“I know for sure that love saves me and that is here to save us all”, Maya Angelou
If we all sense the need of a collective change towards a more balanced and unified existence with other members of this planet, I believe we all need to go back to the source. I wonder how we can find broad knowledge and wisdom if we constantly look for answers only outside ourselves.
Carl Jung, once wrote that the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.
The work of the Peruvian artist Fernando de Szyszlo, a key figure in the Latin American art scene since the 1950s, was a great source of inspiration for this artwork. His paintings, between figuration and abstraction, evoke the monumental power and strong verticality of Pre-Hispanic forms, while at the same time suggest the dynamic energies at their core. They comprise deep spiritual reflections and messages with a multitude of historical cultural references.
Breaking Free reflects a profound desire to reach and unveil the good qualities found at the core of humanity. Its vertical composition signifies the depths and richness of it which is connected to something larger than us. The verticality alludes to the infinity and connection to our higher self and the significant connection to our collective roots.
Fernando de Szyszlo made references in his work concerning the importance of the awareness of the fact that in us exists a crystal fountain, the source connection, different from the one we create that is driven by external circumstances.
In Breaking Free I’m opening up a channel within us to bring light to our essence in an attempt to focus on what really matters. Light also represents knowledge, as a call to widen and deepen our consciousness, our connection to the Earth, and the connection to the unseen infinite sources of knowledge. This visual representation shows a transition from top to bottom. The vertical element is accentuated from the top using straight lines. As the light reaches the core, they disappear and blend with the background. The more we reach our essence, the more we feel the connection with source.
The entire piece has different levels of texture. The use of tones and a general earthy colour palette describes the context we are connected to. I’m representing the richness within, with colourful organic shapes being bathed in the light. The colour expands to the sides as the light moves deep down as a cascade touching each part of it.
The French poet, essayist and critic Andre Breton once wrote in the 1930s about lighting up the unrevealed and yet reveal-able part of our being in which all the beauty, all the love and all the virtue with which we scarcely credit ourselves are shining intensely.
I believe there is pure love in our core, it is our pure essence. I trust that in this state we can heal, feel free, inspire, and co-create to bring us closer in our humanity.
“Nothing can dim the light that shines from within”, Maya Angelou