After Caravaggio, by Eyob Mergia, © 2012

I received a phone call several weeks ago with the news that one my pieces, which had been displayed in a church, had been vandalized. Someone had slashed it with a knife, and the damage was irreparable. I was surprised and saddened to hear that someone would do that. Anyone would feel the same upon hearing that a piece of his or her work had been destroyed in that way. An artist works to inspire his audience, and to move them to create and work in their own way. Doesn’t every artist hope and expect that his or her artwork will inspire people to create and work in a positive way, and not to destroy?

One of the reasons I did this painting in the first place was that several years ago I studied the use of dark tones in painting. It was very important to me to paint darker figures in darker compositions, and to learn and develop the techniques used by the Renaissance painters. I often include elements of three excellent painters: Caravaggio, Henry Tanner, and Peter Paul Rubens. Even as a child I loved the works of those painters. In most of their work they use radical naturalist and realist styles which combine a close physical observation with dynamic, even theatrical, approach to chiaroscuro, which is the art term for the dramatic use of light and shadow. A close study of realistic painting is a very good foundation for abstract painting.

So in the end, I have repainted the painting that was destroyed.  The church wanted to have me paint it again, and I was happy to oblige.

Click to enlarge

A recent article about the exhibition

The Cazino Lounge and Gallery was proud to present Aster Aweke this past week. Her voice, always amazing, has a power and presence that never fails to hold an audience spellbound. Her personality offstage is just as impressive as it is when she is performing.

I enjoyed comparing notes with her on the creative process. She says that her inspiration in musical creation comes in a “flash,” which matches my experience in the visual arts.

I’m looking forward to collaborating with her in Ethiopia in the future.

For the last few months I have been working on a project that has taken me to Chicago and Washington, DC, as well keeping me busy in Las Vegas.  I’m in the process of finishing the Cazino Lounge and Gallery. This project is more like an installation than a traditional painting–I have designed and painted this space to create a home for my paintings.  It’s been an exciting idea to explore, learn and create.  More than working on a single painting, working on a project like this gives me an entirely new perspective on art in general.

The aesthetics of Cazino are artistically designed from inspirations of space science, Yin Yang symbol forms conjoining Ethiopian monumental art. The art essence intersects the form and color of the three. I boldly projected a new kind of art perspective in my new works. The art design at Cazino entertains 3-dimensional space. It also amuses art concepts of music and spirituality. Cazino created a new type of leisure place where people enjoy services that connect the culinary services with music and contemporary art gallery. Connecting Ethiopian music great Aster Aweke and my art works, Cazino will open the new model of lounge and gallery.

The Inner Voice: Upcoming solo exhibition by artist Eyob Mergia will be displayed on the 22nd of January.

Two Simultaneous Gallery Openings on January 20th, 6pm to January 24th
Theater 7 and Graficandus Art Studio
1406 South 3rd Street
Las Vegas, NV 89104

Happy New Year!

This large charcoal drawing (29 by 8.5 ft) was originally conceived as part of  my research and preparation for a  mosaic and tile project on spiritual art, but became one of my most important pieces.  The size and scope of this pieces can really only be fully appreciated in an exhibit setting, so I have tried to convey some of that in the accompanying photographs.

Genesis is a study of Light and Darkness, of the mystery of Creation, of Imagination and From, and the Human Soul.

– Click to enlarge the images.–

In the Beginning was the Word and the word was with God and the word was God! John 1:1

The exhibit where these photographs were taken was featured in these two publications:

Eyob Mergia: An Ethiopian artist rising in America

Local Painter Showcases Ethiopian Culture and Artwork

My goal is to take these realities into the abstract form, carrying the audience with me into a new way of seeing the things around them. In visiting art galleries around Las Vegas, I have seen a lot of art (and some exceptional sculpture) and I’m looking forward to contributing my own abstract voice to the artistic expression of the city. All abstract art comes from the realistic world, and the degree of abstraction and the strength of expression comes from what is inside.

