Artista Eli

Anger and Jealousy - Fear - The Battle - Artista Eli - 2012

Destructive Anger

Anger is a reaction we have to a perceived injustice which we fear. In order to deal with anger we need to think about whether our perception of this injustice is valid. If it is an important issue and an issue which is from the present, as opposed to the past, then it is important that we take action and speak our opinions about it in a non- threatening way (If we don’t do this our anger can become ‘bottled up’ and is sure to explode when we finally can take no more). We can all do this, but it does require a few skills, which unfortunately many people lack. Firstly it involves taking a minute or two to get rid of the physical reactions in our bodies, including the dispersal of adrenalin. Since anger was once a survival mechanism, we still have a Fight, Flight, Freeze reaction to fear. Anger is a type of fear – a fear of injustice. Once we have relaxed we can then collect our thoughts and ‘argue’ our point using assertive language which does not threaten the other person. Sometimes we bring emotional baggage to the argument. If we are bringing with us, past frustrations to the argument, we really need to address these separately at a more convenient time and consider where the source of these frustrations REALLY come from. Sometimes our anger might be fuelled by manufactured fear and behaviour we have learnt from others in society (including historical resentments). We must think deeply about if there is any logical reason, why we feel deep anger, as a result of these things. We need to think of the consequences that will result if we react in a revengeful way, regarding these matters. We need to stop and ask ourselves ‘Is this going to be helpful or is this going to make things worse?’  The important thing to remember is that anger is an emotion which can be controlled, but only if we recognise we have a problem and work on resolving it. Love takes away the fuel of an angry fire, so that we can change from allowing anger to be destructive and turn it into something constructive. Our fear is thus transformed into courageous action, which instead of making things worse can make things better. Thus anger is not a negative emotion, but how we deal with our anger determines whether it is negative and destructive or positive and constructive.

 Jealousy

Jealousy is a fear which incorporates a variety of other fears. It is a fear based on insecurity (fearing not being good enough), anger (fearing that an injustice is taking place), paranoia (fearing that someone is ‘out to get us’), loss (fearing that we will loose someone or something to someone else). It is an ugly ‘green-eyed’ beast and is completely counter productive. The more jealous we are the more we push others away and the more likely we are to end up with nothing, which is the exact opposite of what we wanted to happen. Being jealous is a costly mistake to make and we would be wise to learn how to defeat this monster.

In my painting I have shown jealousy as a green eyed, triple headed, sea monster in the style of Francis Bacon’s ‘Three Studies for Figures at the base of a Crucifixion’. I thought this was appropriate because of it’s symbolism regarding sexuality, castration and grief (which is signified by the gnashing, red lipped mouths of bacon’s figures). I also wanted to make them look a bit like ‘Muppet show’ figures, signifying the ridiculousness of jealousy. I liked the bandaged look of Bacon’s figure, as if it had been injured in some war, which I feel is what jealousy is like, because when we are jealous, are current actions are based on past bad experiences, such as loss in our childhood or early adult life. We must examine our life and find out where these kinds of negative emotions have arisen from. If we do not do this, we cannot move forward. We will remain forever stuck in a past life and will bring our emotional baggage with us, to every new relationship, destroying any chances we have of leading the life we dream about and missing out on wonderful opportunities.  Thus, jealousy is a form of self sabotage caused by fear.

Grief - Fear - The Battle - Artista Eli - 2012

Grief

Grief is a response to loss, which has already occurred, thus grief is one of the most difficult emotions to deal with. Losses can include:

Death of a loved one (including humans and animals)

The loss of a relationship

Loss of health

Traumatic experiences

Relocation

Loss of a job

Loss of financial stability

Grief is a natural healthy emotion which one must progress though in order for the pain to disperse. The problem comes when we do not allow ourselves to move forward and become stuck with fear.

Elisabeth Kubler Ross produced a book, in 1969, called ‘On Death and Dying’ and it contained the five stages of grieving that we need to pass through in order to be ‘healed’. These are as follows:

Denial

Anger

Bargaining

Depression

Acceptance

This structure is now used my many professional counsellors to help people who are experiencing difficulties with grief, (other wise known as ‘complicated grief’)

Most people can have bereavement and pass naturally through the grieving process, however an estimated 10 to 15% of people do not cope well with this process, because of fears that block their path.

