Garden of Shadows — Lillianne Ruiz Studio

La Naturaleza dual del despertar feliz

/ Joyful Awakenings Dual Nature

80 x 80 cm

Óleo sobre lienzo / Oil on canvas

2021

The artist provides the landscape with clear and subtle personifications, depending on the concept she wants to convey. In this latest series: “Garden of Shadows”, she shows us nature in its raw form, as an allegory of the mind and human emotions, for us to reflect, just as shadows cannot exist without light, we cannot recognize happiness without experiencing sadness.

In an effort to face the challenges that life entails, Lillianne immersed herself in an investigation into happiness, without considering that in her quest to understand others, she would better understand society and, equally, herself.

This research is captured through works that become dark wastelands and bright seascapes; these ecosystems are composed of great symbolic codes, typical of the artist's worldview. It is important to mention the contrasts of light present in this series, since they are representations of the balance required in human emotions, with light sometimes representing the image of happiness and darkness of sadness, becoming parables that seek to show the harmony that we must keep in mind in our life.

Lillianne, in her search for balance, shows us a great variety of sensations and emotions, painting being her practical method of meditation. It is with this search that she wonders whether our pursuit of happiness, as it happens in the West, is the cause of our own self-destruction; or if the most accurate path should be to seek to integrate all emotions, that is to say, we are happy because we have experienced sadness or as the artist would say, without darkness there is no light.

Gary Hior

Curator

Fragmentos de un sueño de una noche de verano / Fragments of a night summer’s dream

70 x 70 cm

Óleo sobre lienzo / Oil on canvas

2022

Luz en la Oscuridad

/ Light in the Dark

110 x 110 cm

Óleo sobre lienzo / Oil on canvas

2022

Persiguiendo el Día / Chasing the Day

80 x 80 cm

Óleo sobre lienzo

/ Oil on canvas

2022

Fénix en el Cielo

/ Phoenix in the Sky

80 x 80 cm

Óleo sobre lienzo / Oil on canvas

2022

Tormenta en las montañas

/ Storm in the mountains

100 x 100 cm

Óleo sobre lienzo / Oil on canvas

2022

Árbol de Euphrosyne

/ Euphrosyne‘s Tree

60 x 60 cm

Óleo sobre lienzo / Oil on canvas

2022

Desde la Cima

/ From the Summit

100 x 90 cm

Óleo sobre lienzo / Oil on canvas

2022

Light without Darkness?

My interest in happiness began over 20 years ago when I made my first attempt at creating a “happy” art piece to help a friend who seemed to be going through a rough time. In that moment, I had just returned to Costa Rica, I was adapting to many changes and in the process of restarting my own life.

This work turned out to be a challenge as I quickly discovered that the topic of happiness is so subjective that what was happiness for me would not necessarily translate that way for everyone else. On the other hand, I wanted the work to mean something more, beyond its initial purpose. At that moment I resolved it with a semi-abstract work full of nods to certain shared moments hoping it would at least lead to a smile.

Regardless of the fact that the work was created for someone specific at a specific time, the same questions have arisen several times and in different ways: How do you approach such a subjective topic? How do you create something that truly resonates? After all, happiness is a state of mind that has different meanings to different people at different times.

What initially seemed like a simple task turned into a multi-year project. The contemporary philosophy of happiness establishes that it is a moral objective of life. However, depression is currently the leading cause of health problems worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. What is it that overwhelms humanity so much?

La Felicidad no es siempre silenciosa

/ Happiness is not always silent

110 x 110 cm

Óleo sobre lienzo / Oil on canvas

2022 - 2023

Canción de cueva

/ The Cave’s song

80 x 80 cm

Óleo sobre lienzo / Oil on canvas

2023

I can now admit that I even started with naive ideas of what happiness is, or should be and my need to want to help loved ones led me to study the subject extensively.

In the beginning I saw it as a decision, or attitude in life. Research taught me it is necessary to comply with several basic initial life factors: security, food, among many others. We, however, find happiness even in the most surprising places.

How long can we maintain a happy state?

The lack of answer to this question is a constant reason for our continued frustration. Perhaps it is the main challenge that Western society of the 21st century has sold us, since no human being can manage to have only one emotion during their existence. Much of today's problems come from this impossible goal: a culture that makes us think that happiness is purchasable, unlimited desires often unattainable, leading the way to our own destruction.

One definition of happiness is: “A state of pleasant spiritual and physical satisfaction.” We often assume that happiness is a state “without pain”, “without sadness”, implying that it is possible to live like this. Instead of realizing that joy is fleeting and dependent, it is revealed as always present and unconditional. The dictionary definition of happiness does not mention time.

It is not possible to always be happy. Happiness and sadness are never completely separable; The error is in assuming that one emotion is exclusive of the other. In other words, without darkness there is no light.

There are multiple connections that I have found and many will be hidden among my works, but what I can attest is that I use nature as a metaphor for life. Hence, the reason for the name of this series, Garden of Shadows, since just as there can be no shadows without light, happiness cannot be recognized without experiencing sadness. The ups and downs go hand in hand.

Lilianne Ruiz Truque