At the same time, we don’t want to abstract so far that we lose touch with the real, because that is the only connection we have with the audience. The artist is responsible to carry the people along with him as he creates his experimental art, so they can see where he’s going.  It’s like you’re bringing them aboard your boat and sailing with them to your world.  People need to be able to see themselves in your work. Realistic painting may represent one person’s perspective, but abstract art has the capacity to communicate universally.

I’m going to be working with some galleries in California and Las Vegas throughout this year. I’m developing a project about the Boulevard into a large exhibit for later this year.  Keep watching the blog for more updates on this project.

In this article, he offers the reader a brief discussion of the nature of abstract art, recognizing that, “abstract art exists on a continuum running from realistic through non-representational measured by degrees, and it is those degrees that merit discussion in issues of style, technique, and intent.”

He then follows the thread of those degrees through the art of various South Dakota artists. The section about my art featured The Cello Dream.  Click on the image below to read the article.

I’ve been living in Sioux Falls for many years now. That time has seen many changes in my art as I have learned and developed. One of the things I have learned during my time in Sioux Falls is how to focus my creativity and cultivate my inspiration. Sometimes it’s difficult to be inspired when a person sees the same things every day. We have to learn how to find inspiration in other places—books, and other works of art, music, and learning from many different aspects of life.

I’m very happy with the pieces of art that I have contributed to the community of Sioux Falls. These pieces are some that I feel are my most valuable contributions of artistic awareness to the city:

• The Seven Days of Creation
• Genesis
• Cello Dream
• Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit
• The Ark of the Covenant
• Wisdom of Axum

These are some of the best pieces of my career, and I am glad to have them represent me here. I’m looking forward to continue to grow as an artist, pursuing some exciting opportunities in this field.

I have accomplished what I needed to accomplish as an artist here, and I am grateful to this city for the time and opportunity to do that. I feel very supported and encouraged here.  For that reason, I’m thankful for the experiences I’ve had over the past years.

To me being an artist is to have a mission. When I go to a new place, a different country or culture, my mission is find and express, to celebrate the beauty of that place, to dig into its history. Art is one of the languages that humans use to communicate. It is also a conceptual way to see. My art has allowed me to look at things in different dimensions, in forms and cubes and mathematical expressions.

Artists have always taken their world and their experience and reinterpreted it, presented it back to their audience in a way that allows the audience to see that world in a new way, in a new light and a different form. Without art, the world is flat and boring—there is no beauty, no form, no inspiration.

Inspiration is an Idea that comes in a flash, and we grab that flash, take hold of that millisecond’s idea. We let the flash of that idea carry us along. It gives us wheels to run on, and it carries us and we carry it beyond and through other ideas and thoughts. They drive us from moment to moment, and help us explore the essence of life. We take the beauty out of the dust, and hold it up to the light.

Painting is not a pointless activity—it is a power that helps to refine the soul. Art is daily bread for the soul. However the artist should have a message to convey, a message, revealed to him by his inner voice, that is the source of the beauty in his work. Only that is beautiful.

Contact me if you are interested in any of the available paintings featured on this blog.

Several elements  were in my mind as I worked on this piece. I wanted to include: future, diversity, innovation, evolution, vision, imagination and creativity. These elements are the fundamentals of humanity and culture which help shape mankind’s destiny.

This exhibition is now the second collaboration between Ron Robinson and me. It has been a really good experience, and I’m looking forward to working with him on similar projects in the future. You can read more of Ron’s work here.  Hopefully, that would be an art that idealistically expresses the spirit of the Dakotas – an art that represents everyone.

Below is a beautiful poem Ron Robinson wrote as part of our collaboration to express the idea in both words and painting.

Dakota Moment
We are met at these crossroads of time,
ascended from the stairs of the double spiral
or descended from the galaxy of stars,
onto these plains where once great herds of bison
fled the arrows of He-Whose-Horse-Is-Crazy,
where mountains bear the likeness of our faces.

