It is so that artists have shown through the hands the feelings they wished to represent. My Hands, Artist Hands

My hands, the hands of an artist

Thank you for my hands:

We take our hands for granted, our hands do so much more than we realize. 

I felt gratitude come over me… gratitude for my hands and everything they do.

By means of my hands, I have the privilege to convey my ideas. My hands put into practice, the ideas which sprout from my mind, these ideas get transformed into pictures, sculptures, and functional art pieces.

Through my hands I get to transform the pictures in my head
Through my hands, I get to transform the pictures in my head

Henry Moore about hands: 

Henry Moore made drawings of his own hands when he was eighty-one and suffering from ill health.

“Hands can convey so much, they can beg or refuse, take or give, be open or clenched, show content or anxiety. They can be young or old, beautiful or deformed.” 

Moore had a fascination with hands as vehicles of expression: ‘Throughout the history of  sculpture
and painting one can find that artists have shown through the hands the feelings they wished to represent.’

This blog post by the Henry Moore Foundation resonates with me. 

The artist, Hepworth wrote of the hand as a medium of expression and as an extension of the sensory cortex.

The painter has the Universe in his mind and his hands.”  – Leonardo Da Vinci 

 

Samuel Mockbee said: “The hand expresses what the heart already knows.” As an artist, this is something I experience over and over again.

The heart and the hands: 

As I have a specific technique and style, I can, in many ways “manipulate” my artworks, I can steer away from dark emotions and sadness if I deliberately try to, but in a big way, the hand listens to the heart and those feelings do shine through, the artists hands put into practice that which comes directly from our hearts.

So if I feel “burned out” – even if I want to hide it, my hands take over and shout it out to the world!

 

Cheers! Time out.
Cheers! Time out.

Although not often, my hands do get a break from time to time. 

“Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds’ wings.”

Rumi

My hands in my paintings: 

You will often see my hands featuring in my artworks. 

My hands in my paintings
My hands in my paintings

Believe it or not, my hands even get to do admin, the difficult left brain stuff!! 

Hands in action, doing admin.
Hands in action, doing admin.

Playing around: 

What my hands love most is playing around, if it is painting, sculpting, building or even just coloring objects I dreamed out and had crafted. That is what my life is about.

My creations
My creations

 The hand is an instrument of instruments.

—Aristotle

Grateful for my hands
Grateful for my hands

“I am not what I am, I am what I do with my hands.” – Louise Borgeois

 

And the last quote… just to mess with your mind!

“A man paints with his brain and not with his hands.” – Michelangelo

Pay attention to your hands. Appreciate them and be thankful for them.

 

 

 

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All Artwork © Mariaan Kotzé