“Vakna” is the final painting in the The Akashic Records collection consisting of 20 artworks by Hrik. 

 

I had the idea early on to do a close up of 2 eyes, but somewhat different from how it turned out. I wanted to make one eye realistic, and the other super abstract. I was also considering gluing a Möbius strip on the glass, with the eyes looking through the loops.

 

But that’s not what I ended up doing, was it?

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I ended up being really happy with the eyes, and their expressiveness, and having the rest of the face being a lot more sketched and rough. I also really liked the green hues, which was also not part of my original idea - and decided to keep them.

 

I think it was actually when my wife told me “Hey, those are YOUR eyes”, when I decided to keep them! I only did minimal tweaks after that. And this is when it started to come together and make more sense for me. It is me. With open eyes. Me, who used to avoid painting eyes. And who have really opened my eyes a lot recently, in my personal life. And it was during discussions with my therapist, that the name “Vakna” came to me.

 

When it was time to finalise everything, my daughter got pretty upset when I rummaged through her Legos for the pieces I had planned to glue on the glass. So I felt bad stealing it from her. And when she with a sad look said to me “dad, you can have the Legos, it’s ok..” I just had to scrap that idea completely lol, it just felt wrong. This is the reason I added a tiny Möbius strip on the frame instead. Also, I then realised there IS already a Möbius strip around the eyes, framed by the brows and the dark areas under the eyes. 

 

The frame of Vakna is very much a part of the artwork, and that is how it's sold and shipped.

If you are interested in acquiring this piece of art (link in bio), I’m happy to supply additional pics (including of the early stages progress), and answer any questions.