Original artwork description:

Ocean of Magic

This video is a one hour bonanza of zen drawing. Watch Dominic Virtosu as he applies himself to create a beautiful masterpiece of patience and detail. The artist has created this work based on the theme of the Ocean. Elements of floating organisms and beautiful schools of fish are scattered around this semi-abstract composition.

Like discovering a treasure chest at the bottom of the deep blue sea, the feeling is one of amazement at the sight of this "miracle in a box" for it appears as though the artist has opened a magic container filled with wonder. This Miracle is actually an invitation into the artists’ mind: an incursion into a world of wonder and amazement, a world of contemplative awe towards the beauty of rational thought. This is, after all, an expression of pure rationality in its most refined state. Working with pigmented ink fine pens allows the artist to dwelve deep inside his mind and gather the energy necessary to create a work of beauty.

The work has taken 30 hours to complete, and most of the process is covered within this one hour video. The creative process is show up-close: the hand of the artist as it dots around the entire surface of the drawing has a mesmerizing and almost hypnotizing effect. The gaze is captivated by the precision and determination with which this design is being created - a true work of beauty and mastery – a work of zen patience.

As the camera is moved from angle to angle, we can see the artist progressing with the work across the design – simply showing us what great feats can be accomplished through patient work and determination – using all the details to enrich, embelish and add depth to the work.
The various shapes become visible as the artist dots patiently around them, creating contrast and depth of field perception. Surfaces alternate from empty to filled thus creating the feeling of rhythm. The fluidscape is populated with tiny shapes that remind distantly of the marine life and biology, they are colored in different hues of grey and therefore become volumetric in an abstract space, making it almost tangible – like the viewer might be a diver into an ocean of magic.

On the bottom of this magic sea, one finds carefully drawn exotic plants, with leaves that seem to be weightlessly moving around with the tides and currents. Also, like an explorer, our eye discovers the remains of possible ancient civilizations: pots that are designed with meticulous attention, ruins of times long past. A testimony to the dangers of the sea are the wreckages of seemingly abstract ships, like skeletrons of distant civilizations that have long perished, drowned by the inevitability of time passing.

The work measures 61x86 cm and is entirely drawn with india ink on paper. It is a work of minute detail that required an extraordinary amount of patience to complete...and it shows.

Materials used:

ink on paper