Artista Eli

Remodernist Artists – Against Rubbish

Group Exhibition.

Shiraz Bar Restaurante, Marbella, Spain,

22^nd, 23^rd and 24^th, June, 2012 

If you like figurative art with meaning and your idea of ‘good art’ does NOT include looking at bags of rubbish, urinals or piles of bricks, this exhibition is for you!

We are an international group of artists whose aim is to:

 ‘re-modernise’ art, incorporating ‘a renewal of Spiritual values for art, culture and society to replace the emptiness of current Postmodernism’

(An Antidote to the Ghastly Turner Prize, The Stuckists, Victoria Press).

Our artists work in several different styles, so there is something to suit every taste, from the traditional to the surreal.  If you want to invest in art work, at affordable prices, which is unique, vibrant and interesting, please feel welcome to visit our exhibition

My work combines my interests in the human condition, ecology, science and philosophical opposition  theories. Opposite forces are the primal forces of existence. In order to translate this into art, I examine and utilise the points where these opposing forces meet. This is the point of collision and change from being one thing to becoming another. This can be done using opposites of the elements of art such as line, tone, colour, texture, shape and space. The points where opposites meet produce energy and energy produces life. Life is the most important connection we have as a species, hence our overwhelming interest to love and reproduce. I believe the meaning of life is about the continuation of the species and the handing down of knowledge, in order to enable this to happen.

Orphic cubism, Dali, the Pre-Raphaelites, Klimt and Graffiti Art all influence my work. I love leaving clues relating to other artworks. My art can be read on several different levels according to the knowledge of the viewer. I enjoy painting figuratively the most, but have produced work from all genres. Music is a common theme in many of my works, as I am surrounded by musicians in my every day life.

Founder of the Malaga Stuckist Group.

The Battle - An Allegory of Love and Fear - Artista Eli - 2012

Here is my new painting, The Battle – An Allegory of Fear and Love.

The Battle – An Allegory of Fear and Love – Artista Eli

‘Be kind; Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle’ – Plato

The idea for creating this work came from the idea I saw in a dream. I don’t think there was anything magical about this strange vision, I think it was just a culmination of thoughts I had floating around in my subconscious mind when I was asleep. When people are asleep they often dream about problems with no solution. Part of the purpose of dreaming is to find a resolution to apparently unsolvable problems. The problem I was thinking about and could not solve, was about overcoming fear in order to lead a fulfilling life. The ideas I present are not new, but are a collection of the thoughts of many scientists, philosophers and seekers of peace/happiness – a collective consciousness, if you like.

Of all the subjects in the world that are important and worth thinking about, love and fear have to be at the top of the list. These subjects are about our existence, but we rarely examine them properly. We act on the emotions of love and fear easily, but don’t truly understand them. They affect us all across social divides and our inability to deal with these emotions can also cause social divides. In the worst cases leave us feeling isolated, ignored, alone and even dead.

My painting is about how we chose our own realities. Ultimately our only ‘true’ reality is within our mind. Other forms of reality are just, therefore, constructs created out of our mind, using our knowledge and experience. For example, when we are small we are taught by our parents that Santa is real. We then accept this as part of our own reality. Throughout the ages we have made up all sorts of constructs to both explain and control the world. At different times in our history these ‘realities’ have become accepted as the social norm, often later to become dismissed by new ways of thinking. Love and fear are such important universal subjects that they are included in every philosophic and theoretical reality which we, as the human species, have accepted into our lives. So why then do we still not understand them?

In recent years many wonderful scientific breakthroughs have occurred, especially where the workings of the brain are involved. This has enlightened us about emotions, which are hard for us to control. C.A.T scanners have replaced EEG’s and allow us to see clearly which parts of the brain are activated during psychological experiments. Thus we can see accurately that our mind is a physical part of us (and not separate as we once thought).  We are learning how our mind affects our health and yet Heart Disease and Cancer are still the biggest killers in our first world societies, suggesting that we are unable to cope with the stresses/emotions of modern day life. Our bodies (including our mind) have not evolved quickly enough to cope with our quickly changing Global world. So what is the answer to this? The answer is to understand ourselves deeply – to understand both love and fear. With a deep understanding of these subjects, we can then grow into the successful people we were always meant to be. Marianne Williamson once said:

‘Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love into our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things, meaning lies in us.’ (Think Exist)

If we conquer our fears, we can let love into our lives again. The two cannot exist together at the same time.  Einstein said:

‘We cannot solve our problems with the same kind of thinking we used to create them’.

