🎨 "Venusmachines" - Balancing male and female
For many years now, my art followed a concept I call "Venusmaschine". In English that would actually be "Venusmachine" (just to make sure its understandable 😉) Basically it means that I try to find a balance between more sensuous female aspects and the more "technical" male aspects.
OK, due to recent discussions I have seen, let me tell you, that I have no intentions to violate any gender issues here. This is strictly about my work and I make no claims to always being politically correct 😎
I basically only paint women, so in order to make "my world" complete, I had to find a way to also add male elements to my paintings. I have always liked technical drawings and machines and found that this could well add the masculine touch I was looking for, to get my yin yang like balance.
This works even in recent paintings like "Mad. Butterfly", where the boundaries between the two aspects are blurred:
![LD-Buf-0.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmc7DZFJFU1mnpHeJy4P1BEbEUoVvPPecZXwhBiS9N38ny/LD-Buf-0.jpg)
![LD-Buf-1.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmRkuL7EUuAoyUY8UryhZZmHQYZwBzTvTyEz4ALLfyFVEA/LD-Buf-1.jpg)
A few years ago, when I started to actually creating "Venusmachines", I even had my term "Venusmaschine©" copyrighted. Here is an example for a "little Venusmachine":
![venusmaschinchen_fin.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmXLn34v5qKtjP2mPaAfTUubYSSgHQSDK5YaEpPrMGCskP/venusmaschinchen_fin.jpg)
Here is another one, "Petite Venusmachine" inspired by the great old master Botticelli:
![DSC_0752_petiteVenusmachine_16x22.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmWnNk6KfZXVN5JCs6YgzUX2fTJEpYVwvWVuaL3u3wX2Kf/DSC_0752_petiteVenusmachine_16x22.jpg)
This actually was the companion to the "Grande Venusmachine" I did a few years ago for an exhibition in Paris.
![venus-0-1200x1813-700x1057.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmanMkTqdhcN3qd2ADshA3g6qzDQnq1EFetf9w7Q5jrx1Z/venus-0-1200x1813-700x1057.jpg)
Right now, I'm trying something completely different and new for me. For a little while I have more and more explored the possibilities of digital art. So, while my traditional paintings need a little drying time, I'm playing with Illustrator to create a variation of my theme...
![kleineVenusmaschine-1.gif](https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmYBUQRBqEjioKPiQTe1T9Qkbf1o2Ur91exjc9sEc4A2cd/kleineVenusmaschine-1.gif)
...a little venusmachine which I want to eventually animate, so it cranks out these hearts... kinda kitschy, I know. But maybe with the summer fading fast, I'm just in a kitschy mood 😊
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I love your exploration into digital art. I too want to learn to animate such paces, especially inspired by @opheliafu digital animated pieces for sale as a 1/1 rare digital piece. So many new amazing ways to make sell and keep art. We are living in a new Renaissance for we artists :)
I love that little venus machine, with the little locket head, it is so sweet.
I can't wait until we find a house and I can unpack and settle. I'll get to have the fun of going antiquing and car boot sales to find a new desk to use here.
Oh its all so addictive! Wish I had more time, but right now there is so much, I couldn't even find time for a decent post last week. Thank good oil paintings need to dry periodically :-)
So cool, that you get to spend a whole season (or two?) on a different continent. I'm sure it will be very inspiring for you. Was for me, when I went back and forth to Chicago. Nevertheless it wore me out eventually and I remember how I always wanted to just stay, wherever I was at the time...
Anyways... by a rough guess, you are cutting the distance between us down to 20% of what it is now... we really should take that as an opportunity to meet some time. How about hopping on the train and coming to Paris from London for "Art en Capital"? I'll be there for the opening night... together with some 8000 (!) art lovers!
I SO WANT to have a steemit meetup and to meet some of my favourite artists, would be wonderful. I wanted to see Herge' but wasn't around for that one.
I chose Kent both for it's beauty and it being the warmest area in Winter in UK mostly and only an hour to London, but also as it is easy to get the train to the continent.
Even if it doesn't work out for that Paris trip, I'd happily take another trip to Paris :) Or, if you felt you wanted to come to London?
The "little Venusmachine" reminds me of a cabinet where you go in on the left and get a love wash and come out through the right door, inflated with a sum of a thousand kisses. When they're used up, you have to refuel again. In my past, such a cabinet was the dance floor in the club, where we danced until the early hours of the morning. Many kisses were exchanged there.
The Botticelli lady you succeeded extremely well not to distinguish from the original except of course the shoes. A great idea to put some on her and make something completely different out of her. Right at the bottom of the picture... ah ... are those butt cheeks? Or even ... ?
Venus and machine don't fit together at all, but that's the artistic freedom to combine things that disturb the viewer.
