描述
A figure of man made of embers is sitting cross-legged with his hands on his thighs, looking relaxed but attentive. He sits at the center of a flower with eight petals of a radiating smoldering glow, turning in to flames towards the outer edges.
I have never felt as much pressure as I am now at this point in my life, yet I also have not had a greater sense of freedom. The external situation is grim but instead of focusing on that, I am choosing to put all of that energy into my purpose, making art. A lot of this work is reflecting on that spirit. As many of my works, this grew organically from a loose idea that crystallized towards the end. It coincided with the thought of encompassing element of fire from my spiritual practice. Overall this is a sum of many influences and synchronicities, intuitive connections happening during the drawing process. One of them was listening to the audiobook of Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi and that is where the figure, in my mind it is a samurai, came into the drawing and a flower took a little more into that direction too. As it is a symbolistic work, things like number of the petals may be interesting for the viewer to contemplate on, but also not something I want to assign specific meaning to. I can share some of my thoughts behind the work here, but ultimately it is the freedom of the viewer to reflect on the work from their perspective and experience.
Trial by Fire
digital drawing
Mikko Lyytinen
2023
