Story behind the work ‘A Full Mind’
The Artist in her studio next to ‘A Full Mind’. Oil on canvas.
‘A full mind’ is a visual representation of the dynamic connections between thoughts, memories and stimuli in a busy, creative mind. In this painting creatures and objects roam freely between rooms constructed of paper thin white walls. Within these walled compartments are vast worlds to roam and explore: a galaxy, a black hole that disappears into a moon, a city-scape, a cold mountain range.
Whilst the white walls are a nod to the white cube gallery and tradition of drawing and writing on paper, hidden within the composition are nods to psychology and spirituality. For example, the grey cold section in the lower right represents our shadow self (an uncomfortable yet intriguing world worth exploring), the glowing sphere in the paintings centre captures the reflection of a small meditating figure and represents awareness, the self portrait next tot he abstract figure embracing the sphere represents our relationship to our physical versus our inner identities and also hidden within the symbolism are nods to our inner child.
ABOVE CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Initial sketch of the concept; Drafting the composition in Photoshop; Initial layer of paint after drawing the composition on canvas; Introducing colour; The artist with the painting about half way through; Leonardo Da Vinci’s anatomy illustrations.
THE PROCESS
‘A full mind’ started as a concept I sketched in a notebook as I was drawing and letting my mind wander. The original sketch was quite different to the final painting: whilst there were still creatures freely roaming the different white walled compartments, an abstract figure originally took up a whole white walled room whilst I wanted to have a sea of cats leaping from one space to the next. However, when I started to put together source material so that I could paint the subjects with the detail and anatomical accuracy I felt they deserved I made adjustments as I pieced the composition together.
My cats Diego and Mahala make an appearance in the final painting. Other elements were mostly chosen due to my personal relationship to them as I feel that audiences better connect to artworks when they come from a place of specificity and authenticity from the artist. For example, one of the artworks in my childhood home had seahorses so the seahorse skeleton felt like a good fit and as my childhood home was filled art from my Mother’s birth country of Indonesia I included the shadow puppets.
Whilst piecing together the elements the growling tiger ended up as a focal point that I wanted to have more intention behind. I was attracted to the idea that the tiger could be defending a symbol that represented our inner child and pondered what I could place under the tigers care that could represent the strengths of our child-like curiosity but also the vulnerability and cocoon of safety. Leonardo Da Vinci the famed Renaissance artist and inventor represented for me someone who never lost their curiosity for the world and in doing so created so many masterpieces and provided so much value. Under the growling tiger is an anatomical study by Leonardo Da Vinci of a foetus in the womb and is intended to suggest the concept of our Inner Child by referencing Da Vinci’s inquisitiveness for knowledge and exploration whilst communicating vulnerability yet also safety by being cocooned in the womb in foetal position.
The subjects within the painting have been given as much detail as possible in order to have each element in sharp focus to allow the viewers eyes to roam and find new things discover - much like the more time we spend with ourselves the more we discover about our psyche. In order to achieve this detail the painting needed many layers and took three months of full time painting to create.
‘A full mind’ is available as a Limited Edition Giclee Fine Art Print at www.cynthiahoward.com/shop .
