Ballerina is a painting inspired by The Red Shoes, one of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales, which in the Magyar-Germanic version – mentioned in Clarissa Pinkola Estés best selling book Women Who Run with the Wolves – says:
“Look at your shoes and be thankful they are plain… for one has to live very carefully if one’s shoes are too red”.
If the feet and their contact with the ground represent the psychological stability of each individual and in particular of an artist, the “red shoes” are the symbol of the blind ambition: once worn, will drive you in a whirling dance out of control, toward dangerous directions for both body and mind.
What drives an artist to subconsciously crave the “red shoes”?
When somebody or, even better, an artist suffers the imposition of behavior patterns, his repressed creative nature tries to come to light and satisfy the artistic desire. This may induce the artist to undertake dangerous directions full of traps, leading him toward his own physical and psychic destruction, as it happens in The Red Shoes. In the tale the self-destruction takes place when the main character (the little girl) decides to get her feet amputated just to get rid of that wicked wish of dancing.
The Ballerina of the painting, dancing on the tips of her shoes, constantly walking a fine line between stability and oblivion, keeps control staying on the edge of the void.
Thus, when an artist can control his “red shoes”, then he is able to reach the “balance” like the Ballerina: when those start to take him away on dangerous paths, he always knows how to get back and positively carry on with his art.
Ballerina © Rosita Tristano
Guest Author Bio – Rosita Tristano
She signs her paintings as Maria Tristan; plays the violin as Rosita Tristano, but for the civil register of Pomarico (Matera, Basilicata, Italy, Europe, World, Universe etc…) she is: MARIA ROSITA TRISTANO.
It was at the age of four, during a live concert, embraced by her father, that the virus of the Art infected her once and forever! Since then the violin became a compass which guides her life, through failures and success, on the road of her feelings.
The main source for her inspiration lays in the ancient lessons of the immortal masters of Classical Music, in the words of songwriters and in the energy of rockers.
When it comes to paintings, color is her North Star.
For her color is a skilled architect who draws emotional scenarios, visible only in our dream land.
Today she wants to share her passion for Art on this virtual space where she invites everyone who lends the Web a more human face.
Website: RositaTristano.com
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