This painting “Relative Reflections” was selected to be part of the online juried show “Reflections”. The juror gallerist Shelly Barry choose the works to be included in the national juried show of Arc Gallery in San Francisco. I am pleased to be part of this online show starting May 16th, 2020.
As an artist, I am always contemplating the role of art. While I feel art should reflect the duality of life and vision, this painting is disturbing. Had I know we would be facing one of the most bizarre times on our planet, I probably would have painted a more soothing or distracting image.
That being said I came up with the image by playing with the idea of how we see ourselves in mirrors. How our brain superimposes how we feel, or think about ourselves onto our reflected image.
This painting was influenced by reading about how anorexic patients often see themselves as fat in the mirror, even though they are starving. Then I discovered the scientist V.S. Ramachandra. He studies how our thoughts affects the image we see and how the reflection we see affects our body.! In his experiments he tricks the brain to see the image of a healthy hand even though it is paralyzed. Which positively affects the paralyzed hand.
So while I painted the negative outcome of how our thoughts influence our reflected image, I will paint the opposite. This image and this time of self isolation has made me realize the importance of thought. If what we feel and think influences our outcome, it is time for me to think and feel the beautiful, the kind, and the safety of our planet.
I still have a tendency to be a big bummer, but I am in the process of change. While there is a lot of injustice in the world, I think my biggest heroes and heroines are people who just did what they bravely had to do. Although time is a scary, hopefully it is also an opportunity to envision a positive outcome.
I would not have come up with this image, had I know what we would be facing now. However it is here, it is in a show, and besides being disturbing it is an intriguing image. We all see ourselves with our self image superimposed on our reflection. It is time to take charge of what we reaffirm every time we look in a mirror.
Check out Arc gallery’s online juried show “Reflections”, which will be online May 16th, 2020. And if you have even $3.00 extra dollars please donate with the button below. Thank you so much for visiting my site!