The Little Mermaid’s martyrdom (represented through the story by her constant bleeding and initial sacrifice to enter the human world) well represents the condition of women (or better, the Yin energy) in our male dominated societies.
Earth itself (“Mother” Earth) is constantly being sacrificed by chauvinistic male imperialism, in the name of an illusory expansion with no end that only bring destruction.
On the contrary, the female side (or the divine Shakti if you like) is a creative force that now more than ever should be restored. Art itself is Shakti, because art is creation.

I realized that subconsciously this has been a topic I’ve always more or less represented in my illustrations, because I’ve always felt the effects of these unbalanced energies all around me, particularly in society.
It’s the story of the world, isn’t it? I guess we already have an idea of where it leads. It’s time to consider changing our points of view in life and rebuild ourselves and our perceptions.

Anyway, enough talking.
I hope you like it.

The process has been incredibly smooth, which helped in delivering this semi-abstract composition, one aspect I recently thought I’d like to develop.
Sometimes I feel that excessively realistic and figurative representation of subjects become a constraint for the mood I intend to express. I’m glad I managed to stay away from these virtual “chains” of my mind.

In a way Experiment 14 is the culmination of all the previous experiments. If you notice, since Experiment 1 I’ve been trying to fade the figure into a background, playing with solidity and perception, real and unreal.
I consider this piece a little step ahead in my search for personal expression.
I’ll keep working this way as much as circumstances allow me to.

PS: I even made a new signature, something that doesn’t look as nasty as my actual handwriting.

To me Originality is “expression of origin”, not “creation of something new”. Being “original” is the ability of accessing our most primordial state of being. It’s much harder than simply creating something new within the levels of imposition we experience daily.
Who cares about that?

Let’s break the rules and let’s see what happens.

It’s very hard, but getting to know how our experiences have shaped us into becoming this fictional creature we think we are is very important in order to start deconstructing everything.
In other words: let’s enjoy life by expressing the purest form of imagination. No compromises.

I’d really like to live in an unchained world where the only thing that matters is mutual respect. Other than that: wildness!

“Art’s task is to save the soul of mankind and anything less is a dithering while Rome burns. Because if the artist (who is self-selected, for being able to journey into the Other) cannot find the way, then the way cannot be found.” - Terence McKenna

While working on it I decided to make a little video on how I paint foliage and plants. I suggest you to watch it in Youtube and enlarge it.

I’ve always liked aliens, Greys especially. Strangely, I seldom draw them.
Subject aside, with this Experiment I tried a couple of things I haven’t done so far: a white background with a strong light and skin texture.
I had a lot of fun painting skin, wrinkles and cheekbones. When I paint humans I tend not to go that far, firstly because I don’t zoom in that close, but even if I did I think I would end up making them too creepy if I added too many details. But I’ve never really tried, I’m just assuming.
For aliens it’s ok, their skin has to be slightly repugnant and unpleasant. I should do this again, I always enjoy painting organic things.

Here’s the finished image:

And here’s the video. Remember to check Part 2 as well.

I sincerely have to admit that I don’t think that all sorts of failures help us improve. Perhaps some do, most maybe, but not all.
Failure is bitter and it’s up to us to understand why it happened and decide how to deal with it.
But hey, I don’t want to turn this post into a personal delusional rant (so tempting though! I like venting a bit), I just want to share a couple of things about this topic.
First, a little interesting article that might encourage you (or frustrate you even more): Why success always starts with failure.

The second link I want to share is mostly about motivation. It’s a 30 minutes podcast by Bobby Chiu. He talks about his past days, life as an artist and how he motivated himself to push forward. You also get to see how he starts a painting, which is always interesting.