Therefore we cannot be fearful when examining our fears. We must be courageous to do this. Sometimes this can be a daunting task but as Mary Anne Radmacher says:

‘Courage does not always roar, Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying ‘I will try again tomorrow’

In my painting I have depicted personifications of love and fear in the form of two opposing sides in a battle scene. The head of the Fear Army is King Death. King Death is striking out at the opposition with a sword, signifying destruction, and his feet are rooted in the ground, signifying resistance to change. There is nothing glorious about being resistant to change. People say things like ‘I won’t/can’t change’. But this is really like saying,’ I can’t/won’t learn, grow and become successful’. Why on earth would anyone say this? It is because we are afraid of change, afraid of the unknown and ultimately afraid of death. This is where our primal fear lies. This is the root of our fear, from where other types of fear arise. Hence King Death has worms at his feet and his skeletal skull is exposing his brain, signifying our fear that our outer shell will decay one day and our thoughts stop. In his armour, I have placed a fractal based design, signifying the dimensions of life and matter. We have now, apparently, discovered 11 dimensions in science, many of which are deep inside of us, such as our tiny particles. In physics we are currently searching for the answers to life and creation within tiny parts of matter, when once we looked for the answers in the vast heavens. I believe this is where we also need to look for the answers to other huge questions, not outside ourselves but within ourselves. The electrical globe in the centre of the painting is where Death and Love meet, colliding and producing energy. Without death there can be no life. We are one with the universe and we are all trapped in part of the cycle of life, for a period of time, otherwise known as our ‘human’ existence. Our shell will rot and nurture further life, but our electrical energy will live on, as it cannot be destroyed, because it was never created. It is the immortal part of our being. The globe also signifies the Hadron Collider and the atom smashing experiments of physics at this time. It therefore represents destruction and creation being the source of all life.

The opposing side in my painting is the Love Army, led by a Na’vi’ (as in the film Avatar) like Venus, teetering on a shell, signifying the importance of being open to uncertainty, open minded and taking calculated risks. She is holding a paint brush in her hand and striking out at King Death, signifying peaceful creation. In her other hand she holds a palette, with a mirror in the middle of it, signifying the reality of the visual world around us and the reality in our heads, with which we perceive ourselves and the world. Thus, the viewers own reality will be included in the painting at all times and their perception of things will be evident as they look into the mirror.

Jal al-Din Rumi (the Sufi poet and scholar) once said:

‘Many of the faults you see in others, dear reader, are your own nature reflected in them’

Other people are, therefore, are like a mirror of yourself. The famous popular psychology theory called ‘The Law of Attraction’ echoes this idea, that what we give to the world, is what we receive. This is an idea which is included in many institutional religious theories to explain a concept – the concept that, in order to get love, one must first give love. But how can we do this when we live in fear, in environments which are not open to love and we are faced, daily, with situations that hurt us deeply?

Part Two (to follow) will give some of the answers to this question.

The other characters, in the two armies, are personifications of types of fear and love. I will add them in the following posts with a close up image of each one and an explanation.

The-Battle-The-Greed-General-Artista-Eli-2012

Greed is related to insecurity. It is the fear of not having enough and the fear of failure, but rather than loosing hope altogether, because of their fear, people damaged by greed accumulate more and more, of what they are frightened of lacking, to excessive amounts. This can be accumulating  too much control, too much money, too much food, too many romantic partners, too much attention, etc. Our Western culture has not helped people afflicted by this condition. Our Western culture holds these people in high esteem and makes them celebrities. With this a whole set of new problems arises for suffers of greed. They put the safety and well being of both themselves and their loved ones at risk. They often have to live in self imposed prisons with high security. They are at the mercy of the press who can potentially destroy them, as quickly as they built them up. They can suffer with guilt (which is barely relieved by charity donations as giving away a million to some people is comparable giving away a fiver to the rest of us). If their success happens in a short space of time, they might be forced to move away from all that they know for reasons such as security, other people’s jealousy, stalkers, beggars, e.t.c. When you have a lot of something, many people want to know you, but problems occur because you tend to attract the wrong sort of people to you. This can lead to becoming paranoid about new friends motives and can also lead to others not acting in your best interests. You can become alienated from your genuine friends and surrounded yourself instead with ‘Yes- men’. It can be very lonely at the top and when you fall, it can be a very long way down. When you hit the bottom it can be catastrophic. Be very careful what you wish for.       

