Stone Paintings and Totemic Art
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Rodica Mariana Hărăstăşan and Laszlo Balogh make up a family of artists who are inspired by nature and use their own techniques. Laszlo Balogh is a poet (author of the book of poems "Diamantele sonore" (=Acoustic Diamonds)), a sculptor of totemic art and a painter. He influenced his wife who started to make oil paintings on stone at the age of 59. Starting with her very first piece, Rodica Mariana Hărăstăşan managed to create marketable art. Her paintings represent season landscapes, using the brush and oil paints. At the end she uses a special drying technique. The secret is this drying and varnishing technique which confers a perfect final look to her pieces.
The Millenary Stone
The paintings made by Rodica Mariana Hărăstăşan are made on imprinted limestone imported from Germany, Solnhofen. She also uses slate. The stones are five millimeters thick and they are a few million years old. "Because the stone plates are thin and not very heavy, after completing the painting, they can be hung by walls. My husband helps me and drills them to insert a string. In the end a painting is 10x15 cm. I try to bring out the best of uneven surfaces. Therefore I use the prominent areas to paint mountains and the scooped ones for valleys," said the artist referring to her works.
Totemic Sculptures
"The sculptures are inspired by the totemic art and each work has to include four parts: the mineral kingdom, the vegetal kingdom, the animal kingdom, and the symbol (the transmitted message). The totem represents an animal, a plant or a sculptural object considered by some primitive tribes to be an ancestor and protector of that community being worshiped accordingly. The sculpture's support is made up of stone, the body of pine root and it has a human face (with features taken from several human races). The work is stylized. The symbolic elements defining the piece are sculptured in the end," said artist Laszlo Balogh, explaining the art he uses in his sculptures.
The Number Seven
The sculptures are made up of roots, each of them representing the number seven, spirits and gods. Seven, a magical number, confirms the stages of becoming of a god. These are: 1 - Chaos, 2 - Birth, 3 - Life, 4 - Death, 5 - Resurrection, 6 - Life, 7 - Eternity. The spirits and gods are used as protective forces of the contemporary man: "The Meditation God" or the "Woods Spirit" is used as a message to respect and protect the nature. Each work is unique and it has its own meaning. The author is the only one in the country to make totemic sculptures and managed to sell over 5000 pieces in more than 35 countries all over the globe.
Laszlo Balogh: Phone: +40 268 270 072; +40 744 290 980; Address: 1A Narciselor St., 505600 Sacele-Brasov, Romania.