Skip to main content

 Nature repeats itself


"It never occurs to me that (skulls) have anything to do with death. They are very lively. I have enjoyed them very much in relation to the sky." Georgia O'Keefe


In the previous blog, I wrote about the the human form and the importance of it in creativity and art.  Mastering the human form will allow the creator to master other forms in nature.

I have some palm trees in the back yard which have surprised me by how high they have become.  They were sold as small trees and now over power my small back area, towering over the trees in suburban Melbourne.  Despite their height, I have enjoyed the changes that they display with each season.  I don't know much about palm trees, but come autumn, they shed some of the old branches and their bark.  Mornings I will wake to find these scattered in my very small yard, did I already say I have a small yard?  You can imagine the space these take.  In any case, recently I found a piece of the bark on the ground and I thought in my mind that it was the bones and skull of a cow.  


The shape was similarly uncanny, and straight away I thought about Georgia O'Keefe and her skulls, floating in the sky, when I then realised I am far away from the desert, and there couldn't possibly be such a small skull of a cow in my small backyard.

Right there, I thought again, look at how nature just repeats itself.  It seems that certain designs just work, and then nature just keeps on creating them in places least expected.


Below, is 'Ram's Head, Blue morning glory, 1938,

Georgia O'Keefe

The similarities are so prominent and obvious, I can be forgiven for thinking that a small cow's skull landed in my backyard.

Georgia O'Keefe used a variety of medium for her works, pastels and watercolours to name a few.  The skulls were collected after a drought in New Mexico.  They must have been an intriguing lonely sight in the desert, sad really after a drought and the impact that nature can have.  They are quite ethereal, as if rising into the sky, to perhaps a new reincarnated life.  I could be reading too much into it though.

I then decided to create my day three challenge, and thought that I would draw the bark, then use water colour.  My artistic energy as an artist though does not sit well with water colour.


It is a beautiful medium, but I like the thickness and boldness of what acrylic paint can offer, and when I use water colour, the wash, pale effects turn to layers which defeats the purpose, so when I say layers, I mean paint layers.  I'm not happy with this piece, but I enjoyed working with the shape I found, and realised that no matter how hard I try, I just cannot work with water colour.  I let my bark float in the air and I incorporated some flowers too, I was interested in the choice of orange for the background which gives the work a fiery almost apocalyptic feel, and it is this notion from the piece that I might like to consider further.

So, there is always value in what we create.

Enjoy


Stella Grammenos-Dimadis






Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future.

"Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future. "   Corrie Ten Boom Corrie Ten Boom was a Dutch watchmaker, who had helped many Jews escape during the Holocaust, was a prisoner and then a writer.  She held many memories, no doubt, fears; images that would stay forever and haunt her, but they were able to unlock a future for her that she would never have imagined.  Her writing and her boldness initiated her knighthood by the Queen of the Netherlands, The King's College in New York City named a new women's house in her honour, her book "The Hiding Place", was  made into a feature film, twice. Locked away in our computer hard drives are examples of our work and lives that we lock away when our computer sleeps, forgetting about their importance because we are always told to focus on the now, forgetting about our past.  Well, perhaps it is time that we also learn to love our past, regardless of what it was like, so that we can understand what our...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Art In Healing

  "Our creativity is what enables us to function, day to day, in a changing environment, without it we would not be a surviving species". Richard Hill ‘The Art In Healing’ explores the role that creativity and art  play in people’s lives, particularly when personal trauma occurs or when people are afflicted by natural disasters. The inspiration for the film came about by contemplating the questions; ‘Why is art such an important aspect to civilisation and our society’? and ‘Does the human brain benefit from interacting with art, and if so, how’? From these questions a number of people offered their experience and research, especially in describing brain plasticity and the ability of the brain to rewire after an artistic experience. ‘The Art In Healing’ showcases a number of professionals, ranging from art therapists Simona Weinstein and Cornelia Elbrecht, therapist Richard Hill, musicians, Merelyn and David Carter, artist, Dr Anne Riggs, street artist, Amanda Newman...
Post a Comment
Read more

'Kindle a light in the Darkness'

'Kindle a light in darkness' "As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.' Carl Gustav Jung, 1962 The world as we know it has disappeared forever, and there will be a different world, it may be a better one or not, we can only wish, but in this dystopian time we have the ability to make the changes that will be needed to make it a better one.  I liken it to an all evolving work of pottery, that is spinning and shaping well, until it doesn't anymore and it collapses in a heap; huge mess.  This is what our world could be doing now, spinning, moulding, but collapsing in front of us.  It is probably time to envisage what a perfect world will look like, and what is needed to shape it into a utopian world.  It could be the time to ask and reflect on what is needed to make that happen.  It is up to us, ultimately, possibly as a collective, but inherently, the respon...
Post a Comment
Read more