Who were they, so proud they carved their faces
into stone, as though in this to conquer time?
To seek permanence in this endless flux is crazy,
after all; stone crumbles, and words spiral
like leaves or birds in autumn winds, as bison
stir in fear of wolves that howl the stars.

This world is not ours, we who from the stars
were fashioned, whose sins are written in our faces,
whose existence is as fragile as the bison
we once brought near extinction, who in time
will be extinct, whose fortunes too will spiral
downward, and whose greed will drive us crazy.

What are we met to do in this crazy
world but seek to emulate our stars
whose talents bring them fame, who spiral
to obscurity, and whose faces
haunt us, so much like our own in time,
as though to warn us of our fate: like bison

to flourish for a little while, like bison
to be brought low? Is it truly crazy
to think there must be something else, that time
was given us to use, to regain the stars,
to reclaim our righteousness, to redeem our faces,
before we face the greater, final spiral?

But what can atone, what reverse the spiral?
Our fathers have transgressed against the bison,
against the earth, have set their very faces
one against the other, stolen Crazy
Horse, their heroes and their foes, their stars,
as mere attractions, have sold their own brief time.

Now give us kinder faces to climb the double spiral
up the steps of time, let flourish men and bison.
Though now it may seem crazy, we meet next in the stars.

–Ronald Robinson

The Completion of the Seven Days of Creation

Eight mosaic panels, glass and ceramic tile, 23 ft high and  7 ft wide each.

click the picture to enlarge

The Concept

Art helps to expand our minds’ capacity and lifts up our spirits.  Art is a joy.  Someone might be going through the day thinking about his or her daily activities, and suddenly he or she stops in front of a mural that depicts the beginning of the world.  It breaks us out of time, it gives us a moment for ourselves that lifts us out of the stream of daily busyness.

I was reading in the book Art Forms a few days ago, and came upon this passage:  “A technologically explosive society needs the humanizing rewards of artistic experience.  The arts help meet our emotional and spiritual needs…  Art helps us to see.  How we see determines how we live.”When we read books, we are given a window into knowledge that we didn’t have.  Works of art provide another means of learning, another window into knowledge. Children can look and learn without words.

Art conveys a spiritual knowledge without depending on words.

The artwork

The Seven Days of Creation is a different mural from most that I have seen.  Many artists will simply submit an idea for a mural and from there, other people produce the mural itself. In this case, from the initial sketches, to the detailed drawings, to the finished paintings that were the design for the mural, I went through every step to make sure that the original concept was carried through to the final mural on the wall.

I hand-selected the colors for each section of the mural,and worked carefully with the ones who were building the mural throughout the process. A note about the technical aspect of creating a mural like this:  There are three different ways to construct a mural: the Direct Method, the Indirect Method, and the Double Indirect Method.  In the first, tiles are placed directly on the final surface.  In the second, tiles are placed in a mirror image of the final design on an intermediate surface, and then transferred to the final surface.

The third method, which is the one used on the Seven Days of Creation, requires those building the mosaic to first construct the finished design on one surface, then transfer it in reverse to an intermediate surface, and then to transfer it to its final surface.

The artist

All of us are born for something.  I think part of my purpose is to help people around me to create art on a higher level.  An artist creates an artwork to communicate to his audience, and also to educate and influence younger artists.  Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and Picasso’s Guernica are both examples of an artist communicating his ideas, and also attempting to change the culture around them.

One of my goals in my art in general, and in the Seven Days of Creation in particular, is to create a higher standard for art and culture, to raise the level of art that is produced in Sioux Falls and in the world around us.    As I promised, here is a garden for the four seasons, a gift to the world like it has been given to me. This is a legacy that will go on for generation to generation.

Special thanks to Syverson Tile for their patience and support, to Sicis for the wonderful collaboration, and to Our Savior’s Lutheran Church for both the opportunity to be part of this project and for their sponsorship.

An article in the Argus leader about the mosaic’s design.
To see more details of the original design, visit my website.