In his book, Concerning The Spiritual in Art, the artist Wassily Kandinsky wasn’t talking about religion, he was talking about the inner feeling of creative conversation that we can participate in and appreciate.
In her book, Artist, Seeker and Seer; A vocabulary and a perspective for the appreciation and creation of art inspired by the Bahá’í Writings( pg 7), Bahiyyah Nakhjavani says, “A work of art needs both light and fire so that we can learn to distinguish between them; it needs separation expressed so that reunion might be recognized. To concentrate on the one without the other would undermine the force of both, in a sense.
Title: Fire and Water.
“Fire and Water” represents the balance of life-giving water against the destructive forces of fire. In nature, both are important for new growth.
Creating art is a balance of simplicity and complexity. The simplicity of the triptych titled Fire and Water is derived from its organized composition – an intense, diagonal linear design against a calm and atmospheric background. The complexity emerges from the process and what the image visually represents. Julio Savi writes, “the drama of human existence consists of the interpIay between remoteness from and nearness to Beauty, Wisdom, Order and Love, and art derives its power from the tension and contrast in this interplay.”
I want my work to spark curiosity that allows people to understand something more about themselves through their own conversation with the work and what it means to them. I use the title as a starting point for exploration.
Originally, the three pieces started as part of my Ocean of Wisdom Series, a metaphorical discovery of parts to the whole, represented as a comparison of individual waves to the sea. This concept was inspired by the sacred writings of Bahá'u'lláh, who describes a mystic journey in search of a relationship with our Creator, where we “soar in the heaven of singleness and reach to the sea of the Absolute".
In Fire and Water, I expanded the idea established in previous work titled, Thin Red Line, which focused on the tension where the planes of sea and sky converge. At the time it was an aesthetic design decision to paint the thin red line at the horizon, but it forced me to examine the qualities that reside in the duality of our physical and spiritual existence and where the two meet. With Fire and Water the energy of the red line increased into graduated flames burning on the surface against an atmospheric sky that more closely resembles gazing into the vast universe. Assessing the finished work brought to mind part of a beautiful prayer revealed by Bahá'u'lláh that says , “make of my prayer a fire that will burn away the veils which have shut me out from Thy beauty, and a light that will lead me unto the ocean of Thy Presence.”
This mixed media triptych was created from hand painted archival tissue papers, thin transparent layers of paint sponged onto a wood panel, with thick acrylic paint and mediums squirted through pastry bottles for linear texture.
In his book, Concerning The Spiritual in Art, the artist Wassily Kandinsky wasn’t talking about religion, he was talking about the inner feeling of creative conversation that we can participate in and appreciate.
In her book, Artist, Seeker and Seer; A vocabulary and a perspective for the appreciation and creation of art inspired by the Bahá’í Writings( pg 7), Bahiyyah Nakhjavani says, “A work of art needs both light and fire so that we can learn to distinguish between them; it needs separation expressed so that reunion might be recognized. To concentrate on the one without the other would undermine the force of both, in a sense.
Title: Fire and Water.
“Fire and Water” represents the balance of life-giving water against the destructive forces of fire. In nature, both are important for new growth.
Creating art is a balance of simplicity and complexity. The simplicity of the triptych titled Fire and Water is derived from its organized composition – an intense, diagonal linear design against a calm and atmospheric background. The complexity emerges from the process and what the image visually represents. Julio Savi writes, “the drama of human existence consists of the interpIay between remoteness from and nearness to Beauty, Wisdom, Order and Love, and art derives its power from the tension and contrast in this interplay.”
I want my work to spark curiosity that allows people to understand something more about themselves through their own conversation with the work and what it means to them. I use the title as a starting point for exploration.
Originally, the three pieces started as part of my Ocean of Wisdom Series, a metaphorical discovery of parts to the whole, represented as a comparison of individual waves to the sea. This concept was inspired by the sacred writings of Bahá'u'lláh, who describes a mystic journey in search of a relationship with our Creator, where we “soar in the heaven of singleness and reach to the sea of the Absolute".
In Fire and Water, I expanded the idea established in previous work titled, Thin Red Line, which focused on the tension where the planes of sea and sky converge. At the time it was an aesthetic design decision to paint the thin red line at the horizon, but it forced me to examine the qualities that reside in the duality of our physical and spiritual existence and where the two meet. With Fire and Water the energy of the red line increased into graduated flames burning on the surface against an atmospheric sky that more closely resembles gazing into the vast universe. Assessing the finished work brought to mind part of a beautiful prayer revealed by Bahá'u'lláh that says , “make of my prayer a fire that will burn away the veils which have shut me out from Thy beauty, and a light that will lead me unto the ocean of Thy Presence.”
This mixed media triptych was created from hand painted archival tissue papers, thin transparent layers of paint sponged onto a wood panel, with thick acrylic paint and mediums squirted through pastry bottles for linear texture.