(I will be discussing this huge subject further in my book and will be making some additions to this post in the near future).

Useful-Fear-The-Battle-Artista-Eli-2012

Useful  Fear

There are some things in life which it is important to fear, in order to project our own survival and the survival of our planet. These are mainly things within nature, such a dangerous animals, dangerous weather, dangerous plants and exposure to man made dangers such as chemicals and pollutants. The best way to know what fear is unnecessary and what fear is necessary, is to improve our knowledge about real dangers and take steps to limit any possible damage to ourselves and the world around us.

My painting shows an image of a harp with a devils face, vomiting out a thunder bolt and passing a polluted wind of noxious gas. It relates to the many ‘top secret’ projects which are a threat to the world, being undertaken by those in power. Possibly one of the worst is the HAARP weather project, which has also been called ‘The Devil’s HAARP’ by activists, seeking to protect the planet from further damage, (see various activist sites on the web for further details). We all have a responsibility to act to make sure our planet is respected and to take action, when we have genuine fears about the survival of the planet and the ecosystems that make up our world. It is all ultimately part of us and our cycle of life. We cannot destroy the planet without, at the same time, destroying a part (if not all) of ourselves.

Transition-Part-One-The-Battle-Artista-Eli-Shaw-2012

I have depicted the first part of the transition between Fear and Love as a snake. The snake appears rooted in fear, but is attempting to cross to Love. It is being sacrificed by ‘ST. Michael’ who in Catholic religious tradition ‘drove Satan out of the garden of paradise’, signifying driving fear out of ones life by letting love in. This image also has multiple meanings. It signifies the pain that love can sometimes cause us. Mother Teresa once said ‘Love until it hurts’. Sometimes in life we have to let go our ego and feel uncomfortable, in order to keep the peace and avoid a conflict situation. This at times can clash with what we believe in, but it is sometimes, unfortunately, necessary. Killing an animal, a snake in this case, is very wrong, but often we sacrifice animals in order to save ourselves. This is echoed in Spanish Bullfighting tradition and is something I have already spoken about in my previous painting ‘Tradition, Fear, Loss and other Insanities’. It is about immortality triumphing over mortality. Sometimes people feel it is necessary to kill animals for food, or for business (money to buy food) as in the case of Bullfighting and hunting. In rare cases, in counties with not much food or industry, this might seem to be acceptable. It might also be acceptable, when animals are killed because of safety reasons, such when they attack us or spread of disease (as in the case of foot and mouth or malaria) because these are situations which determine the survival of both humans and other animals alike. But it would be far better not to kill animals, if we can avoid doing so.  Animals are a beautiful part of our world, which fascinate us and inspire us. They help our ecology systems to function properly and they are also our friends (when we keep them as pets, etc). Another reason I put the snake in is the snake is a symbol of knowledge. In Christian tradition it was the creature which persuade Eve to pick the apple from the tree of knowledge and thus this knowledge was seen to be ‘the down fall of man/the original sin’ leading to physical and emotional pain of humanity. The snake was also a symbol of positive practical and spiritual knowledge within early civilisations, such as the Egyptians and in the Hindu religious traditions. In both of these it is often seen coiled around the head of deities in the shape of the pinia (pine which corresponds to the part of the brain responsible for higher thought and knowledge and which has been said to be ‘The third eye’ (psychic ability, hence the reason for bindi wearing in India, which is said to symbolise hidden wisdom. Thus, the snake can represent both good and bad knowledge, which is another reason I have depicted it on both sides. The fact that St. Michael is killing it also represents the repression of religions to hide knowledge from the masses, in order to control them for both bad and good purposes.

Transition-Part-2-The-Battle-Artista-Eli-2012

The library of Alexandria is said to be the most ‘significant and great library of the ancient world’- (Wikipedia) and is said to have been existence between the century 30BC and  3BC. It housed stone tablets and scrolls. It was founded by Ptolomy II Soter and was eventually destroyed by fire. It was situated in the ancient  city of Alexandria on the shore of the Mediterranean , in Egypt. The ‘Great’ or ‘Royal’ Library was a  part of the museum but whether or not it was a separate building is unclear. Three parties are blamed for the destruction and they correspond to the three occupying powers that ruled Alexandria after it had been lost by the Greeks. The suspects respectively are a Roman, a Christian and a Muslim. It has been said that: Julius Caesar set fire to it ‘accidently’ when he was fighting with the Egyptian fleet; Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria destroyed it because he thought that people would be less inclined to believe in the bible if they knew about the pagan knowledge of the ancients and Caliph Omar of Damascus was quoted as saying: “they will either contradict the Koran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous’.  (source: http://www.bede.org.uk/library.htm). It has now been rebuilt ( between 1994 and 2000).

