Know Thyself, the Infographic Art way

Infographic Art at a glance

My first attempt at infographic art was in creating Self Portrait of Spiritual Awareness, which delivers a very elaborate and intricate message. For that purpose I used icons and archetypical symbols which where somewhat of an adapted form of infographics.
My later use of infographic art that fitted in just nice, was in the artwork Flat Mind Aging, Deep Mind Wising, where I used iconic arrows to imply direction of occurrence, as well as the icons of the key and the snowflake.
However, in the case of this artwork, it so naturally happened that characteristic infographic concepts and elements found their way into the artwork and turned it into an almost pure piece of Infographic Art.

The aim of Infographic Art

In my efforts to direct my art at purposefulness and in the difficulty to convey such intricate and complex and/or abstract and broad concepts of spirituality, something was revealed to me: the deployment of icons and archetypical visuals in my artworks. Now, although the use of archetypes was not invented by me of course and is known since the old days of the Christian religious art and Renaissance art, the use of typical and characteristic graphic signs that usually belong to the graphic design area, are definitely innovative. The combination between the conceptual and expressive freedom of art and the confined and consolidated creative order of graphic design was inspired gradually during my work in the infographics department of the newspaper I used to work in as a graphic designer.
Essentially, Infographic Art relies on the principles of Conceptual Abstract Art, but also makes use of icons and archetypical symbols in order to convey intricate messages in abstract.

Know Thyself, an infographic blueprint

Obviously, you will not be able to interpret this artwork in the same direct and immediate manner as you would have infographics in a newspaper. Infographic elements in this artwork are rather visual means to direct the mind to quantitive-comparative thinking in relation to completely abstract spiritual concepts. How much is passion more than disgust? What is the opposite of hatred and how much of it exists in the totality of the mind? What is the sum of the mind?

Of course these questions have no accurate answers, but they do need to be questioned and contemplated, they do need to be realized, sensed and meditated upon…

The following index is indeed the infographic-artistic symbolization of the contents of the mind. It is, in fact a blueprint of the forces of nature… Well, some of them, anyway.

Index

An inspired fusion between

Good and evil,
Order of morality and promiscuous anarchy,
Self-image and depth,
Childhood and happy loss,
Solidity and air,
Aspiration and decadence,
Arrogance and self-awareness,
Profound essence and charismatic shallowness,
Rigidity of principle and dynamics of compassion,
Fragility and strength,
Safety and doubt,
Grandeur and delusions,
Vital but lethargic,
Patient but aggressively alert,

Realistic but mysterious,
Observant but expressive,
Accurate but emotional,
Contradictory but predictable,
Vague but purposeful,
Weak but courageous,
Truthful but dishonest,
Matured but afraid,
Creator and created,
Mindful and enslaved,
Bound and endless.

The deepest fear and greatest faith –
A self-proclaimed-sure-will-be?…
Fun and games and So much more…
All in one – Impossibly intricate.