Contemporary artist Sílvia Marieta takes us through the meaning and process for her figurative art, specifically “The Conflict.” Be inspired by her philosophy, and see the step-by-step development of “The Conflict” below.
Figurative Art Spotlight: “The Conflict”
By Sílvia Marieta
The composition and dynamic movements of the figures in “The Conflict” are intended to allude to strength, action, and resistance, seeking to represent a specific energy, characterized as masculine.
The position of the bodies in relation to each other creates the illusion of movement, a movement that at times appears interrupted due to the position of some arms in relation to others. Resistance is suggested by facial expressions and hands and fists clenching and unclenching.
The figures share the same hue and appear with their lower limbs submerged, as if emerging from the same material.
The representation of the external, of the realistically painted figures performing a certain action or inaction, is a reflection of what is happening internally, on a psychic level. Here, action is linked to conflict, to a dynamic that occurs both individually and collectively, striving for a sense of balance. Whether we’re talking about men or women, it raises questions about human relationships, the conflicts that arise within us, and the dynamics of interaction with others. Is the conflict with the other, or with ourselves?
“The Conflict” in Stages
My Inspiration for Painting
My focus is on the representation of the human figure, bodies and faces, but I intend to represent more than an external image, as if the human being were a kind of casing, with a unique and distinct appearance, but which carries a vastness within. I try to establish a relationship between the outside and the inside and sometimes use the representation of visceral matter in order to allude to its relationship with other aspects of the human dimension, such as the psychic world and the soul.
There is also the intention to crystallize a specific moment of great intensity through certain technical effects, composition, repetition, or elimination of elements, I make almost “palpable” something that is not immediately visible.
But the process is not limited to a series of technical aspects, there is a whole preparation of the environment, mental state, which also serve as propellant. It is also a lonely process, as only in this way can creativity be allowed to surface. The fascination for other images, whether painting or not, serve as inspiration, fuel, and combined with auditory stimuli (music) have the ability to trigger the visual mind… Anger, boredom, catharsis, the emptiness of existence, pain and love, passion, the desire for emptying of the matter, through the materialization of the desire itself, duality… it is going to the visceral emotion against a sense of living on a sterile rationality. It’s a state of constant immersion.
The common thread that accompanies my work is the human experience, in the first person, on a side that has to prevail in the shadow, but that pulsates and demands to come to the surface. Portraiture, surrealism, realism, hyperrealism, academic, naturalism, expressionism, and more recently some abstraction, there have been several sources of inspiration over the years from other artists and artistic movements, which I have absorbed and transmitted in my creations, in greater or lesser dose, in an attempt to achieve in an image that feeling I have when a work of art takes me; it’s something intense and mesmerizing.
Connect with the artist at silviamarieta.art.