Depression-The-Battle-Artista-Eli-2012

Depression

Depression is the fear of life. It is a combination of all the fears I’m discussing in my painting. It is a horrific fear which is both soul destroying and life threatening. I would describe it as a bottomless pit of despair or as being imprisoned in a dungeon at ones own request. There are a variety of degrees of depression. These range from abnormal sadness to Major depressive disorder (MDD) (also known as recurrent depressive disorder, clinical depression major depression, uni polar depression) to bipolar depression. This fear steals interest and pleasure from a persons life. Depression effects a person’s sleep, eating habits, family, work education, and general health. People with depression can suffer with any of the following symptoms:

Self neglect – including eating disorders, neglect of personal hygiene

Self harm – including physical self harm, mental self harm and drug abuse (including legal drugs like alcohol and pain killers).

Sleep problems – including insomnia, excessive sleep and disturbed sleep with nightmares

Sexual problems – including a lack of sex drive or higher sex drive

Eating problems

Phobias – including paranoia (the fear that others are ‘out to get you’) and agoraphobia (the fear of going outside).

Low self esteem

No confidence

Having a sense of worthlessness

Crying a lot

Health problems – including digestion problems, low immunity, heart problems, headaches, back pains, muscle pains, tiredness and loss of energy

Concentration, memory and decision making problems

Problems with aggression and irritability

Delusions

Hallucinations

Suicide

Having depression is basically giving up on life. Suicide rates are high in people with depression:

http://helpguide.org/mental/depression_signs_types_diagnosis_treatment.htm

Note that the address above has an excellent guide on the subject of depression and I highly recommend reading it if either you or a loved one is suffering from depression. This site lists the causes and risk factors for depression as follows:

Causes and risk factors for depression

• Loneliness (Fear of being alone)
• Lack of social support (fear of asking for help and fear of others)
• Recent stressful life experiences (fear of a variety of situations)
• Family history of depression (sometimes genetic and sometimes learned behavior and is thus, not fear, however it is necessary to be fearless and educate yourself in order to counteract some of the effects of this kind of depression. Do not fear getting support for these types of depression)
• Marital or relationship problems (fear of communicating, fear of loss and fear of seeking help)
• Financial strain (fear of not being able to provide for oneself or ones family)
• Early childhood trauma or abuse (Fear of the past)
• Alcohol or drug abuse (This is the fear of facing problems and trying to escape them by altering your mind. Note also that sometimes prescribed drugs can also cause depression so try to limit risk factors which could make this worse or speak to your doctor and see if they can prescribe an alternative drug without side effects)
• Unemployment or underemployment (fear of the actions needed to become employed, such as getting an education, changing skills/type of employment, fear of rejection, fear of criticism, etc.)
• Health problems or chronic pain (these can sometimes be psychosomatic, but if they are ‘real’ you should not be frightened to seek help and support)

• Note that the bracketed sentences above are my own additions.

Getting help for depression involves being courageous. Read more about this in my section on Courage.

In my painting I have depicted depression as a naked blue woman chained up in a dark dirty cave with a key to escape within reach but my figure does not take this opportunity. She has given up on the idea of escaping, because she lacks the courage to do so. She is content to live the way she does because she fears change and action. In fact she thinks so little of herself and fears everything including life, that would rather die neglecting herself in chains and squalor than freeing herself from her despair.

