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Father and son
Published: 2005-07-17 22:53:36 +0000 UTC; Views: 3565; Favourites: 84; Downloads: 1126
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Description
Acrylics, spraypaint, collage on cardboard13x27cm
I like that...
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Comments: 47
Intresting, captivating, beautiful, intelligent and perfect work. I loved your explanation. Maybe I wouldnt have put that title, but only "conversation", meaning a conversation that could last forever. Annyway I like it
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so often people overlook the fact that childhood has a big impact on our adult lives. you shed some light into that with this piece. to me speaks of family torn apart, of loneliness, detachment....the authority over the vulnerable.
it's very moving.
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Great theme - well visualized. I really like the textures and the asortment of the chairs.
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wow thats.. nice and freaky at the same time. i had to do an assignment in my 2d class that had to do w/ chairs that show human characteristics. it was done w/ black paint on a white board. to show postivie and negative space i had picked a fold up chair like that one. and did a series of drawings. ( 4 pics each one involving more chairs) this painting u did reminds me so much of that!
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Any chance to see your work? I'm curious.
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very good, i love cardboard works.. looks as digi!!!
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congrats for DD!
really beautifull work... very much poetic one
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You're crazy man - thanks for the fav flood!
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Brilliant, I like this a lot. What it tells me is how a close relation ship between a father and son can be separated by the turmoil of other people. I see the father and the son's chair in their own space and the textures around them, along with the colours, suggest chaos around them. It seems it has pushed them both into their own bubbles away from each other. I love this simple way you have displayed one being the father and one the son, just by size!
Great work, you've been getting some very in depth comments on this!
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I appreciate your thoughts - thank you.
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I love how you use an object to suggest the presence of a person, thatβs so delightful β it adds hidden meanings and much symbolism. Makes this at first very simple work, full of depth.
Okay, so rambling about my thoughts. The size difference is most important here: obviously big chair for father, small for son β so there is an age gap. Fundamentally though they are the same, they share the same values (or just simply blood) - father and son both have the same style chair. But then they both exist in separate circles...so there is distance between them. It is perhaps the differences in scale (in age and experience) that is keeping them apart. They are both distant from each other. Important though is the fact that, although both chairs are different in scale, the circles surrounding them are the same size. We can infer that the son is to grow, to fill his circle, while the father has already filled his own, his time is done. So again, there is similarity between these two figures, son is just a little version of his father β ultimately they are both going to occupy the same space, the same black circle. This then does not ultimately suggest distance to me, but in fact closeness, at least on some level. Yes they are both within their separate spheres, apart from each other, but there is a very strong link between them (that goes beyond this surface distance) β note how both chairs face each other. So ultimately this piece speaks yes of distance but also of respect β they are distant from each other out of respect, mindful of one another, respecting of each otherβs space. The chairs too emphasis this mutual respect, the chair is not a symbol of violence, itβs a passive symbol. When one is sitting they are not fighting. What does one do when they sit with another? They sit with another out of respect β to come together, listen, learn and share β they may fight but only in the act of meeting halfway (have to say here, the ruggedness of this work does suggest much fighting has occurred!). On the other hand though...yes the chair symbolises communication, but then the big chair/little chair could suggest that this is not equal communication - that the father leans down over the son...and I guess then a more sinister interpretation is possible. If this is what's intended maybe the larger needs to loom over the smaller somehow. Perhaps it's simply that the two black circles needs to be of different sizes (so the little chair has a little circle) which will remove to a degree the idea of growing, and forward the idea that the father is somewhat opressive and that the communication between them is not equal...
As to the changes youβve made since it was first submitted: I wasnβt bothered by the symmetry of this piece; rather I think it was just that it was too cramped, there wasnβt enough space to take in the piece fully. Adding the bit on the right side has helped provide more space to a degree, but then it seems to be changing the meaning β like there is room for another chair? That is changing the focus of the work; itβs no longer about the relationship between a father and a son but instead about that unfilled space - conceptually and visually this space is becoming the focus because it is the point of most difference, whereas originally the only difference was the subtle shift in the chair sizes. For me that subtle change was what made this delightful, it was simple and playful. The symmetry was really not a problem, because there was a reason for this symmetry (in my mind).
Anyway, what I thought would have been better at the time, and still do think, is if this had been instead a vertical piece rather than a horizontal one, with the chairs positioned symmetrically horizontally but set towards the top of page vertically. That would give the chairs breathing space, allowing the viewer space to enter the work. The extra space at the bottom also wouldnβt affect the meaning of the work, as it does now, because both chairs would have the same space beneath them.
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Thank you for such a wonderful comment again. I don't have much time on my hands, so I'm not able to go through every line of your reply. I want to explain the piece to you though (not that it's needed [you have seen most of it by yourself]).