My version of the library is based on Dali’s version of the Lighthouse at Alexandria and  the tree of knowledge, combined together. The Tree of Knowledge can be seen releasing sheets of scroll paper in the wind, as the library (lighthouse) burns. This is a symbol of knowledge not being destroyed, but sailing in the wind by word of mouth and is a symbol of our new age of communication by internet, (the ends of the tree branches are Jack plugs signifying electrical connection to the internet), and a celebration of the rebuilding of both the library and of the knowledge of humanity, as a collective group. It is therefore a celebration of globalization and working together in harmony, rather than in control and conflict. I have put cockerel statues on it to signify the awakening of knowledge and peace.  I have also filled the base with marshmallows, referring to the famous ‘Marshmallow Experiment’ regarding delayed gratification, which is a comment on the world debt crisis and the greed of the corporations. At the base of the library I have placed Schrodinger’s Cat, in the form of an Egyptian statue of the goddess Bastet, because it is thought that the original cat was an Egyptian Mau. Bastet is a protector and I have placed her here both as a symbol of protecting the knowledge of the world and as a reminder that the future is undecided/unwritten. The future could go either way, according to whether we practice delayed gratification or not and also whether we use knowledge in a good or bad way.

Transition-Part-Three-The-Battle-Artista-Eli-2012

Transition Part Three

In this part of my painting I have attempted to portray current ideas in mathematics and science. One these ideas I have discussed is about particle physics and the current experiments using the Hadron Collider. Early science looked for the answers in the skies, when scientists sort to answer important questions about existence and the workings of the universe. Now scientists are looking deep inside matter, in order  to find these answers. This reflects the concept that the answers we seek are inside us and cannot be found outside ourselves. As time has gone by, we are realising that the mind and the body are one. Therefore we must take care of the body if we want to protect our mental health and we must take care of the mind if we want to protect our physical health.

The idea about smashing particles together, illustrates that in order to have creation we must also have destruction.  This is echoed in our entire eco system and is evident in systems such as the food chain, permaculture, the rock cycle, etc.  All things which die are therefore reborn into something new. When we fear our own death, we do not fear that we will cease to exist, but instead that our ego will cease to exist and that the change we will undergo is mainly an unknown one, because we will cease to have a brain to report this information about change back to our loved ones. This example illustrates that our fears, about death, arise from the emotional attachments we form when we are alive, rather than from what form we will take after death. We worry about what will happen to our loved ones when we die. We also all realize that life is short and worry about whether we have lived it to our full potential. If we are so worried about these things, we must make sure that our loved ones can survive with out us and that we have used every second of our lives in a useful satisfying way. We must not waste our lives and have regrets in old age. The paradox is that our fear of life and death often stops us from living the life we want. Thus it is really important that we stop and reevaluate our path in a courageous way.

Part of Chaos Theory in mathematics states that there is a ‘sensitive dependence on initial conditions’, meaning that small actions taken now, whether good or bad, will grow and magnify in the future. Therefore every action we take now will have an effect in some way in the future. We need to make sure that these actions are positive ones, so we can create a positive world healthy world. I have illustrated this in my painting with a butterfly standing on the tip of a flower and the flower opening a pattern out into the universal sky. When painting it I noticed that the more accurate my measurements were at the start of the pattern, the easier it was to make the pattern repeat across the surface, illustrating that the sooner we get things right, the easier they are to deal with in the long term. An example of this is how we bring up our children. If we find good methods of child rearing from when our children are young, then we can predict that we will have far fewer difficulties with them as they grow. The older a child gets, the harder it becomes to overcome difficulties. Therefore our small actions early one produce huge results later.

The pattern in the sky was also inspired by Marcus Du Sautoy’s theories on mathematics, particularly about the connections of shapes in nature. These are complicated and amazing theories, which cannot be described here, but can be researched further on the web. These theories show how all things in nature are connected as one and give explanations of how this works and why.