Manufactured-Fear-The-Battle-Artista-Eli-2012

Manufactured Fear

Manufactured fear also known as ‘Culture of Fear’,

This is the fear we have which is programmed into us by other people. It can range from a fear, otherwise known as a ‘phobia’ which is programmed into us, usually at a young age, such as a fear of spiders. This fear is usually programmed into us, when a loud noise, such as a scream or a bang, accompanies an adult’s obvious discomfort and fear of something. It is a learned fear. Sometimes this fear is useful in terms of self preservation in order for us to escape life threatening danger, but usually it is just reaction by the adult because they have this fear programmed into them  or because they do not have enough knowledge about the thing which is frightening them.  Phobias can also occur when we have had a bad experience alone, while being in a helpless situation as a young baby, for example. The problem we have in the latter case is that we imagine ourselves as still being helpless, even when we have become strong adults and thus the phobia we have is now just a fear and no longer a real life threatening situation.

Manufactured fear can also come from other sources such as the reporting of events in the media. One of the big fears of our time is of Terrorists killing us. The Progressive Review gave the  following statistics on this subject:

You are 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack

– You are 12,571 times more likely to die from cancer than from a terrorist attack

– You are 11,000 times more likely to die in an airplane accident than from a terrorist plot involving an airplane

– You are 1048 times more likely to die from a car accident than from a terrorist attack

–You are 404 times more likely to die in a fall than from a terrorist attack

– You are 87 times more likely to drown than die in a terrorist attack

– You are 13 times more likely to die in a railway accident than from a terrorist attack

–You are 12 times more likely to die from accidental suffocation in bed than from a terrorist attack

–You are 9 times more likely to choke to death on your own vomit than die in a terrorist attack

–You are 8 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist

–You are 8 times more likely to die from accidental electrocution than from a terrorist attack

– You are 6 times more likely to die from hot weather than from a terrorist attack

Source:  http://boards.askmen.com/showthread.php?117993-You-are-more-likely-to-be-killed-by-a-cop-than-be-killed-by-a-terrorist

This fear of events captured by the media is a very different fear from the one it used to be. Before we read about events in News papers, which were highly censored in favour of the government of our country, now we can freely read about events from all propaganda angles and they are televised graphically and uncensored on our computers. This is a product of a global technological society. This exposure can leave us feeling anxious and fearful of the future. It can prevent us from having new experiences and a fulfilling life. When ever we assess risk, we need to do so in an educated way. If we are frightened to go to our local city because there are people dressed in Hijabs or Cowboy hats there, then we are being needlessly fearful of a race, which has it’s roots in propaganda and prejudice, which has been spread by the media. We need therefore to find out the facts and statistics before we allow this kind of programming to become ingrained in us.

‘’The people don’t want war, but they can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and for exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.’’ Hermann Goering

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_fear

In my painting I have shown a robot girl looking into a laptop screen at footage of the Twin Tower attack and an Anansi  spider (from African traditional children stories)  about to descend on her. She is caught in a ‘web’ of deceit.

Addiction/Obivion-The-Battle-Artista-Eli-2012

Addiction/Oblivion

Underneath Manufactured Fear, I have placed my personification of fear called Addiction/Oblivion. In the young man’s hand is a bottle of the highly alcoholic drink Absinthe (otherwise known as ‘The Green Fairy’). Using intoxicating drugs, including alcohol and prescription drugs,  to excess, is a way that many of us try to blank out the horrors of this world. We use these because are frightened, but rather than deal with our fears, we run away from them and enter a different reality in order to feel safe. But this is a very dangerous way to deal with fear because, paradoxically, it can kill us. My painting is an expressionist re-working of John Martin’s painting called ‘Sadak in search of the waters of Oblivion’.

Apathy-Anxiety-The-Battle-Artista-Eli-2012

Apathy/Anxiety

Apathy is a fear that nothing you can do will change things. It is linked to insecurity and the fear that your opinion is not of value. People can waste their whole lives away letting time slip through their hands and not making any impact on the world during their entire existence. These people have plenty to moan about when they fear an injustice is taking place, but are not willing to act on resolving injustices. They often think this a job for someone else not them. One of my favourite quotes about injustice and apathy is this one:

‘First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I did not speak out.

Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was not one of them, so I did not speak out.

Then they came for the Jews, but I was not Jewish, so I did not speak out.

And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me’.

