Cover Image: The Spine 2

I believe my drawings have to do with searching for a physical and spiritual balance—the unconscious pursuit of equilibrium. I began drawing late at night, while processing a range of tangled thoughts and emotions. I found it easier to sort them out once I translated them into dots and lines. In time, my dots and lines began to take shape. As I travel deeper into my drawing, my thoughts play back one after another. It’s as if I were cleaning the dust off the shelves of the mind: what is fuzzy and amorphous and obscured by emotion gives way to clear thought.

My dots are bullets aimed at the canvas, looking for a certain precision in shape, size, and location. This may be a strange form of revenge against the status quo that I don’t feel powerful enough to change or influence. These dots could also represent my constantly morphing self, as it finds its place in a world in perpetual motion.

The series Year 2021 speaks about moral traits that are hard to gain, hard to keep, and hard to find in a place where telling the truth is considered impolite (i.e. The Spine 1, The Spine 2). Liberty is one of the most precious things given to us, and we understand its value the moment we begin to lose it; it is at that moment that we learn about our shortcomings. How long can we keep our spine straight? How straight can we keep it? How much of what we think we are, we are indeed?

The Spine 1

The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life represents hope and joy. This being said, the fruits are missing from one of its branches. Is the tree about to lose its leaves or is that branch meant to grow its fruits? Are we once again considering a human condition that strives toward perfection but falls short of achieving it? Or are we, perhaps, experiencing the joy of living a full life even without a fruit?

Uterus

The title of Uterus came as a gift from a friend, who saw in the painting an important part of a life-giving mechanism. This drawing represents, most of all, my affection for an inner world that cannot be observed with a naked eye, but which justifies everything we see around us. It is the microcosmos that governs our thoughts and actions.

Running Toward the Light

Out of all my drawings, Running Toward the Light is the only one that I saw in my mind before starting to work on it. The other drawings drew themselves from one line to another, without following a conscious vision. Their titles came long after, once I understood what they were telling. Some pieces are still waiting for a title. Running Toward the Light is a running away from excuses, from fear and panic and muddled thoughts. It is a running away from running away and a leap toward serenity.

Emanuela Iorga is a filmmaker, artist, and screenwriter, who lives in Chisinau, Moldova. Art represents for her a recently rediscovered passion, following a series of world and inner changes. Her work can be found at manolcaincosmos.wordpress.com/270-2.