Arte Dea - INTENTIONS: art

HOW I STARTED AND A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE MEDIA

THE BEGINNING

Since 1991, I have been making symbolic art (paintings mixed with drawings) that can be read and analyzed much like dreams can. In fact, it was an intense phase of dream analysis that triggered the unexpected startup of my symbolic art. I found that dreams are perfectly logical if you are able to understand the language of symbols.

In the beginning, I worked with charcoal and red crayon, then inspired by impulses received during my artist's training in France, I started using inks and crayons of all colours.

About "Eve"

”Eve” is my first symbolic picture. It shows a naked and vulnerable female figure which feels rubberlike and unreal, and also is colourless. It describes a feeling of alienation and of not feeling at home in the world we live in. The red spheres are paradoxical; the red colour expresses a desire for full-blooded life. They are simultaneously fruits and something that is reminiscent of grenades. In this picture, I have subconsciously applied a biblical allegory, albeit without being Christian, and made it into a personal description of the fear of receiving what life has to offer. The fruits or grenades which can contain something good, i.e. the essence of life, can also explode in your face. In other words, you can never get anything in life without also subjecting yourself to the dangers of life.

I exhibited extensively throughout the 1990’s, in group exhibitions in the Finnish seaside resort Hanko where I spent my holidays at my mother's residence, and more importantly, on a private basis in the Finnish capital city Helsinki where I was residing at the time. Some time around the millennium I had to stop drawing, as my physical condition was preventing me from doing very finicky things with my hands. This is when inspired by my knowledge of découpage, I started making collages.

THE CONTENTS

My art is primarily symbolic art (symbolism), but a lot of it could also be called metaphysical, esoteric, spiritual and even surreal (though the latter would imply a certain lack of logic which I don't feel that mine display, as they follow the logic inherent in dreams and dreams are not irrational! Notwithstanding the fact that my collages are less obviously logical than my early drawings and paintings).

My artistic intention is to highlight emotional and social issues but also connect it to my inner knowing of the underlying oneness of all existence. This inner knowing is not dependent on external sources. I may add that there are obviously times of soul searching and the questioning of one's purpose, as few things in our reality are clear as water. My art is all to do with change (as the only constant in the universe), transformation, letting go of the old, integration of the self, and just trying to adapt to life in the human realm and making the best out of it! I dive into the difficult parts of life while never losing sight of the 'other' reality. In short, I wish to highlight the various levels and stages of individual and collective evolution in Wilberian sense, knowing that I can only truly understand the trials of human life by living it fully. This is also why I have taken it upon myself to talk about illness and dysfunction, as I wish to promote awareness and ultimately, acceptance. Only through the acceptance of pain can we transcend it.

One of the notable elements of my art is that of dialectics (the evolutionary interaction of opposites), which I see as underlying the reality as we perceive it. There seem to be constant tension between opposites, and this never ceases to interest and intrigue me. We seek balance and I certainly like to advocate the middle path as a solution in many situations of conflict, but what happens when life is in complete balance? Is it possible?

A change of direction has gradually taken place, and it is becoming clearer to me that I want to present a more poignant view of the kind of difficulties that I am familiar with due to chronic illness. Where this will take me is yet to be seen. Read about the process on my blog.

THE STRUCTURE

I like to direct the viewer into the image through a composition that almost echoes reality, but not quite. We are greatly conditioned to see the world in a certain manner; our brains are used to dechifering reality in terms of the dichotomies of up/down, in/out, and so on, as well as trying very hard to see perspective even when there is only a hint of it. I don't see the point in trying to upset this logic to the extent to which the brain gets confused and tries even harder to interpret the picture in the logical terms that it can readily understand. If you create a picture in which the ground is at the top, the brain will only try and see it upside down.

While not trying to trash all conventions, I hope to tickle the brain's normal understanding of reality. My images usually have a horizon or other way of readily anchoring the viewer into the picture so that it's attractive rather than repulsive to the brain, yet other parts of the image will defy the normal concept of reality. Looking back at my body of work, I can see that I've been attempting to juxtapose our day-to-day understanding of reality with a parallel reality that appears less logical and dreamlike. It's a kind of middle path between reality as we understand it and the reality that presents itself in our dreams. I hope that a skewed sense of reality jolts the viewer into a new viewpoint, that he or she may even step out of their normal frame of reference even just for a second, bringing about the appreciation of a new vantage point and a fresher understanding of life.

THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE VIEWER & THE INTEGRAL APPROACH TO ART

Spiritually speaking, I may undeniably have things to say, but I like for people to feel inspired to personal reflection. My communication is changing and so what I said in the past does not contradict what I'm saying in the present, but the emphasis may be very different. The way I see it, if something disturbs the viewer at least a little bit, it has stirred something that wants to be touched.

