Outside/Inside

Enzie Shahmiri · 05-15-2008, 09:40 PM

Alex, what a beautiful painting! I love everything about it, especially your brothers (older version) reflective look. I noticed the two sailboats in the distance and it evoked a sens of something that has passed. To me it seems your brother couldn't wait to grow up into manhood and now he seems to be missing something. He is not really looking out at the scenery but seems to look at something within. Maybe reflecting on his life?

What was your brother's reaction to the painting. Did you tell him what you had in mind before he posed? It's really a great piece....

SB Wang · 05-15-2008, 09:59 PM

http://lightlounge.org/articles/outside/index.html

http://english.hanban.edu.cn/english/33934.htm

"When I grew up,

Homesickness was a small tomb,

With me outside, and my mother inside; "

This is one of the most-famous poems written by Yu Guangzhong, a renowned writer from Taiwan. Entitled "Homesickness", the oft-quoted poem vividly depicts the flesh and blood relations between people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits.

http://images.google.com/images?um=1...=Search+Images

Alexandra Tyng · 05-16-2008, 04:15 PM

Enzie, I like your interpretation very much. I was definitely thinking about inner and outer worlds, about extraversion and introversion, and how they correspond to different periods in life as well as different personality orientations. Your observation that he is not really looking at the view but reflecting on something within is exactly what I wanted to show so I am glad I got it across.

My brother does really like the painting. He calls it "metaphysical." I did tell him what I was thinking of, and he helped me put it together by posing and getting photo references, etc. Although I tried to explain my ideas, I'm not sure I totally got it across to him, but that's usually the way when you have an idea in your mind and your attempts to communicate it are not that great because it can't really be described except in the form of the painting itself

SB, thank you again for the other links. The first one uncannily echoes the "metaphysical" theme. What is inside and what is outside are all part of the same thing. The microcosm and macrocosm are structurally the same. The inner world is really so much greater than us and yet it can be contained in our mind. The second link is also relevant. We have many losses and separations as we grow older, and more chance to reflect on them. The interesting thing is that he is actually on an island, looking at the mainland.

Enzie Shahmiri · 05-16-2008, 07:51 PM

Thanks Alex! I love to hear what the ideas of the artist are when they are developing a painting.

Heidi Maiers · 05-17-2008, 10:37 AM

Alexandra -
The painting is absolutely gorgeous, but I had quite a different initial interpretation of it before I read that it was a double portrait.

Seeing the similarity in the two, I first assumed it was a father/son portrait. Thinking perhaps the father is guarded (in an iron cage) and does not let anyone get close to him, including the son who is pressed against the glass and longing to get in. The father pays no attention to his gesturing as he is deep in thought about other things. They spend a lot of time together, but are not close.

Ok, I know this is WAY off - but it's interesting how different people can read such different meaning into the same painting. Interpretation is an interesting topic.

Now that I know they are of the same person, of course that changes my entire view of the painting.

Alexandra Tyng · 05-17-2008, 10:59 AM

Wow, Heidi, that it NOT way off at all! I am so blown away by this. In a way, it is about a father and son. One of my initial thoughts for the painting was to show the effect of our family circumstances on my brother. (I won't go into that here, but you could read about our family on the internet in relation to my brother's film, My Architect.) My brother and I experienced similar situations as children growing up in our family and so this painting is partially about me, too--as all art is about the artist. I was trying to show the feeling of being left on the outside, "wanting in" to your family, as a young person. Then, when you are older, realizing that you are in, just by the strength of your own achievements and the validation of yourself. No one can prevent you from being who you are and accepting your rightful place in the world, whatever that may be. The young man is looking in on his older self--but in a way, he has become the father.

Thanks for that insight, Heidi.

Carlos Ygoa · 05-18-2008, 05:43 PM

Alex,
I

Mary Ann Archibald · 05-18-2008, 08:08 PM

[QUOTE=Carlos Ygoa]Alex,
and the lighthouse...it

Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco · 05-19-2008, 02:52 PM

Alex, I am also very late in commenting. Normally I try to post straight away, but when, like in this case, I miss out on that, it is difficult to add anything as all the posts are so well articulated.
I have the utmost admiration for tackling all the members of your family in portraits as you did. We have seen your father, your mother, your husband and children, and now your brother. With each of them things seem to get deeper and deeper.

In fact I am late in adding this post because I somehow sense that this works are there because you just NEED to do them, almost regardless of the result, and though you generously share your process with us, in fact I find them so personal and honest that I do not dare to judge them.
As you said, you have an idea which you can only convey in painting and you explore it until very deep down. Though the scene is set in an open space one has the feeling that actually we are somewhere within, in another dimension, an internal one, where the space turns into an illusion as soon as we learn that the time is an illusion too.
I love this painting, I find it so intense that at this point if you went on and painted over the younger figure the strenght of its former presence could still be felt.
Ilaria

Marina Dieul · 05-20-2008, 09:05 AM

Alex,
I was very impressed when I first saw this painting in your studio. First, the composition and the color harmony struck me. Then all the layers of symbolism, I wouldn't try to find the exact interpretation, but all those deep themes are present : inside/outside, reflection, the ages of life... etc...
I think this painting have some precise meanings for you and your brother, and for the viewers like us, we can feel and guess. The richness of the possible interpretation is evident, and it's great also to feel it, and not to explain everything with words ( sometimes it will lose something if it's explained with too much rationalism...)