I think in pictures, and for as long as I can remember, I've been working with the idea of visual language as a powerful vehicle that can communicate what words cannot.
I use art to explore the nature of creativity, technology vs. nature, the creation story, and metamorphosis - the human ability to transform and to find light in the darkest places.
I put together my compositions by researching the historical symbolic meanings given to plants, animals, colours, objects, and even gestures or facial expressions. I weave these together into a painting that often includes a few words in an ancient language to draw it all together and to reflect the immense power that language can have.
Many of these symbolic meanings have been forgotten, and I often have to dig through ancient texts, medieval bestiaries, and mysterious manuscripts to find the precise meaning or image that works for a particular painting.
The picture is only completed, however, once a viewer stands in front of it, and takes the time to question what it is saying. People ask me to explain the symbolic meanings, but I want to invite them to really "talk to" the painting themselves. You don't need the historical knowledge.... Just ask the painting questions like "why has she put a frog there? - what could that swan mean? why use blue there?"
If you take the time to do that, often enough, the painting unlocks itself... faded memories from fairytales, well-known myths, half-remembered poems, will spring to mind, even if you're not really an "art person".
Just slow down, take a breath, allow the eye to travel across an image, and let the mind and imagination respond to what they see. And listen to, and trust, your own replies.
So I'd like to invite folks to come talk to my paintings, because they're very chatty! All you need to do is start asking "well, why..?" and see what happens.
The first video I've posted gives my inspiration for the piece, but viewers are free to come up with their own interpretations if it speaks to them in a different way. The second video is longer, and I give some more background to and explain the meanings hidden in the painting "Systema Teleion" - an ode to the power of music.
All the paintings posted here are part of my 2017 collection "Stained by the Light". I've been working on this throughout the winter of 2016-17 and will be exhibiting it in Corfu, Greece and Glastonbury, UK, over the coming months.
Exhibition info:
"Stained by the Light I" by Sasha Chaitow
Corfu Reading Society, 120 Kapodistriou St, Corfu
24 May - 7 June 2017
"Stained by the Light II" by Sasha Chaitow
Glastonbury Galleries, 10A High St, Glastonbury
14-23 October 2017
Short explanations of more of the paintings are on my Facebook page, and you can visit my website for the long read and more about me.
More info: sashachaitow.co.uk
The Sacred Ibis vs. the Death of Culture
Learning the Language of the Birds 1,2, and 3
The Three Fates (Lachesis/past - Clotho/present - Atropos/future)
Coniunctio Oppositorum (the unification of opposites)
Potnia (Mistress of the Beasts)
Systema Teleion (The Greater Perfect System)
Studio Visit - Sasha Chaitow on her Stained by the Light collection 2017
The Feathers of Penemue
