Hello everyone,
I've just posted a recent painting of mine with something written in the 2D gallery, and would like to invite you to view it here.

Your feedback is always welcome, and i'd like to thank vaggabondd for his poem 'Gentle Hands' which sparked this off. Thanks vaggabondd.

Best wishes,

hanevi.

Hello hanevi.
The message you included with your painting is a most admirable one and I think will continue to be well received. 

As for the painting, I have some questions.  I am somewhat lost in recognizing what it actually is, although it would appear others seem to have grasped it with no difficulty.  Please excuse my lack of understanding.  Unfortunately, my abilities in art appreciation are limited to simple images not requiring much thought or imagination.

Perhaps you can help me appreciate what it depicts.  Can you explain some details about it?  What is that glowing energy force in the upper left?  What is happening with the electrical like discharge come from it?  What is the large yellowish shape in the upper half of the picture that overshadows the bluish rock like wall? 

I think the lower half is water but I’m unsure because I’m lost in what the whole setting is.   What are those two bluish like shapes that appear to be under the water and just below where the electrical discharge is taking place?

Sorry, I was out for three days and got back online only today.

In response to zonkerman's queries, the viewing of art is a highly subjective activity, and the creation of art has increasingly become so. I won't go into that because it's a highly debatable topic and has no end, but because of that, there is a high degree of flexibility to art viewing.

Just very simply, my painting can probably be described as a metaphor. The stone structure represents institutional 'manhood' and hence the face in the stone, and the water below which should be reflecting the blaze of the sky is a grey -brown 'sludge', and represents society, life in my country, the problems of society here, etc. The bright 'explosion' or orb in the sky obviously plays on the idea of the sun, but represents a source of life- God, conscience, truth, love,etc. whatever you want, and the crackle of energy from it represents an 'encounter' with any of the above in a way that causes a paradigm change in attitude, philosophy, behaviour, etc. The lava represents a response arising out of that encounter, and where it touches the water, instead of solidifying, it 'detoxifies' the water making it 'sweet',, hence the blue-greens, and where that blueness touches, it brings life, represented by the stone in the water which the blueness has touched, and which has srouted forth a tree. The tiny size of the tree is intentional to cloak the enormity of the event- a bare stone cannot sprout forth anything, let alone a tree. The blaze of the sky above represents the glory of a life possible, and one of goodness and abundance. The different shades of yellow create texture, and make the painting visually complex, and is all done with painting knives, and is a particular style of my own.

There is, in addition, a deeper underlying concept and meaning to the painting which I realised only after I had finished it, and that's a story by itself, and I won't go into that now. it's very different in content to what I've just mentioned, but there are common principles. Anyway, that really doesn't matter.

We often view art with 'literal' mindsets esp if we've grown up very analytical or logical, and it's often difficult to view art that is more abstract, because it defeats our ideas of form and structure, and organized ideas. I often had a problem with that because of my background in science, and I had to engage my creative side more regularly and stretch it more, to have a more wholistic viewframe. It's taken a while for me, and I'm still on the journey, and probably will be for the rest of my life. :)

Thank you zonkerman, for the simple and direct questions- I appreciate your interest, and I hope that what I've briefly mentioned here has helped, at least a little. :) Thank you for the affirmation of the topic!

Best wishes,

hanevi.

Wow hanevi.  That is amazing! Thanks for the interpretation.  I can better appreciate your point of view when you describe its meaning as you have done. 

You're welcome zonkerman!

And, of course, my interpretation doesn't limit in any way the painting viewing; I'm quite happy to have different people interpreting it differently, and that's the thing about viewing art- it's quite subjective, and the viewer does need freedom to interact with a piece of art at whatever level he or she wants

:)