To conclude in order to understand love (the state that all of us want), we must also understand fear. By looking at opposites and how they react with each other, we can have a greater understanding of our world and every part of it.

Self-Confidence-Love-The-Battle-Artista-Eli-2012

The first step to accepting love into our lives is learning to love and accept ourselves. Without the ability to do this, it is impossible to love others. There are several theories put forward but one of the better ones is shown on Wikipedia. It states the following, about a model called ‘The Wheel of Wellness’, created by Adler (psychologist), showing how to attain self confidence, a high quality of life and a longer life:

‘The Wheel of Wellness includes five life tasks that relate to each other: spirituality, self-direction, work and leisure, friendship, and love. There are 12 subtasks of self-direction areas: sense of worth, sense of control, realistic beliefs, emotional awareness and coping, problem solving and creativity, sense of humor, nutrition, exercise, self-care, stress management, gender identity, and cultural identity. There are also five second-order factors, the Creative Self, Coping Self, Social Self, Essential Self, and Physical Self, which allow exploration of the meaning of wellness within the total self. In order to achieve a high self esteem, it is essential to focus on identifying strengths, positive assets, and resources related to each component of the Wellness model and using these strengths to cope with life challenges.^[5]‘

Socrates once said that:

‘The unexamined life is not worth living’

In order to feel confident and have high self esteem, we must all examine our life and face our darkest fears, just as my little penguin is doing as he stands up to ‘King Death’. The images which inspired me to paint this version came up on the internet with the caption ‘Dare to be different’. I have added daisies to my character to symbolise healthy personal growth (relating to daisies in the Gaia Hypothesis) and  as a more traditional symbol of the innocence of childhood. As we grow older we loose our confidence and become obsessed about what other people think about us. This damages our self esteem and blocks us from fulfilling our full potential. Sometimes we get some of this confidence back, when we have children, because we are putting their needs before our own fears. I don’t understand, if we can do this for our children,  why we can’t do this for ourselves. The only significant answer to this, is that we don’t love ourselves as much as we love our children. Thus, this indicates that the issue of self love, is key to us feeling self confident. As a society we generally do not like people with no self confidence  especially when it over takes their ability to perform. We love sitting in front of the television watching people crumble under pressure and then receive belittling comments, in programmes such as the X Factor. Somehow we feel comforted that there are people who can’t take pressure and it makes us feel superior in some sick way. This is the difference between arrogance and self love.  Arrogance feeds our ego but does not improve our own self love.  Arrogance holds up a mirror to our own insecurities and magnifies them, whereas self love does not involve us wishing harm on others, in order to make ourselves feel better. Arrogance is often mistaken for being self love. Arrogance is selfish, whereas self love is not. When we have self love we are not hurt by negative comments people make about us, because we realise that we are of value and that the comments made by others are just a reflection of their own insecurities projected out onto the world. Arrogant selfish people are jealous of other people’s success. People who have self love are able to rejoice in the successes of others and share their own successes with others. People with self love do not compete, they co-operate instead.  Because our world is becoming smaller and we are now living in a global society, there are more likely to be conflict situations, because of the clashing together of different belief systems. We have got to learn how to co-operate together, in order for our species to survive. Part of this requires that we love ourselves and love others as we love ourselves, regardless of their differences. Thus, self confidence, and the ability to communicate effectively with each other, are essential not only to our own well being, but to the well being of the whole planet.

Honesty-and-Altruism-Love-The-Battle-Artista-Eli-2012

Altruism is a selfless act of love, involving putting the welfare of others before ones own needs.  I have portrayed this part of love as a ‘Whistle Blower’.‘Whistle Blowers’ bring to light important issues, but at the same time sacrifice their own well being in order to do so. When they act for the good of the rest of us, they put their jobs, their mental health and sometimes even their lives on the line for us. We all owe them a huge amount of gratitude for attempting to tackle corruption within our world. I would like to say a huge thank you to all those people who are willing to do such an honourable thing.