The small box in the end reminds me of a barrel organ, maybe it still needs a handle? It would be nice to have even such nice little "Blupsch!" sounds
:-)
Edit: I looked a little closer and ahhhhahaha, well, from the front of the box a male genitals stares at me!
Tsts... any resemblances are completely coincidental. Without purpose... which my shrink ex wife (°1) said makes things even worse 😜 Wait til you see the animation with the movement I have planed 🤣 Pfffft... genitals. Two suppliers/formers and the pipe, where the piston runs... its all determined by technical aspects! Uaaahhahaaaa... now this is cracking me up too! You are so funny!
Anyways... (wiping sweat off my forehead).. love the story you created for the little venusmachine. The lady who bought it saw it here, but left as she thought it was too much money for her... nevertheless she had fallen in love with it so much, that she and her husband came back from Munich that night (!) 200km, because she had to have it and was worried sick someone could buy it, before she got it!!
Yes, had that "Blupsch!" sound in my head too! Of course I'll have to find a way to add that 😙. And yeah.. thought about a handle or crank as well!
Hilarious, you are too!
What's that "(°1)" stand for? Coolness? --- ohhhhh, wait, that is a FACE?? LOL.
Yeah, I guess your ex gave you a hard time. Grin.
Wow, in my next life I want to become an artist too, for people are doing really crazy things to get a piece of yours (stealing, blackmailing, seducing). You create in people a lot of FOMO. HaHa! See, that is the difference between a painter and a writer. Nobody would turn around and drive all the miles to get a manuscript. That's why it is called a "copy". 😜
Now, don't spoil that!
Waaaahahahah... coolness. NOT! Ok, face maybe.. with one eye closed. Lets see, how she looks with both open: (°1°) ... ... 🤣🤣🤣
Oh well, first wife wasn't so bad after all, just a little argumentative. I admit, it was probably hard for her next to someone perfect like me... ... 👽
And I am sure there are some guys who came up with some pretty fancy ideas to get of you what they wanted.. writer or not 😇
(°8°) Look, I made one, too
You wouldn't want me having to argue about sentence No. 2. Alien face or not.
..........
HaHa!!! I hope I have scared you a bit. Deserved it, rascal.
hmmm ... fancy ideas? Memory loses me here. Guess there was at least something but it aaaaaalll faded awaaaaayyyy. Laughter!
But seriously, it's such a great compliment having a buyer driving all the way to get some art from you. I love it when you tell those stories.
Hehe... got me. For a moment!
Don't let these things fade away! I already told you. We've got some years on our back, so what.. why can't we still be hot! 💃 🕺 Bring those high heels out and make some photos to post!!
Yesterday Karin came up from her café and told me, what she thought was totally absurd... a guest in her late 50s told her that she can't wait to be 60, so she could retire... and... you know... be retired!!! Haha, was so out of Karin's world... she walked away whistling, with her 4 inch house shoes clackadiclack swinging her hip and clapping her hands. Ok, she iis a year younger than I am. It shows ;-)
Oh that little venusmachine story was heart warming. A young couple in their late 20s early 30s I'd say. They were guests in the café and for some reason they had asked to talk to me. We had a really nice conversation and when she walked to the bathroom, she saw that painting and as she later told me instantly fell in love with it... well, as I said, at first it was too much money for her and shortly after, they left.
She actually called me already on the way home, if "her" painting was still there. I found it endearing and promised not to sell it for the next few days, to give her time to think. Anyways, she was in a kind of panic, that she might miss it and after they had gotten home she called again and asked me, how late they could still meet me, if they were to come back.... I'm thinking my god, the young lady is going to have a heart attack or something and said they could come any time... sure enough they were back late that night and she could finally take her Venusmaschinchen with her. That was so sweet and a big compliment in a way :-)
wollte dir noch antworten... aber zu müd, zu müd ...gähn.
Morgen dann aber. Nacht, Nacht. :)
tsts... kleines Schlafmützchen 😁
..."kitschy" should be banned from the list of negative appreciations!
Haha... yes, but I'm not sure it will happen ;-)
I think the male and the female is perfectly balanced and represented in this one, @reinhard-schmid... :) There are such things that the masculine and feminine are a symmetry in each of us, and also in the world's soul... tis the duality and the completion of humanity ! :D
beautiful painting, as always <3
Wonderful!!! :-D
Thank you :-)
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Love that venus so much, the details in the hair are amazing!
Thank you! I really enjoyed doing this and the old flemish masters approach to oil painting by combining it with egg tempera was perfect for that.
Dear Artzonian, thanks for using the #ArtzOne hashtag. Your work is valuable to the @ArtzOne community. Quote of the week: Art, freedom and creativity will change society faster than politics. -Victor Pinchuk
😁
Kitsch has its place. The little animated machine will be adorable churning out its hearts 💕.