Martin Niemoeller

Apathy can also produce procrastination (putting things off) and stagnation (not progressing with life in a positive way/staying stuck). It is the obstacle which causes creative block, because it prevents the person from examining why they are not creating. It is also the block which prevents us planning our lives and setting positive goals for the future. Thus our life will remain the same forever. There is a quote which I like which highlights this:

‘If you’ve always done what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten’. Anthony Robbins (Source: Think Exist)

Anxiety is a fear of the future and because of having experienced bad things in the past. It holds people back from fulfilling a valuable, happy, authentic life. Anxiety is experienced when we cannot forgive others for hurting us and we then take this emotional baggage with us into our present lives. When we don’t forgive, we only hurt ourselves. This does not mean that we are condoning unacceptable behaviour, it just means that we are being kind to ourselves. We can deal with unacceptable behaviour, in ways that do not damage us, such as peaceful protest, making others aware of the consequences of unacceptable acts or reporting unacceptable behaviour when we see an injustice is taking place.  We must also be aware that every life situation is not the same as past situations. This will help us deal directly with the situation we find ourselves in, instead of dragging all our own emotional baggage into it. It allows us then to open doors to positive opportunities in stead of running away from them and missing out.  80% of the things we worry about never happen, so most of our anxiety is completely pointless or worse – dangerous to our health, destructive to relationships with others and sometimes even fatal (Stress related illnesses are the biggest killers).

My figure is sitting in his smoky cave looking at a pocket watch, watching time pass. He is not achieving anything, because he is too frightened to make changes in his life, which could ultimately benefit him.

Insecurity-The-Battle-Artista-Eli-2012

Insecurity

All of us, at some point in our lives, will be confronted with insecurity. Insecurity is the fear of failing at something.

Insecurity has a whole army of ugly, negative emotions. These include:

Self Doubt

Self Criticism

Mental Self Abuse

Physical Self Abuse

Guilt

Paranoia

Shyness

Embarrassment

Insecurity is the little devil that sits on your shoulder and feeds your brain with negative thoughts. It might make you ‘say’ any of the following:

‘YOU can’t do that!

YOU are not good enough!

YOU are ugly!

YOU are weak!

YOU deserve to be treated badly

Everyone else is more beautiful/clever/talented/ than YOU!

Everyone is laughing at YOU!

No-one likes YOU!

You are a failure!

The world would be a better place if YOU didn’t exist!

Insecurity is a form of victim mentality. It steals self control from our lives, hands over that control over to others and fills our brains with fear. It is so bad it should carry a health warning:

‘Insecurity seriously damages your life’.

When we have insecurities, we  give out signals that we can be taken advantage of and this can result in being bullied or ripped off by nasty people. The reason that these nasty people take advantage is because they have insecurities themselves and their evil actions give them a sense of control and power, which they are lacking in other areas of their lives. It is quite common to find that younger brothers and sisters of older aggressive siblings go on to bully younger or weaker children.

When we are insecure, other areas of our lives also suffer. We might find the following things hard:

Getting a job

Finding a girlfriend/boyfriend

Making enough money to live comfortably and pay your bills without worrying

Making friends

Eating healthily

Using drugs and alcohol responsibly

Taking calculated risks

Getting a good education

Achieving your dreams

Loneliness can be a huge problem when we lack self esteem. Because we are not confident enough to socialise or make new friends, we can become detached from the world around us. This in turn, detaches us from opportunities which might improve our lives in other ways, like knowing about job opportunities, events that might brighten our lives, financial or practical help that we might be entitled to, etc. Loneliness in effect steals our knowledge and companion ship.

People with low self esteem, thus, often sabotage great opportunities which come their way and end up living dissatisfied, lonely, regretful lives.

In my painting I have depicted insecurity as a traditionally depicted ‘Beautiful woman’. We are all beautiful but sometimes we fail to see this, so we have surgery to correct our flaws, self harm to punish ourselves and relieve our mental pain through physically injuring ourselves, let eating disorders control our lives and bodies, financially ruin ourselves by buying products we don’t really need just to attempt to make ourselves look good…the list goes on and on. My character is cutting herself, with a sword, while she looks in the mirror. This is to symbolise the self criticism and self harm (verbal mental and physical) that I have been talking about in this section. She is standing on magazine pages to illustrate the way the media influences our opinions of ourselves by using manufactured fear.