PAINTING – Inside looking out

010907a by ~hanswendland on deviantART

These two paintings are 1m x 1.5m in size, mixed media, on stretched canvas and were part of the collection of paintings I featured at the Wendland Gallery in Ascona, Switzerland in 2006. They are both available. Price 2,000.00 Euro each.

One of the perspectives that is uncomfortable to to me is when one is on the inside looking out. This is typically a very common perspective as it is very safe, confronting and warm. There is very little risk involved, as there is the perception of a protective shield between the voyeur and the subject. Many go through life never deviating from this position and many distort reality because of it. Some choose this perspective out of laziness, some out of fear and prison inmates are limited to this perspective by force. Being a chronic extrovert, I have never appreciated this perspective (even when it might have been the best choice) as I tend to want to be in the middle of what I see, I want to touch it, smell it and feel it right up close. To me this perspective comes only at great effort and I have to admit I tend to get a little claustrophobic doing so… never the less “change” sometimes only comes about when you address and face your fears, creativity, for me, sometimes works the same way.

010907b by ~hanswendland on deviantART

I created two paintings from this perspective, pictured in this post. The first is looking at a forest in the heat of summer, and in the second you see the forest in the dead of winter. The segmentation was quite challenging as I did not want it to take focus, but I did want to be clear that there are two distinct sides to this story. As we have become a voyeuristic society, the metaphor of “a window onto the world” has become a cliché, with this work I also wanted to create the illusion that the world might be looking in, seeing the emptiness that one is left with when one chooses to watch life pass by, instead of contributing to its richness.