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LEAP OF FAITH - OIL ON CANVAS 11" x 14"
该画取材于DALLAS MORNING NEWS上的一幅照片。照片的标题是Escape claws: No squirrel for this bobcat's breakfast. 照片下的注解是:Despite the long leap, a bobcat missed getting a squirrel breakfast Friday morning on ...a creek that runs behind the street ... where bobcats are known to lurk.(bobcat是一种野生猫,比家猫体积大一倍左右)。我当时看报纸一下就被这张照片吸引住了。这个猫的动作,姿态,神情,恰恰体现了AMERICAN EXPRESSION:LEAP OF FAITH。虽然它没成功,但我觉得,这就叫 LEAP OF FAITH!正象Elton John's Circle of Life的歌词:From the day we arrive on the planet,... ,Some say eat or be eaten, Some say live and let live, ... , In the circle of life, It's the wheel of fortune, It's the leap of faith, It's the band of hope, Till we find our place ...
该照片是早上4点多照的,所以前景和背景黑呼呼的,而且也没什么背景。我不喜欢。于是,我决定把这支猫和松鼠放到白天,阳光灿烂的背景里。
该画的其余部分取自梵高的一幅油画:Pine Trees and Dandelions in the Asylum Garden. 1890年4月,梵高在他最长一次BREAKDOWN恢复后,画了这幅"magnificent landscape, taken once again from the asylum garden - or park, as he had come to call it." 他给他弟弟写的信中描述这幅画:"I have done two canvases of the fresh grass in the park, one of which is extremely simple ... The trunk of a pine violet-pink and then the grass with white flowers and dandelions, a little rose tree and other trunks in the back ground right at the top of the canvas". 梵高认为他画的此画"EXTREMELY SIMPLE",我正好在此画上加两个 SUBJECTS,使画面复杂点。
我喜欢梵高强劲有力的PINE TREE TRUNKS,春意盎然的DANDELIONS,加上动态的SQUIRREL和BOBCAT,(因为SQUIRREL的速度比BOBCAT快,所以它的形象模糊。)我觉得这两者合在一起很和谐,表现了一种生机,一种力量。我画此画涂改的少了,花的时间也比上一幅少。我似乎有了一点儿就轻驾熟的感觉。
古今中外,多少大师试图解释什么是艺术。在众多的名言里,我最喜欢梵高的一段话:Art should be "something peaceful and agreeable, realistic and painted from the heart, something brief, synthetic, simplified and concentrated, full of serenity, and pure harmony, consoling as music." - 我希望按他说的去追求艺术。