Which Artists Influence You ?

Art challenge for week of October 1-

“The Art of Soul-A Creative Journey” Facebook group

Which artists are you influenced by?

Although I don’t create self portraits as Frida did....my  Ideas, feelings, hopes, fears, dreams are still expressed through fictional character portraits  and abstract figurative landscapes ......and other abstract art. The two bottom mixed media paintings are entitled “Bleeding Bee Hive” and “Light of Mother Earth”. ……………which are about a relationship with nature.......physical and spiritual.

In “Bleeding Bee Hive” the relationship between the figures and nature expresses a haunting issue of destruction of nature. As humankind brings the honey bee closer to extinction ….we are shooting ourselves in the foot. Without the honey bee all of humankind will unravel to its own extinction. The figures curled up in the fetal position within the Hive symbolize this.

I have some personal connection with honey bees . In my childhood my  mother, whose favorite hobby was organic gardening …..bought a Bee Hive for our backyard . The Hive was housed in a special box . At the end of the season the professional Bee hiver retrieved the boxed Hive to extract the raw honey for us. So I grew up eating the raw honey from the bees who had pollinated our organic vegetable garden. It was awesome !

This deep connection to nature is also expressed in many of   Frida’s paintings such as this one with the vines of the earth growing in, around, and through her to symbolize her love for her homeland of Mexico.

In my mixed media painting “Light of Mother Earth” …… I portray a spiritual light combined with parts of a human figure as it is in the ground as part of the Earth. …..yet not of  this world completely as depicted in a mystical way.  

In summary, I’ve been influenced by Frida Kahlo’s self portraits and abstract figurative landscapes which depict a deep connection with nature.