A painting by Tessar Lo
just before we left for africa, i have been following tessar lo’s paintings (http://www.tessarlo.com) for some time through his sister, alice. since he was having a breakthrough with the LA art scene, i just knew that i had to get a commissioned painting from him before his schedule gets too crazy. while i knew that his paintings emphasize the colors of emotion, they do remind me well of my darling as she likes to be emotional occasionally. so i decided to surprise her with mr. lo’s painting by the time we get back home from africa. i thought it would be a nice present for her by the time we get back home.
mr. lo and i have corresponded through a series of emails when i was back in madagascar and finally, we have come to the correct image of what i would like to see for susie. since susie was born in the year of tiger and she absolutely LOVES to sleep as well. also, her mind likes to flutter around sporadically and the fact that she is an introvert, i thought that it would be a perfect fit for a girl and tiger to be associated to represent susie.
once we got back home, the painting was ready, but it was waiting in LA and i have arranged with mr. lo to pick it up in LA because we had a wedding to attend in LA a couple of weeks later. but unfortunately, mr. lo was out of town and had his roommate take care of it. for the past two weeks, i had told susie that it took me almost a year to prepare for this surprise. she was being suspicious occasionally about the surprise and begged me to know what was it…
finally, when we got to the place where i was supposed to pick up the painting, i told susie that we were going to tessar’s place to pick up something and immediately, she knew that it was a piece of artwork. but the question still remains, what kind of artwork???
so, here is the painting that susie and i have found to be very sorrowfully beautiful and we hope that you do agree…
The whole painting
Close details of the girl sleeping
Close details of the tiger - you know how the tiger is supposed to be fierce… but in this painting, she shows to be sad yet her massive body indicates that she is capable of conquering the world.
mr. lo did a marvelous job using the background to captivate the beautiful aura of a dream. also, notice how her dress ‘melts’ into the background.
I have always loved to see how can one get a different perspective from standing at a different angle. I just think that many people tend to look at the painting directly at the T-intersection.
Once Susie saw the painting, her face just glowed and I am elated because if she didn’t like it very much, I would have been doomed to spend $$$ for nothing and she’d be going crazy on me!
Anyway, I will post up a couple of pictures of the murals that my students and I did in Madagascar at the school sometimes later. Also, Mr. Lo was gracious enough to contribute some painting supplies for the students. thank you, mr. lo!
June 1st, 2008 at 10:43 pm
I’ve been a huge Tessar fan for awhile now. I even own two pieces of his work. Out of all the pieces I have seen this might have to be the most beautiful. So congratulations, I’m glad it was received by her in the same way. After seeing this I might want to get up the nerve to ask him if he would do a commission for me.
June 5th, 2008 at 1:18 am
Thank you, Mute. Yes, I’ve been following his work since he was like a Junior or Senior back in his college days. It’s quite nice to see his work evolving through year by year, and I know that he’s getting better, striving to find the right elements and emotions for his pieces. Every time I look at the painting, I do get a sense of warmth from it regardless where you look at. I think that’s where Mr. Lo brings the best out of his paintings. We’re very honored to have his painting in our home. I think we might even have to get one more painting from him someday!