The following is a short contribution to a book by Marsha Cheung Golangco entitled THE POWER OF FENG SHUI FOR GREEN LIVING. The book is available at her website www.windwater888.com

Feng Shui and Art

By Judy Romanenkov, Artist

I try to paint images and sceneries that evoke good feelings: paintings that are calming, inspiring, motivating that exude peace, love and respect for the earth and life in all the varied forms that it supports. What we have around us affects our mood and our attitude and therefore directly or indirectly influences the way we live.  A painting on the wall, though we may not pay much attention to it, stays in our subconscious and becomes part of the collective stimulus that make us happy, sad, angry, energized, etc.  For instance, a customer in a bank complained to the management that a painting on the wall reminded her of the holocaust.  The management removed the painting.  A woman undergoing chemotherapy treatment saw my painting "Dappled Path" that inspired her and strengthened her resolved to push on. A busy working mother has a panoramic view of trees and meadows from her backyard that gives her happy vibes, so she commissioned a painting of it for her living room.  The result is a painting titled "Stern Grove".  These are a few examples of how pictures on our walls affect our day-to-day living whether we are aware of it or not.

The main characters in my paintings are the colors, not so much the lines, but the play of light and shadow, of strength and softness expressed through colors.  Colors are powerful.  They can enliven us or depress us.  All colors play an important role in any theme whether it is portrait, landscape, still-life or abstract.  Colors can energize or cause lethargy.  It's the combination of colors and the intensity, luminosity and gradation of colors used that can imbue a painting with positive energy.  I would venture that people, like me, are drawn to a painting first by the colors and then by the image.  There are exceptions, of course, especially if the painting is about a well- known subject.  However if you have several paintings of the same subject, people would be drawn to the one with their favorite colors.  And so I try to use a combination and gradation of different colors in my paintings that exude happiness, energy, purpose and serenity as well.

Green living is synonymous to beauty, harmony and positive energy.  I try to depict scenes that exemplify green living in my paintings such as “Green Greenfield” showing a farmer in the Philippines tilling his land with his trusty ox.  Only manpower is used, no fossil fuel destroys his environment; or "Green Roof Making" using only womanpower"; or " Earth Ways " an abstract painting honoring Earth Day; or "Peace Please" because war destroys people and the environment more than any other activity of man; or "Pelican Head" about a pelican that was rescued from an oil spill.  The painting was commissioned and auctioned at a Wild Rescue fundraiser. While these paintings depict green living, having any pictures on your wall that give you positive energy contribute one way or another to your Feng Shui environment, because such an environment enhances your awareness of the beauty around us and its fragility and therefore our responsibility in protecting it for future generations.

Each one of us contributes to the world by design or simply by the way we live.  Our contribution may be remembered or forgotten but it doesn't mean it bears no meaning, for our footprint leaves a lasting imprint on the collective totality of life on earth and its direction.  Art elevates life from the basic pursuit of food, clothing and shelter.  Life is the greatest gift of art and living it as art is the greatest contribution to life.  Art has many meanings and sometimes indefinable but it boils down to basically "Art is making beauty".  True and lasting beauty starts from within.  It guides us in creating beautiful relationships, beautiful characters, beautiful people, beautiful events and beautiful things.  That is legacy in its simplest and purest form.