many planets in the universe, yet Earth is the only known one capable of providing life. It’s not Earth as a planet itself that amazes me, rather, it’s the various types of people that live in all its different countries and places. The perspective in which we see things, express our emotions, and experience situations are different from one another. The shape I see in a cloud is different from the shape you may see, isn’t it? There are billions of different worlds inside this one huge ball of blue and green.
Art has an effect on each of our lives though we may not know it. It can change a person’s perspectives and life. Art is a known treatment in psychological studies, and is often used to resolve problems young teenagers face in their daily lives, and along with music therapy, it is the most powerful psychological treatment given to individuals. Art therapy is used as a tool to help individuals express and resolve their emotions and thoughts.
Amusingly, each and everyone one of us is an artist, even if you don’t think you are. An artist is an individual who expresses their thoughts and emotions in their own unique ways – singing, dancing, sculpting, writing, painting or even taking photographs. I sometimes find myself belting out a song, scrolling through various paintings, scribbling on a canvas, or rushing through a book when I’m bored and confused as to what I should do.
Art is captured by various imaginations. I could go on about every painting I’ve come across, but I’ve decided on “Daisy”, by Cristina Bencina.
[Cristina Bencina --> https://cristinabencina.tumblr.com/ ]
“Daisy” is a digital painting made for a musician by Cristina Bencina, an artist who uses collections of beautiful and bright colors. Cristina Bencina creates digital art for clients who are interested in their pieces, and leaves it for
interpretation, giving their admirers a chance to expand their imagination.
Seen from the painting, “Daisy”, by Bencina, you can see how important emotion is and its presence in the miniscule details in a piece of art, because it gives meaning to your painting.
“She asked me to create something ethereal that captured the feelings of innocence and new beginnings,” Bencina stated.
Art can be interpreted in various ways, and I tend to be someone who analyses the smallest features of a painting, from the colors to the objects in it.
As someone who finds interest in Bencina’s art on Tumblr, this piece attracted me the most because of the consistency of the orange and browns. In my perspective, the illustration shows a girl in solitude with astonishment painted on her face. “Daisy’s” orange almond eyes, the swirling pattern in her pupils, eyelashes and the daises blooming from the Earth shows the bittersweet emotions slowly constructing on her face.
Although these features could possibly be interpreted as death, I believe she’s been hit by the sharp knife of realization that most people face in their lives - when a rush appeared 13.8 billion years ago and, through some happenstance, led to their existence.
This rush of realisation knocks the breath out of us, and we catch ourselves taking a deep breath, as the atmosphere around us becomes crowded and messy, which is portrayed as the daisies. People are forced to express their emotions and perceive the world differently when they are faced with this realization, showing the significance of the daisies, as they represent new beginnings, in Norse mythology.
That’s my own interpretation though, and you’re free to make your own.
You can see how the Implications you want to indicate in a painting or sketching can be presented in the simplest ways - from the texture to the color to the objects in it, - such as a flower. Stick to the easiest parts of a painting in which you can give insight to your audience on what you’re trying to show them instead of panicking about it – creating a piece of your own, music or art, can be easier if you believe in yourself.
How Do You Face Problems As An Artist Instead Of Neglecting Them?
1. The Mindset Of An Artist
As an artist, your biggest enemy might be your own mind. You may find yourself drifting away from the piece you’re creating, or not knowing where to start an original piece. Lehara Edirisinghe, who faces the same problems as you do, can answer those questions that continue to trouble you by clinging onto your head.
“In the emotional attachment the artist has to the piece, what it means to the artist which is usually the "I hate this, I'm never drawing again" feeling and the "Oh it doesn't look bad..." and the " I'm so glad I can draw" and even the " Oh I forgot I drew this." That’s why you should never throw away old pieces! They tell an emotional story in themselves, irrelevant of subject matter”, Edirisinghe emphasized. [AR1]
Edirisinghe emphasizes this important statement by proving that believing in old pieces, and recreating them can show improvement in your work, and be used as a tool to create your pieces in the future by focusing on the changes in your art throughout the years.
(A piece done by Lehara Edirisinghe)
2. Finding Your Pieces Boring
Losing interest and motivation in a piece is the easiest task an artist finds themselves doing, from finishing the lyrics of a song, finishing the details in an object you’re sculpting or leaving your half-done painting to collect dust under your bed or in your laundry room.
Edirisinghe faces this problem constantly and believes that you should not worry about it, that it’s a common pain artists face every day, and that it’s not just you. She told me that she’s procrastinating doing her pieces currently as well, and in those cases, her biggest motivation is to admire other artists. “That feeling of ‘hey look at that! I want to do that too’ and realizing that if you do want to do that, you're going to have to finish your pieces. So be inspired by others, when you look for motivation”, Edirisinghe states.
3. Trying To Be Original
Inspiration is the driving force behind art, it could be people, objects, nature, or just imagination. I get inspiration from the paintings that surround me in my life and pop up on my daily feed, and the people surrounding me in my everyday life. There is a moment in which I envision the important details, seconds after I find my inspiration, before I start painting.
From the moment I started drawing, I always had a dream to portray a piece similar to “The Starry Night”, by Van Gogh. What interested me the most was the moon in the painting, and I thought I could never illustrate the textures of the moon like Van Gogh did, and I still have not. As an artist, you should not aim to paint the details of your inspiration, but the reason it captured your eye.
Although I could not achieve the textures that Van Gogh did, I continued to attempt the painting of the moon with textures that I find comfort in.
<--- (my own piece)
Creating original art can be difficult at times, and Edirisinghe also believes the starting point is different for everyone, and the drive behind someone’s artwork affects that starting point drastically.
“I remember being really intimidated trying to think of how to express a concept, I couldn't visualize it in my head, there were just loose thoughts, so I started taking pictures and that helped - not that this technique is perfect - but that's how I figured it out”, Edirisinghe says.
Starting from scratch can be difficult, but following this guide might help, especially when your mind starts to let you down and demotivate you!
Step 1: If you feel like you don’t know where to start or don’t have any original ideas, don’t let that stop you! Remember, we all perceive things in different ways, and may end up creating something similar or different as someone else. An original creation is made up by existing subjects put together.
Step 2: Don’t stress about how weird or how boring your idea may be, start drawing whatever you want – by doing this you’ll realize what you want to express with your art and in what way.
Step 3: “Originality is not really about being novel in my opinion, it’s about being so diverse in your knowledge that you're able to pull from different artists to create something that in itself is unique”, this is something that Edirisinghe said which continues to stick with me, and I hope it will remain in your mind as you create a piece of art too.
Step 4: The Bensiński interview can help many artists, as the goal of his art is not to be symbolic but to take a different approach to how we understand art traditionally (Beksiński interview: https://youtu.be/1EsYHvVtb34 )
Step 5: Finally, if you wish to create a piece that holds meaning and symbolism, you must put in enough time to research and identify the references which attract you most and include it in your painting carefully, and must have a clear understanding of the symbol.
You don’t need to follow the steps in order, and can do them at your own speed, don’t try to rush your first original piece, as it may turn out to be a mess. I created my first original painting last year after years of painting and sketching as a hobby, for a literature project where we had to create an original piece about how we feel as individuals who are forced to face the taboo topic of menstruation every day in an Asian country. I ended up creating this after days of researching things that symbolize certain topics and the emotions and thoughts females have as they face these situations in Sri Lanka.
<--- (my own piece)
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