Compassion

Artwork Info

• Year: 2014.
• Medium: Photo Manipulation, Digital Painting.
• Style: Emotional Digital Art.
• Size:  70×70 inches (176×176 cms).
• Model: Deposit Photos.

“Compassion” is an emotional digital art illustration about empathy created in Adobe Photoshop and slightly inspired by 16th century italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo.

Artist’s statement

compassion /kəmˈpaʃn/ noun

1. sympathetic pity and concern for the suffering or misfortunes of others.
2. will to alleviate the suffering of others.

This artwork has warm, welcoming orange hues on its focal point. From the head, a lot of flowers and leaves are sprouting, creating a rich environment that continues until the bottom of the composition. But most of vegetation is fading into an autumnal scene. They’re drying against the contrast of the pale and bright blue background. Its warmth is getting colder.

Under that ecosystem, a hieratic character with very pale skin appears. We cannot see the eyes (they’re hidden between the plants taking notice of what’s happening), but we can notice tears of blood going down the cheek. The relaxed pose turns into tension when one of the hands is grabbing the other arm with such strength that it is making it bleed. As we go down through the image, we see an allegoric fire is consuming the character over the bottom area.

All these readings and contrasts can lead the viewer to interpret the inner suffering of the character because of the surroundings (cold versus warm), despite it might seem like a joyful image at first glanze.

No matter how good our position is: we have the power to feel for others. Empathy can make us suffer a bit sometimes, and that is what “Compassion” is all about. An emotional illustration of contrasts: joy and sadness, to iridescent colors to autumnal ones, from warmth to coldness. This is a piece that gets more and more complex as you read it, begging us to consider the world and people around us.