Body and Mind

“Body and Mind” is the of the latest and the most popular paintings made by Emma Valisova von Sanger in June 2021. It is one of the 6 paintings in series about self-discovery and self-acceptance over the course of time, made with gouache colors on A2 sized paper. The “Body and Mind” is an abstraction, it looks like a number of complete solid color shapes mixed all together. The painting is made with different shades of blue, brown and beige colors.

Two body shapes may be seen on the art piece. One is a primitive full-body figure in the middle, sitting with raised hands. Another one is a naked torso going through all the painting by the right side, with more details such as navel or chest line.

Body and mind are represented in the picture in several ways. The most conspicuous is color palette – brown and beige represent the different tones of the physical body, and blue represents the mind. The colors are randomly placed all over the painting without any visible division. As well as body shapes are merged with other shapes on the painting. The absence of a visible line between body and mind represents their unity. Having a mind is impossible without having a body. And the perception of the body is influenced by the mind. It would be impossible for the human mind to gather information without the body, but the form of the body defines how and what kind of information would be delivered to the mind. Thus blind people defiantly have different ways of thinking and memorizing and understanding the world overall. Or people without leg would think differently about places, would be focused on other details, would think about other stuff. Also, the mind changes the body. For example, beauty standards will define the clothes, the makeup, the hairstyle, and sometimes even the shape of body parts (beauty surgeries). If a person has some mental illness, they could affect their body by harming it. “Body and Mind” reflects their inseparability, mutual influence and balance.

Several body shapes may also represent the felt and ideal bodies. The primitive human figure in the middle is the way people feel themselves – without thinking much about visual details and being more concentrated on the pose, health, expressions. It has only two “mind” colors on the head. While an ideal body (torso) has concrete gender, visual details and is made with a lot of blue shades. It is imaginary.

The art piece was made in 2021 – just after everybody got affected by the lockdown trapped in the houses for around year one with their bodies and thoughts. Bodies were felt less, because of the reduced movements and activities. People were left with their thoughts, becoming more a mind, functioning in the internet space, then the balanced connection between the physical and mutual parts.

The “Body and Mind” painting reminds how it is important to have both of those in life. Same as there is no color preponderance on the painting, both – the body and mind should take an equal part in humans life.