The integral approach to art is about finding out about the artist's subjective intention (what I have to say), looking at the objective representation (in my case the symbolism) and the viewer's subjective reaction to it (what does it stir in you in terms of thoughts and feelings?), as well as understanding the context in which it has been made. Generally speaking an integral artist has a spiritual point view which is not limited to an established religion. This view is represented by the website that is now hoasting an online exhibition of my art:

Integral Life.com

Although the art critics view may still override that of the artist's intention as well as that of the audience, at its best a philosopher's viewpoint may add a new dimension to the artwork. This is integral art philospher Michael Schwartz's summary of my art:

THE TIMES OF MEMORY

Collage—an art technique which blossomed during the twentieth-century—displays on a two dimensional surface images and texts from various sources, constructing these into a complex and dynamic whole, the component images retaining their own independence as recognizably distinct in style and origin.

Vivi-Mari Carpelan's contemporary collages are profoundly noteworthy. In their enactment of deep symbolic logics, they do nothing less than re-configure time.

Some of the source imagery comes from Hindu art, evoking an ancient and ongoing tradition. Other imagery originates in advertisements from past decades, evincing a nostalgia where loss can never quite be recovered or redeemed. Still other imagery comes from prints of Neo-Classical architecture, a building style that resurrects the antique past in producing stone monuments that defy the ravages of time. More haunting and playful are skeletal images of extinct species, tokens of the arising and perishing of all particular life forms within a vast and mysterious evolutionary unfolding. The esoteric and alchemical diagrams dispersed throughout key an anticipatory time proper to secreted promises yet to be revealed.

The space of these collages is thus the arena of a profound mode of Memory (an inflection of Consciousness itself)—a Memory that is prior to any given form or feel of time, and which accommodates all such forms, allowing them to reverberate with each other through the part/whole dynamic of the collage construction. This is an Art of Memory that is not simply retrospective and receptive, but powerfully and profoundly Creative: the interplay of the imagery sparking novel senses of time—transforming the Self-sense so tenderly and vulnerably at stake in these works.

THE PROCESS

The tranisition to the creation of handmade collages was indeed fairly smooth as I had acquired a quantity of books with copyright free images, and also a lot of knowledge about the "potions and lotions" of crafts and mixed media art. Vintage collaging came into fashion a few years later and many excellent books are nowadays available. It's a great craft and hobby for many, but I endeavour to try and bring it to the level of symbolic art. I find a certain pleasure in the idea of collaging being an endeavour connected to the collective! This is expressed through the use of old copyright free images, which were done by others, in older times, and for other purposes altogether. In fact the result is often surreal.

I would say that the main difference between the mixed media paintings of the 1990's and the mixed media collages of the new millenium is that the former is more of a monologue where I come up with my own imagery, while the latter is more of a dialogue between myself and the pictures that are already in existance. The process is different. Rather than asking myself what I'm feeling at the moment and gradually picturing the image in my head I now have some idea as to what I feel and intuitively pick out the images I want to use based on this idea and feeling. I then have to adapt my idea to the images at hand so I am in fact restricted to what I find rather than what I am able to imagine or execute in terms of drawing.

More musing on art here!

as well as view a wealth of images on the following page!»

PLEASE NOTE, THAT ALL IMAGES ARE COPYRIGHTED AND CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT MY APPROVAL!

To sum it up - what has been of importance to me up until the present day...

My life... has been about issues of a mundane as well as spiritual nature that I have had to figure out on my own. Time after time I have found that I have had to rely on myself for solutions. Although we are all interconnected, it seems that some of us have to walk a lonely road, maybe in order to personalize their destiny to a maximum and make a personal contribution to this world. I believe that for life to evolve, unheard of things must happen... I'm sure it's all worth it in the end. And I'm glad there are many more lonely roads out there that converge into mine. I would be honoured to hear your opinion on my artwork, as art is one of my most important means of reaching out to other human beings. My artistic production follows my own inner development like that of a diary and in general you can read them much as you read dreams. I guess you could call them symbolic illustrations.

Life is... a play of opposites and this has been my guideline for the past 15 years. The idea of paradoxes as a foundation of life as well as human existential dilemmas can be seen in most of my artwork.I believe we need to get away from thinking in terms of either-or and get closer to embracing the paradoxes and thinking in terms of both-and. To heal ourselves and the Earth, I believe we must not only let the light shine, but also allow the shadow to emerge.

The physical realm is... for me the greatest of adversaries, but also the place where the opposites may unite and the soul find its true essence. Some people need to realize their limitless abilities, while some are learning about limitations. I believe I belong to the second category. I also believe that healing one's own shadow-self helps heal the collective shadow of the human race.

My art is... thus not always comforting in character; in fact I feel it might at times be slightly disturbing and often contradictory. I hope this will help the audience think and react to what they see. I do see a wealth of things around me that I do not approve of, and this criticism of our current society does also come through in my artwork. A society that doesn't take care of its weaker member is a decadent society! I am fascinated with human behaviour and how to deal with emotions, and so a lot of that comes through in my work as well.

I believe in and wish to promote

COMPASSION, HONESTY, OPENNESS, TRUTH, AUTHENITCITY, JUSTICE, THE ABOLITION OF SECRECY.

IN A MODEST WAY, I ALSO HOPE THAT MY ARTWORK INSPIRES A NEW LOOK AT REALITY AND INSIGHTS ABOUT THE NATURE OF PARADOXES AND AMBIVALENCE.