"Disparate Eve" 18"x24" Oil on Canvas, by Nate Lonnen.

Opposing Forces Series

Hello everyone hope you all are doing fantastic! For the next couple posts I will be focusing on multiple paintings I created for a series called, "Opposing Forces". Today, "Disparate Eve" will be the focal point of our discussion. 

To begin, the Opposing Forces series is centered around exploring the contrary forces of light/dark, and good/evil. It is in essence the struggle between opposites; the constant struggle with an ever-changing balance that either creates harmony or invites chaos. It is the idea that one cannot obtain true peace until they have overcome their inner turmoil and find a center. With every piece I aim to manifest the pivotal roles that these interconnected forces play in our natures.  While also, presenting the struggle between the two, resulting in the personification of this battle in us all. I believe the choices we make define our existence and put us on different paths of self-realization. 

"Disparate Eve" is the embodiment of finding this center and the act of balancing both these forces to find unity. Just the title of this piece should give you some clues about where I was headed. The definition for "Disparate" is "containing or made up of fundamentally different and often incongruous elements". I also chose "Eve" as my first name to allude to the idea of the story of "Adam & Eve" concerning Eve as being the mother of the human populace.  
I really wanted to show the immense nature of the task, the idea that this struggle is so much more grandiose than just you or I. Hence the reason for Eve rising from the depths all the way into the heavens.  I wanted her to almost flow like a tree with roots tying her to the earth and branches reaching up into the vastness of space.
Lastly, when choosing how to paint the colors I wanted to show that without light there is no darkness and without darkness there is no light. (This is why you have light in the darkness and darkness in the light. It is also why the figure is painted with both opposing colors.) I strove to reflect that these forces must intermingle to create that which is beautiful. Eve is representational of us all, her figure is ambiguous and forever changing just like each and every one of us.