Physical-Activity-and-Play-Love-The-Battle-Artista-Eli-2012

Part of love includes having a love of the body. In order to keep the body healthy and happy it is important that we participate in enjoyable exercise. We all have our favourite type of exercise and dancing is featured here because it is my own favourite form of exercise. Part of the difficulty we have when we fear and become depressed, is that we stop being active. Being active can lift our spirits and pumps endorphins around out body, which stop us from feeling low. If we don’t break out of this stagnation, we just end up feeling worse and worse. Physical activity is a practical method we can use to overcome negative mentality and improve the health of our body.  Endorphins also act as analgesics so they also reduce the perception of pain. Exercise burns of harmful adrenalin and lessens the effects of stress and anger on the body. It can also boost our self esteem and improve sleep, making us feel more relaxed, but at the same time giving extra strength and energy when we need it. If you are not a big fan of traditional sports, consider the following alternatives:

Tennis

Cycling

Dancing

Cleaning

Gardening

Walking

Swimming

Yoga

Tai Chi

Twenty minutes of these types of exercise, taken three times a week, will make a huge difference to our physical and mental well being. Remember to ‘listen to what your body tells you’ and if something becomes painful, then get it checked out by a health specialist. Don’t forget to slowly build up your exercise schedule and to do some warm ups first. Joining an exercise class is a good way to start, as the instructor is there to advise you about the correct way to exercise without injuring yourself in the process. You will also improve your social circle and meet people with similar interests if you join a class.

I my painting I have featured a ballet dancer who is the main character out of the French Ballet created by Igor Stravinsky. The Firebird is both a blessing and a curse to it’s captor, just like exercise is for many people. The Firebird is also used in my painting to symbolise the awakening of the people to the false world in which we are living and the overthrowing of a repressive authority who has created an imaginary world. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Firebird for the story of this ballet.

One thing which relates to this idea and is a current example of this false world is the way that corporations have hijacked the Olympic games and won’t let visitors bring into the stadium, healthy product options from home. Participants in this event can be seen drinking products in advertisements, which we all know are unhealthy and yet hypocritically the the games are supposed to promote healthy living.

Family Love-The Battle-Artista-Eli-2012

Family Love 

It is interesting that the Greek word for ‘Family love’ is Storge (στοργή) and also means putting up with situations such as loving a tyrant. Family love is something which is unconditional. When we with-hold family love, it can have devastating consequences. Rejection and bad communication is something which seriously damages both family relationships and individuals alike. It is very hard to repair this damage. We have been conditioned to believe that the family is a safe place. Especially in the 1950′s, the family was seen in a stereotypically ‘perfect’ unit, consisting of a married male worker and female carer, who are the birth parents of the children within their home. Anyone who was in a family arrangement which did not fit the stereotype, was made to feel like there was something wrong with them. Real families now, rarely fit this perfect ideal. Now we have single mothers, single fathers, gay parents, step parents, adoptive parents, foster parents, surrogate parents, some people who are part of a family, but choose not to have children at all and some of these single people who choose to have a family of friends. It does not matter what set up a family is in, what matters is that we are all able to experience some sort of family love, which is unconditional. It is difficult living with family members because we experience the worst of people, when we are physically close. When at home we become our true selves. If this is stifled in any way, this can cause serious conflict in the home. This is why unconditional family love is so important. It means being there for our family members, even when we disagree with their behaviour or decisions. (Note: this does not mean that a family member has to accept severe threatening or abusive behaviour of another family member, as this is not unconditional love and it is therefore best to leave, in order to protect ourselves, if we are unable to resolve these types of issues within families). Family love involves compromising and putting the needs of others before our own, especially the needs of more vulnerable members, such as children, the sick and the elderly. There has been a lot of talk recently about fatherless children and the effect, that having absent parents, has on the self esteem and the development of children. This is particularly a concern to those who are working to combat gang culture around the world. Many people who have experienced problems because of absent parents, have looked for other ways in which to gain self respect and acceptance by others who have shared these experiences. For some people gangs give them the acceptance and protection which they are lacking. We often hear of men abandoning their children, but we rarely hear about men who do a great job of looking after children. My painting shows a man being a good father. The man is teaching his child about the world, nurturing his child in a way that will benefit the child in the future. He is lovingly holding the child and spending quality time with his child. We must remember and respect those members of our families who have inspired us, nurtured us, fought against injustice for us and helped us, for it is those people who truly deserve the title of ‘family’, not those who have abandoned us.