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Interview with Authors of Art of 4 Elements: Discover Alchemy through Poetry

Art of 4 Elements Poetry

Art of 4 Elements: Discover Alchemy through Poetry (AoL Mindfulness #2) by Nataša Pantović, Jason Lu, Christine Cutajar, Jeni Caruana

„Seated on a panel with her fellow writers, Maltese-Serbian novelist Nataša Pantović has been known to use slam poetry to perform her poetic body of work. Like her prose, the improvised words, tribal music, sounds, lengthy ‘aum’ chanting, are neither too preposterous nor too earnest but endlessly curious. A bridge builder between East and West, following ancient archaeological findings, she often dives into historic settings more than 2,000 years back in time.“ Sunday Times.

Art of 4 Elements: Discover Alchemy through Poetry, is AoL Mindfulness Book #2, a collaboration of 4 International artists living at the time in Malta: a Serbian Maltese Nataša Pantović (Nuit) with MSc Economics, a Chinese American Jason Lu with BA of Arts, a Maltese Christine Cutajar with MA in Creativity, & an English Jeni Caruana with BA in Arts, who teamed to create this amazing mystical journey of 120 poems and 120 art works. The poetry acted as an inspiration for the work of the artists. These mystical meditations of the "Art of 4 Elements" artists were chosen to be exhibited in the prestigious Centre for Creativity, St James Cavalieri, in Valletta, Malta.
Join us on this spiritual, inner alchemical transformation, from the visible into words, and words into images, exploring the four elements, and their occult esoteric, philosophical manifestation within Nature:

\• Earth that is fixed, rigid, static and quiet, and symbolizes the world of senses;
• Water that is the primordial Chaos, is fluidity and flexibility, and symbolizes the world of emotions;
• Air that has no shape and is incapable of any fixed form. It is a symbol of thoughts.
• Fire that is boundless and invisible, and is a parching heat that consumes all, or within its highest manifestation, becomes the expression of Divine Love; and
• Spirit that stands at the center of the four elements as an Essence, an Observer, Consciousness coming forth to experience the magic of Life.

 

Interview with Authors of Art of 4 Elements

The Sunday Times in April by Josianne Facchetti

A long, beautiful, red skirt caught Jeni Caruana’s eye from a multitude of people walking down Republic Street, Valletta, Malta. Less than an hour later she met Jason Lu and the girl in the red skirt Christine Cutajar while they were discussing the Art of 4 Elements project. Nataša was here too and she asked Jeni if she too wanted to take part in this artistic expression. When things are presented to you in a way that feels right, I go with the flow. These were one of the first steps of a multimedia project called The Art of 4 Elements – the project where 4 artists got together to create a book, an exhibition, a spiritual journey.

They transformed the inspiration from the poetry into their own artistic expression. Their aim was to follow their hearts, explore their capabilities and reach their highest emotional, mental and spiritual potential through art and also inspire other researchers. Together, they have created a  containing over a hundred of Natasa Pantovic’s poems where each of the poems has a corresponding drawing, painting or photograph.

Earth Poems: Nataša Pantović

Earth represents the poems, fire represents the life force, air represents meditation and mental work and water represents the flow of emotions and letting go.

When I asked Nataša how she felt about for the first time exposing her poems and expressing her inner thoughts and feelings to the public she answered – I am trembling, but my tremble is part of the growth and the process of growth.

The artists found the poems emotive, inspiring and full of spiritual force. Most of them are about spiritual growth and positive thinking.

Water Poems: Jeni Caruana

Water kind of chose me. I paint the human figure a lot. I am obsessed with the human figure. I draw and paint dancers and people in motion. There is something very fluid about dances and the way they move. So my paintings in this exhibition are a series of dances in motion which I chose to paint in ink and water because this medium is very fluid and flowing. It is almost uncontrollable. I am drawing with a brush with ink and water and it just takes on its own. It is practically water. You shouldn’t be too much in control when you are working alongside the medium. That is when the exciting things happen. I just went with the flow. Art is for looking at the world and saying how beautiful it is.

Jeni first drew dancers in motion and then ‘married’ them to the 40 of Nataša’s poems.

Art of 4 Elements book by Nataša Pantović Nuit exhibition invite

Air Poems: Paintings by Jason Lu

I used oil paint and oil pastel directly from the tube. I tried not to mix colour to keep it pure because I believe every colour and pigment emanates a different vibration and energy and vibration in its pure form can leave a direct impact. The poems I chose are so positive that they inspired me to use bright pure saturated colours.

The themes in the poems I chose are of finding the freedom within us to love, to liberate and take away the baggage or layers accumulated from parents, society and school. Everyone is intrinsically pure and full of love but it is the fear gathered along the way that blocks this love.

Through the air element in the poetry I worked on letting go. I soaked myself day and night with the inspiration I got from each poem. Sometimes it took a couple of days to turn this abstraction of poetry into my reality and my reality in art form can also be an abstraction to the viewer.  The thought process was like a therapy, healing me from inside. I felt like a big onion taking off one layer at a time. So the air element for me is elevating.

I did my best to bring this out in my paintings through the flow, lines and curves. There is a process which works on the subconscious level and is realised once the work is finished. If an artist is honest about the creating process, it should be a reflection of what is going on inside. This experience helped me to grow on the spiritual, love and meditative level. Sometimes it is the process that is important in the growth not the actual work. It was a great journey for me.

Fire Poetry, Photography Christine Cutajar

Exibition St James Valletta Art of 4 Elements with Natasa Pantovic Jason Lu Jeni Caruana and Christine Cutajar Book Launch

Check also

Interview with Jason Lu

Poems for You Browse Spiritual Poetry Online

Poetry and Art Exibition at St. James

Nataša Pantović
with MSc Economics is Maltese Serbian Novelist, Adoptive Parent, Management Consultant and Ancient Worlds’ Consciousness Researcher.
Using stories of ancient Greek and Egyptian philosophers and ancient artists, after being Head of Business Development, Consultant and Trainer for 20 years  of 4 largest consulting and IT companies in the UK, Holland, and Malta, KPMG, Reeds, Deloitte, Government, I inspire researchers to reach beyond their self-imposed boundaries.

Christine Cutajar 
with  Masters in Creativity and Innovation
(2010 – 2013) from Institute of Design and Development Thinking of Malta, and BSc in Psychology from the University of Malta, is a Maltese Artist who has exhibited her art, both photography and installations, solo and collectively, at St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity, in Valletta, Malta.

Jason Lu BA Art

Chinese-American artist Jason Lu's passion are installation exhibitions.
Born in Taiwan of Chinese origin, Jason moved to San Francisco, USA, at the age of 15.
Managing Director at Consciouseed, Creative Director at Veda Alliance, Jason Lu lives in Taipei, Taiwan. He has studied sculpture at Florence Academy of Art (1999 – 2002). He has exhibited in the US, Malta, Italy.

Jeni Caruana, with BA in Arts
Born in England, Jeni Caruana settled in Malta in 1977 and has since become a well-known contributor to the Maltese art scene. She is known for her water-colour landscapes and her on-the-spot painting at live music and dance performances.
More Than 30 Solo + 20 Collective Exhibitions, including exhibiting in National Museum of Archaeology, National Museum of Fine Arts, The British High Commission, Ministry For Tourism and Culture in Valletta, Malta, in Tunis, in London. An Author of 14 Illustrated Publications, 2004 Guest Speaker At “Women Who Create” Conference.

       

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