UNDRGRND ARTIST: CIDMAN
JULY 9TH, 2022
Each week artists are commissioned for a piece of art through the UNDRGRND Grant Program. 100 NFTs are minted and are randomly airdropped to UNDRGRND Membership Cardholders. To find out how you can be featured as an UNDRGRND Artist check out our Discord.
Does every emotion and state of the soul have a color? It seems to Cidman that every emotion has its color nuance. In her digital painting Serene, Cidman uses a lot of pink, purple, and orange tones to represent her calm feeling.
Cidman manages to build a vague impression and deep emotion in her work with her color shades. A gray-faced lady glances with a blank stare. The blue makeup around her eyes resembles the fluttering of butterfly wings, creating a solemn longing feeling. It is as if the woman is saying, “I’ve calmed down here, do not disturb me anymore. Please don't come any closer." The blue butterfly wings seem to depict the transformation of the woman's soul. She looks tired and surrenders at the same time. But she is not giving up. At all.
For Cidman, life's exhaustion is bluish-grey. Although the lady's pink eyebrows are lit and lively, they can't soothe the tiredness of the soul in the painting. An attempt to attain peacefulness can be seen in the warm pink shades on the object's hair. The comfort of a pink tinge in the hair seems to signify positive thoughts, full of love and sweet memories.
The artist's line work is very feminine, and the colors are paradoxical. She conveys a serene emotion with warm bubbly colors such as pink, orange, and purple and depicts sadness with cheerful colors. These pink, orange and purple shades also remind us of the sky color before sunset, especially after the rain. There is a majestic, sublime, and vast impression created by the swish of the lady’s hair and its background.
This artwork feels very spiritual, it reminds us that nothing is eternal in this world. All sadness, happiness, difficulty, and ease can come and go. We never know what will happen in the next second, minute, hour, or day. The beauty of blooming flower petals attracts the butterflies to come and perch, but seconds later, those petals may fall in the storm. Cidman captures this fragile and temporary life in the flowers surrounding the lady. Flowers are so beautiful because of their fragility, reminding us to cherish every second of our encounter, and that beauty is in the moment of awareness.
The blue butterflies flying between the blooming flowers also carry an equally powerful message. We all transform, especially after being hit by a storm or discomfort that forces us to re-contemplate ourselves. Cidman seems to invite us to reflect and feel every emotion as it is, which may have been neglected by our busy lives, which sometimes turn us into blueish gray zombies. She asks us to paint our minds with warm and vibrant colors; to pause and observe the flowers, the butterflies, and every star in the sky. Exploring the microcosm in our souls is a powerful energy that drives the macrocosm.
For the artist, humans and their emotional complexities are an endless source of inspiration. Through her works, she urges us to eliminate the labeling and categorization we create ourselves. For her, there are no positive or negative emotions. She tries to recognize and embrace all her feelings and process them into energy that continues to move her to create. She gives new meaning and color to everything, which feels more liberating and honest for her.
Sadness is not always dark and gray; bluish-purple bruises don't always symbolize difficulties. There is beauty in sorrow, there is ease within adversity, and those who feel cold have the warmest hearts. Agony is an emotion that makes us realize how valuable someone or something is. In Serene our acceptance of all life events and their feelings brings true calmness. When we can let go of all control illusions over life, stop trying to be perfect, stop trying to please everyone, or constantly trying to be strong, peace and tranquility come. Self-acceptance will change the color of life. Stability and peace can bring color full of warmth. Only calm and peaceful people can truly live life to the fullest.