All the feels

Can art help?

Ivana Besevic

Embracing the complexity of being human, Ivana Besevic creates digital portraits that don’t glamorize or glorify. She doesn’t shy away from sadness or pain, and she doesn’t smooth over the red splotches and tear streaks on her subjects’ faces. (Scene360)

See

It's both a blessing and a curse to feel everything very deeply. Artists have been expressing their emotions in art since the onset of Expressionism in the early 20th century where expressing an emotional experience was more important than depicting realism. Expressionistic artwork becomes a record of what the artist was feeling at the time and also stirs emotional reactions in the viewer.

Serbian Artist Ivana Besevic is not looking for posed expression but rather spontaneous emotions that give us a deeper insight into the subject she is painting.(designstack)

“Joy,” Karla Reid “Upon reflection, I have been documenting my own feelings through art since a very early age.“

Unknown artist at the 2011 Armory Show

Mindful. – Photos courtesy of Teha Kamaruddin

I try to keep the focus on storytelling through my work as I usually try to convey human emotions through it. Since I am the type that struggles with words, I have always thought of speaking my mind or my heart out on canvas as a form of self-expression. -Teha Kamaruddin

“Joy is a power” photograph by Marcus Branch

Say

This week has been a rollercoaster week for our family. We have had such high highs of pride and love and such low lows of frustration, fear, and disappointment. It is hard to navigate such diverse emotions and hold them all. Sometimes it feels like just too much. Looking at artists’ representations of these powerful and conflicting emotions has helped me see that others can identify with my very challenging human emotions. That perceived empathy made my week just a little more bearable.

• Can you identify with any of the emotions depicted above? Which one? What does it make you think of?

• Does seeing any of these images stir up emotion in you?

• How do you think empathy can lift up someone who is suffering?

Do

• Paint your emotions. Choose colors that help to share your feelings.

• Are you curious about color and emotion? Read this article: Cross-Cultural Emotion and Symbolic Meanings of Color

• Where Are Emotions Felt in the Body? This Infographic will tell you.

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About Ivana Lena Besevic:

Ivana Lena Besevic is a freelance illustrator specializing in portraiture, narrative, and figurative art in both digital and traditional media.

Based between Belgrade and Paris, Ivana Besevic has been practising art in various media for the past 15+ years, from traditional wall painting and illustration to conceptual video art and digital photography. "Simply put, I paint my fascinations," she says. "I’m inspired by people, everyday stories, the raw and real side of us that we try to often hide."

Throughout her career as an illustrator, Ivana worked with various international clients in publishing, television, cinema, advertising & education, some of which are Playboy, TIME, Apple, National Geographic, Wieden+Kennedy, Buck, Barron's, Fast Company, Games Workshop, and others.

Her work has been recognized by American Illustration as the selected AI40 winner, Annual Book and Exhibition, 2021 as well as long-listed in the World Illustration Awards 2022

Represented by Illozoo | the visual communication agency (US).

Follow Besevic: Facebook and Instagram

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