Beautiful and Bizarre Little Things

Like small works of art, well here’s another lovely artist for this blog’s artspiration collection: Naoto Hattori.

I’ve been following Hattori for some time now and his work has always been a great reminder that amazing art can come in small sizes.

Naoto Hattori is a Japanese artist who paints these wonderfully surrealistic acrylic paintings of floating heads, imaginative creatures and adorable one-eyed kittens. Many pieces of his work are smaller than 6×6, which have often given me inspiration in doing my artist card drawings. Not so much in subject matter but rather to serve as an example that an artist doesn’t have to go out and create work that can cover one whole side of a museum in order to create great art. Such large pieces are impressive indeed but as the saying goes “Great things come in small sizes” too or my personal favorite “It’s the little things that count.” So here’s another mark on the scoreboard for lovers and creators of small works of art. 😊

Art, A Glimpse Into My Soul

The Apotheosis Of The Slavs

“You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

If there is any work of art that is a glimpse into my soul, I would have to say it is The Slav Epic by Alphonse Mucha.

Although Mucha is more notably remembered for his poster illustrations of lovely women with flowery decor and fanciful graphic lettering, as well as being one of the well known artists of the Art Nouveau movement. For me, even though I greatly admire his illustrations, which are often a source of inspiration, it is The Slav Epic that has always captivated me the most. There’s  something deeply emotive about the work. And the many years it took to for Mucha create such exquisitely impressive paintings, which he considered to be his life’s masterpiece, is something to be in awe about. I hope that one day I can create something as amazing from my own cultural history.

The Slav Epic is a series of 20 huge paintings depicting the history of the Czech and the Slavic people as a celebration of Slavic history. Unfortunately with the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Mucha work was denounced and he became a target during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. He died in the summer of 1939…but thankfully his beautiful works live on. 

You can see more Alphonse Mucha’s art at the Mucha Foundation website, http://www.muchafoundation.org

The Slavonic Liturgy In Great Morvia

The Celebration Of Svantovit

The Slavs In Their Original Homeland