Father and son represented by chairs. Chairs are objects to sit on them, to relax and they are often the place where people talk together. The chairs are seperated by circles (equal in size) but still have exact the same look. Beside the size. Clear that the big chair represents the father and the small one stands for the son. But what you didn't realised is the meaning of the 3 small dots outside of the chair-circles. There are always conflicts in father and son relationships. I'm made out of the blodd of my father, he teached me what he knows, he offered me the world and loved more than anything else. He has a foundation under his chair. His seat is save and approved. One dot. And than there's the son. 21 years old, slowly recognizing what this world, what his life is about. He has ideas, many ideas, dreams that he wants to fullfill. And no foundation. 2 dots above him. His chair will grow when years passes by and there will be a foundation build up under his chair. Maybe those 2 dots will dissapear but he wants to make sure that they move to his own foundation and not to nowhere. But the father wants the sun to accept his old foundation, they argue and sometimes the son thinks about hate. He feels misunderstood, maybe unloved. And than he thinks about what if he will be father in some years. And the circuit starts again.
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Hmm yes I did miss the round dots - I dismissed them as just part of the background, but knowing theyβre intentional elements I can say they make sense. I think you were wise to do them subtly...although perhaps they could stand to be a touch stronger, just so we know they are intentional. Also the circle at the base of the fatherβs chair maybe should be directly beneath the chair, so it forms even more of a foundation.
Anyway, thank you for taking the time to explain the work to me.
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I second that it must be hard for viewers to see the dots as intentional elements. Nobody's perfect. I'll preconceive it the next time. Thanks again for your comment.
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Hmm...reading and thinking back the chair is a symbol of communication, but it's neutral suppose - it's not necessarily good or bad. My own innocent childhood experiences would see this as a good symbol rather than a bad, hence I mostly missed any sinister flavour here. If you intend this as sinister...then something is missing for me. But then perhaps it's good that it can be read both ways.
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So there's a father and a son, and they're very much alike. A long time ago, they were very close. They were together in almost everything. But as the years passed, they grew farther apart. All kinds of things got between them, and though the father and son are mostly unchanged, they let life separate them. And though there are some hints of how things used to be, it's no comparison to the way things were. The world around them is slowly coming apart, and all they really have left is each other, but the wall that's grown is too hard to breech. That's my interpretation. Anything like what you had in mind?
I really like it. Lots of harmonious elements, each with their own meaning. But my favorite of yours is still "Bird of paradise," because you of went against what probably seemed like common sense and added some really bold, strong colors, and it really made the piece complete.
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Thank you for your wonderful thoughts. Of course, it's not possible for you to state every detail of the relationship of my father and me, but you hit some very sensitive points. Hope to hear more from you.
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looks like peeking through old dirty window inside... but i do not get the tension in this pic. (Sorry but i get it as a pic.)
Maybe using some colour would change something...
relations beetween father and son are different ... frome hate and rage to reall love... they change with time.. when You are Young He is the master of the universe and when You get older You start to see his fails and disadvantage... i do not see this passion here...
now it looks like a piece of animation or a fairytail about big chair ,father , and little chair,its son...
but you have got REAL skills and I know You could make this important relationship problem much more better...
keep on ART.. real ART
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It's interesting to get so much different views on one image. You know, I really love this one. It's exciting to get to know many differnt opinions such like yours. You basicly got the intention of it - big chair father, small chair son. But that's not all about it. When seeing it I can imagine that many viewers have a hard time to recognize the little dots as meaning-elements. But they still are.
Thank you for your honest opinion. The best comments I can get. It won't b the last father-son piece for sure.
Stay Cool!
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I'm glaad you didnt take my opinion as an attack on Your artistic way of expression.... I know it's not easy to take hard words ... we are young and we are still learning...
You are the best, man!
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Like I said - honest critic is better than 100 wow's. I'm thankful for it.
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It seems that relation between father and son is not too harmonic and calm. But I don't know how should it be.
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What did I just answered here????
However, I wanted to say, that the realtionship indeed isn't too harmonic. One is big and one is small...
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I don't know either. But it indeed is some kind of fraught with tension.
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I already liked it, but now it's certainly much improved. Cool!
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the symmetry kind of bugs me. I think it would have been better if the black circkles began on about a third of the cardboard from the left.
For the rest I really love this technique, and the use of chairs for this!
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Yeah you are absolutely right with the symetry. I was thinking about that too and might change it later.
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Very nice. I like how the eye is drawn to both cars at once....like that are one but not.
What bothers me is the 2 black circles and I'm not sure why...it think since it seems to be fighting with all the textures you have going on. It's solidness is working against it. Ironic though as my its the source of my previous statement to the oneness of the chairs. And maybe that is the point...as there sometimes seems to be an underlining conflict with father and son...it's there beneath the surface, just like the circles.
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It's all about the conflict and the tension beneth the surface. Equal chairs, but one is bigger, divided by circles. Rapprochement, distance, family and hatered...
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cute
am i allowed to say that?
the name implies alot, and works well with the imagery.
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Well you are - but cute doesn't work for me here.
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