ARTIST'S STATEMENT:

"Nature was and remains one of the main sources for artistic inspiration and expression. Many natural forms surrounding us, such as flowers, fruits and trees, can evoke erotic and sensual feelings. Human beings, as the most complex creatures of nature, as sexual beings, see things in nature as erotic and sensual, because these things often remind us of erotic parts within our own bodies, or those of the opposite sex. We relate nature's organic forms to images or senses that we have experienced in similar human forms. Perhaps within our visual and psychological systems there is a mechanism, as yet unkown, which always finds a resemblance between the things that we see in nature and ourselves. For me, one of these resemblances are trees (particularly the eucalyptus tree) and the human body.

What is sensuality of the human body, or a tree, or any other natural object? In a narrow sense this category is subjective and individual. In a wider context, the sensual relates to our age, tastes, social position etc. We are created as sexual beings and art, particularly visual art, is the kind of activity that plays a tremendous role in revealing our sexual/sensual desires and dreams. The product of visual art, be that painting, photograph or sculpture, is extended, objectified, fixed and finally modified of those desires and dreams.

In my aesthetic approach to my painting, the eucalyptus and the human body have a fundamental likeness. They are autonomous and massive forms resembling each other in colour, texture and structure. In my work, the eucalyptus acts as a metaphor for the human body."

- Artour Avetisian.