Eager to learn how to be able to paint the human form, I decided to buy a wooden figurine which many before me have found to be helpful. After filling a sketchbook of drawings of the figurine from many angles and in a myriad of positions, I decided to try to paint one.
What I discovered after painting this "Pinocchio" number One, was that somehow the wooden figurine seemed to have acquired "emotions" by the way I positioned its "bits". (For those of us familiar with the concept of "body language" this is not news, as in: how we hold our bodies sometimes speaks louder than our words.) This discovery enticed me to try to paint a range of human emotions using only the wooden figurine, Pinocchio, as a model. As I positioned and re-positioned the bits on Pinocchio, I was amazed at how those pieces of wood could transform a lifeless puppet into a dancer, a runner, an archer, to "look" forlorn, shy, sad, happy, joyful, strong, etc.etc.
by mere positioning. After painting five or six different Pinocchio's, it suddenly dawned on me: why not paint two Pinocchio's interacting with each other? I bought another figurine.
I decided to try to paint a friend comforting his/her friend; a display of sincere friendship.
To make a long story short; I painted ten Pinocchio's, and all of them, except for one that I gave away to a friend as a present, (by request) sold very quickly at the gallery which had them on display. I was amazed and bewildered. So was the gallery proprietor.
What was it about these rather small and quickly painted images that appealed to the people who bought them, I wondered. The price, the size, the colours, the composition....what was it?
All the Pinocchio paintings had one thing in common: some form of an emotional stance.
But without any facial expressions, just body language. Was that it? Are we drawn to expressions of emotions as long as they are not expressed too overtly?
Cry, but not too loudly? Be sad, but not depressed? Be happy, but don't flaunt it? Be upset, but don't make a big deal of it? Be worried, but don't go on about it? Be angry, but don't lose control?
Grieve, but not too openly? Be joyful, but not exceedingly so?
Is this image too confrontational?
For many of us, it probably is.
When we see someone suffering, our mirror neurons fire up and we "feel" the other persons pain and that can be quite confrontational for some of us. On the other hand, being able to feel others pain may also increase our sense of compassion.
What's good about compassion, you may ask.
A few suggestions: it improves our health and well-being, it gives us a bigger perspective, it helps us get along with others, it helps us to be good and caring friends/partners/teachers/doctors/nurses/etc. etc., and it helps us to understand ourselves and others, and it is often contagious, as in inspiring others.
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” (Albert Einstein)
“Your emotions make you human. Even the unpleasant ones have a purpose. Don't lock them away. If you ignore them, they just get louder and angrier.” (Sabaa Tahir)
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