Free Spirit
No limits and no boundaries. Pride on our chest with squared shoulders. Moving forward, not looking back, blocking out negative energy, and recharging on positivity and love. I am without doubt the one who cannot be held back. I am the Free Spirit.
Fresh
Her body was not the one you see in magazines. She did not have a background in modelling nor a thirst for perfect body image. She was herself. She danced to her own rhythm, laughed at her own jokes and reminisced on family get togethers. She embraced her imperfections. Struggled with the idea of “one size fits all”. Her hair had different highlights of natural grey. She smiled at the numerous dimples on her body. Beyond beautiful she shone brighter than the sun.
Positive Choices
I felt it was so important to reinforce positive messages. The old saying is true “Life is not perfect” thus I decided to make the text asymmetrical. It is important for the viewer to experience this message on a personal level, a level that reaches one’s insecurities and tackles the feeling of doubt that is within each of us. Each message is to be read slowly by the viewer. SLOWLY. Thus, I invite you to take some personal time to pick three messages, then pick two more messages, and followed by one more message. Each need reinforcing. Breathe in the messages, grow from the message and help one another. Take time out to honour yourself.
A Child’s Vacation
Each time a look at this work I can’t help but smile. Take a moment, close your eyes and remember that warm, fun and carefree childhood memory. The memory that includes sticky ice cream, cotton candy, trips to the park, your grandparent’s house, or the beach. All the lights and sounds that you breathed in as a child. The giggles and belly laughs that could last for days. The mud, the falling off your bike, or falling out of a tree, each memory unique and special.
The Leonardo Da Vinci Tribute
Grazie Leonardo, Grazie
76 cm high x 51 cm wide Pastel
Known as the Master it was of great pleasure to produce my version of Leonardo Di Vinci. I took great pride and joy producing this work by using the colours of the Italian flag. The colours of the flag have broadly stayed the same but different shades have been used over time, and this has been represented in this piece. It is important that we remember the “Tricolore”- three colours and what this means. While the Tricolore flag has invoked great discussion with regard to the meaning of each colour, green represents the country’s plains and the hills. White represents the Alps covered in snow. Red represents blood spilt in the Wars of the Italian Independence. Following a religious interpretation, green represents hope, white is faith and red represents charity. History allows us to agree the red and white were a representation of the flag of Milan, and the green was the same colour as the uniform of the civic guard of Milan.
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Leonardo Da Vinci is famous for many great paintings including The Mona Lisa and The Vituvian Man, and specifically in Milan he was commissioned to create Virgin of the Rocks, the Last Supper, and in later years, Drawings of the Human Flight. Lenonardo Da Vici is widely considered one of the most “diversely talented individuals ever to have lived”. Following this, I picked up my tools and created my own interpretation of the self portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci and I said “Grazie Leonardo, Grazie” for you truly were a genius.
The Colours of Leonardo Da Vinci
102cm high x 76 cm wide Acrylic on Canvas
Leonardo Da Vinci was the true definition of a “Renaissance man”. Leonardo was a painter, architect, sculptor, inventor, and engineer, who also studied the laws of science and nature. Starting his apprenticeship at age 14, he grew into the iconic man we know today.
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Da Vinci has been regarded primarily as an artist, however, he was also an intellect with a brilliant mind studying various subjects including geology, anatomy, flight, gravity, and optics. This had great bearing on his many paintings.
My tribute to Leonardo Da Vinci entitled “Colours of Leonardo” depict the many faces of intellect and the brilliant mind of Leonardo Da Vinci. Within the painting we can see the young child born in a Tuscan town near to the village Vinci. One can envisage a boy with no formal training beyond basic math, reading and writing, who had skills that needed to be nurtured and loved. The viewer identifies with a teenager who traveled and gained respect and trust through his talent and passion for his work. We identify the love and thirst Leonardo had for knowledge and the risks he took implanting his new found knowledge into all aspects of his work. Through the journey of the viewing of this painting we feel the pain, hardship, the love, romance and illness that all played key factors in his works at various times in his life. As scholars across the globe still continue to study the iconic genius, we celebrate his life and his works in this tribute in a joyful manner giving colour and light to him on canvas, as he has given colour and light to our lives.