“Plasterines” or “Mini Bas-reliefs” is a side art project that conveys a series of semi fictional stories and myths.
These small artworks are a mixture of sculpture and painting, and are a hybrid of art and craft.
The project was started in 2013 as a desire to bring something interesting and possibly new into the world of art, which is overflowing with plenty of unique items already.Originally the project was named “Plasterines”, a hybrid word for plaster figurines.
These unique art pieces are made of plaster on canvas board. Each one of them has an individual crackling pattern, which appears during the drying process. After that, each bas-relief gets painted with acrylics in accordance with one of the designs and sprayed with fixative for protection.
White Rose.
Once there was a woman in disguise.
Those who admired her beauty could not come anywhere near her,
and those few who succeeded,
were hurt and injured.
Wild Horse.
Once there was a wild horse.
It appreciated its freedom the most out of all there is.
A man saw the majesty of that creature and wished to tame it.
The horse could sense the danger from far away and never came near the threat.
Yellow Beauty.
Once there was a yellow flower that grew by a lake.
It was admired by a woman passing by every so often. The flower liked her.
Days passed, the woman wasn’t showing up on the same path any more,
there wasn’t anyone left for the flower to like
but its own reflection in the lake.
Old Windmill.
Once there stood a windmill.
It used to work for men.
Decades passed and the windmill became less and less important,
since newer, more efficient technological marvels came to man’s aid.
The windmill stopped.
Adam And Eve.
Once there was a garden where a man and a woman used to meet.
It served as a good protection from a burning sun and a cold rain.
The garden is lost now and no book can show the way back.
Them Apples.
Once there stood a fruit tree.
Its round shaped offspring made mouths of passers-by salivate with desire.
“Pick me!”, it seemed the apple was asking each one of them.
Wheat.
Once a roaming man got tired of his journey
and lay to rest in a gold colored field.
He fell asleep and saw a dream.
The man saw himself working in the very same field,
sowing and reaping the fruits of his toil.
When he woke up, he knew what he’d do.
Silence.
Once there was silence.
Then a man came,
saw the silence,
fell in love with her
and wanted her for himself.
But no matter what he did, silence evaded him.
“Your noisy!”, said she and disappeared in the distance waving her hand.
The Boat On Shore
Once a young man was roaming the land in search of a better life.
He stumbled upon an old man sitting by the river.
The youngster asked him if he knew where to find a good life.
“Why of course!”, said the old man,
“It’s on the other side of the river. You just have to build a boat”.
And the elder explained how to do it.
The first boat sank a few feet away from the shore, its hull wasn’t sealed well enough.
The second boat was overthrown by the wind.
The third couldn’t follow the desired direction.
And so on,
until finally after many years of trying the man succeeded in crossing the river.
He wasn’t young anymore.
His face was burned by the sun and wrinkled,
his hair was weathered and gray,
his clothes were ruined by rains and winds.
He sat down by the river.
“The old man was right” he thought to himself enjoying the promised good life.
Adam.
Adam was a man of logic.
Everything was organized in his mind
and everything around him had a reason.
Until one day, when he met her.
Her beauty shattered his logic.
The organized shelves of his mind collapsed
and the reasons rested on them before scattered and broke.
That day Adam felt himself standing at the edge of a precipice gazing at infinity.
Eve.
Eve was an innocent creature.
She loved to dance and sing.
She lived in the garden and had a friend,
which she often made fun of
for being serious and looking for reasons in things.
” Let’s dance,” she said, “while there’s music in the garden”.
The Jug Of Wine.
There was a philosopher that used wine as a metaphor for enlightenment in his poetry.
There was another philosopher that compared wine to his blood,
but most likely he used it as a metaphor for enlightenment as well.
There was a man who became dependent on wine,
he had to pay a high price for the misunderstanding.
The Cup Of Choice.
The cup filled with wine was placed in front of a man.
He drank half of it and began to feel the warmth inside.
“Fill it up!”, he told the barkeeper.
“The cup isn’t empty!”, replied the barkeeper.
“It ain’t full anymore either!”
“You can always tell apart a loyal customer from a wise man”,
said the barkeeper, pouring more wine into the cup.
Lady In Red.
One fine evening, a fine lady went for a walk.
The sun just started to set
and the clouds in the sky began to turn a red color.
Just like the lady, the sky was dressed in red.
“Am I seeing double!?”, wondered out loud a man sitting on a bench.
The woman smiled, so did the sky.
Ain’t That A Peach.
One man planted a money tree seed,
which he bought from a wandering merchant.
The tree grew big but didn’t give the promised fruits.
He stood there, in his garden, all puzzled and sad.
A wise man happened to pass nearby.
He saw the man’s frustration and offered his help.
“Look at it differently”, he suggested,
”money doesn’t grow on trees, but wealth does!”
The owner gazed at his tree filled with golden round objects.
He picked one of them.
“Ain’t that a peach!”, he exclaimed joyfully
letting the juices of his wealth soak into his being.
Stop.
A man was rushing towards the moon,
then towards the sun,
then other stars.
He was looking for peace.
In his running back and forth he stumbled upon a magician.
“Stop!”, commanded the stranger
sticking the palm of his hand into the running man’s face.
The man stopped enchanted by the magic trick.
He saw a glimpse of peace.
There.
There was nothing.
Somebody emerged from it for a brief moment,
made some noise,
shook some air,
then reemerged back from where he came from,
leaving no trace.
Once again,
there was nothing.
Venus.
Once Venus, the muse of beauty,
got into a habit of appearing before a young artist.
The artist had no resistance to her charms
and depicted anything her heart desired.
Eventually he became a successful artist and an arrogant man as a result.
He shut the doors of his studio before the muse,
as he thought her to be something of the past and no longer attractive.
The following days he saw his creations losing their grace,
and his so called new ideas stained with decay.
“Come back!”, he begged his goddess,
when he faced the gravity of his loss.
Tulip.
One early morning as usual,
a flower merchant came to the market place.
The crowd had already started to gather,
and the place was filling up with loud noises.
“What do you have for sale”, asked the first customer.
“Tulips, tulips”, replied merchant smiling.
“Not much of a choice, is it?”.
“Not much, not much!”, the merchant was smiling.
“Is this some kind of joke?”.
“Kind of, kind of!”,giggled the tulips dealer.
“You’ll never sell anything with this attitude of yours”.
“Yours, yours!”, and the seller gave one flower to the baffled man in exchange for one piece of gold.
The Moon.
The night was young but the moon was already hanging in the sky.
“How are youuuu?”, howled wolf to his best friend.
The moon was silent as ever, glowing in the dark.
The two loners spent every night together,
they understood each other and had a mutual affection.
The Sun.
Once there was a star among other stars.
Cold and gray.
It dwelt in complete darkness for millenniums.
Until one day a sudden thought emerged from the core of the star
as an explosion,
lighting its whole being on fire.
“Let there be the light!”, screamed the thought.