I remember doing some finger painting as a kid, but the following performance artist bring this art form to an amazing level. The video comes from Russia so I have no idea who this artiest is.
Update – thanks to my friend Love, in his response the artiest name is Kseniya Simonova. She has an account on Facebook if you want to send her a message.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Kseniya-Simonova/587603368
Do you remember trying finger painting when you were a child, or now for that matter. 🙂
Have you ever tried painting on anything other than your house?
What Wikipedia has to say about finger painting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_painting
“Fingerpaint as an art education medium was originally formulated by the American educator Ruth Faison Shaw in Rome, Italy in 1931. After developing her expressive medium for children, Shaw devoted her attention to the therapeutic benefits of finger-painting. At the request of Carl Menninger, she taught at the Southard School at the Menningre Foundation in Topeka, Kansas, USA. Later she served as a consultant to the Department of Psychiatry at Memorial Hospital at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.. While working at Memorial Hospital, she met psychologist, John Thomas Payne. Payne became her successor in 1969 and continued her work until his death in 2000. Today Shaw and Payne’s work continues at the Shaw School and Studio in Durham, NC. Founder and director, Bryan Carey apprenticed with Payne from 1986 – 1993. At the suggestion of Payne, Carey devoted an additional seven years to the study of Shaw as an historical figure – artist, teacher and therapist. Carey and his protege Jennifer Falchi continue the Shaw-Payne tradition by traveling and teaching their method of artistic self-expression and emotional healing to people of all ages and abilities.”
How I remember finger painting:
Finger Painting Fun
The World Through My Eyes 
13 comments
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July 19, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Indian Lake Papa
A tremendous video ! I did very little finger painting – not one of my gifts.
The gift of artistry amazes me.
July 20, 2009 at 3:46 pm
edfromct
Through hard work anyone of us is capable of doing amazing things. The gift of great artistry is however something you must be born with.
While we all have our own special talent, the ability to create the ceiling on the Sistine Chapel, like Michelangelo, or a Starry Night, like Van Gogh, or the finger paintings of Ksenia Symonova (thanks for the link Love) is unique.
July 19, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Debs
wow, this completely blew me away Ed. I used to love fingerpainting…why do we stop doing the things that were so much fun just because we “grow up” ahem….
I used to make finger-paint for my kids when they were young…you just make instant vanilla pudding and add food coloring…great finger-paint..and good!!!
Thank you for this! time to go paint….something… 🙂
July 20, 2009 at 3:53 pm
edfromct
“why do we stop doing the things that were so much fun just because we “grow up” ahem….”
Deb, I guess the trick is not to grow up, or at least to keep our innner child alive, and let it come out to play from time to time.
Instant pudding for finger-paint, what a great idea. That would make cleaning up at lot more fun. 🙂
Have a great time with your painting, or playing in the mud or having a food fight. 🙂
July 20, 2009 at 3:59 am
lovewillbringustogether
The Artist’s name is Ksenia Symonova. She is 24 and married with a baby boy and lives in the Ukraine.
The link below puts this incredible series winning performance in better context…
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1913058/kseniya_seminovas_sand_art_wins_ukraines.html?cat=9
i’ve tried doodling but my art is nothing like Ksenia’s.
<B
July 20, 2009 at 4:14 pm
edfromct
Thanks for the link to article on Kseniya Simonova. What I love about her “art of sand animation” is it’s spontinonity. It lives in the moment, then it’s gone. Luckly for us her performances are recorded so we can all experience it’s beauty.
From the article you linked to:
“The sand art of Kseniya is set to music that reflects the tone of what she is trying to project, and the combined effect works very well. Sand animators use simple grains of sand to tell a story, in a way many people haven’t seen before. What Kseniya Seminova does in a few short minutes is all the more memorable because it is so fleeting. Once she is finished, the grains of sand go back into containers and the art is swept away.”
She has an account on Facebook if you want to send her a messege.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Kseniya-Simonova/587603368
July 22, 2009 at 5:40 am
lovewillbringustogether
While some art purists may not think too highly of Ksenia’s art (and some may also!) as the result is not available for critical dissection other than via a video recording of it, to me she is an exceptionally talented artist in the way she manages to combine a very simple yet effective technique (with the added complication of modern technology) and choice of musical accompaniment and does so while performing quickly enough and with enough clarity to tell a meaningful tale that can seriously emotionally connect with her public audiences.
It’s physical impermanence does not detract from the longer lasting emotional effect she is able to pass on to others via her beautiful, unusual and brilliantly composed art. 🙂
Thanks for the clip.
i wonder if she twitters? 😉
anyone speak Ukranian?
<B
July 22, 2009 at 10:51 pm
edfromct
What I enjoy most about her performance is the great drama she communicates using the medium of a very common material, sand.
The Native American Navajo Indians create very intricate sandpaintings for their healing ceremonies. The painting is destroyed, as Ksenia destroys hers, because the illness has been absorbed into the sand.
“Navajo Sandpainting – The Art of Healing”
http://www.anthro4n6.net/navajosandpainting/
“The Holy People (gods) instructed the Diné (Navajo) in the ceremonies and uses for certain chants, along with the creation of intricate paintings made of various materials. Known as Sandpaintings, these renderings are temporary. Created on a smoothed bed of sand, the Navajo use crushed gypsum (white), yellow ochre, red sandstone, charcoal, and a mixture of charcoal and gypsum (blue). Brown can be made by mixing red and black; red and white make pink. In addition, the sandpainters use pollen, cornmeal, and crushed flower petals to achieve a great variety of colors, according to the instructions of the gods.”
“Once a healing ceremony is complete, the Sandpainting is destroyed. The Sandpaintings one sees in shops and on the Internet are commercially produced and contain important errors. As the real Sandpaintings are considered sacred, should one come into possession of a correctly completed Sandpainting, the Navajos fear that evil would befall the person in possession of what “amounted to a never-ending cry beseeching the Holy People’s appearance.”
July 23, 2009 at 2:54 am
lovewillbringustogether
the link you posted shows that there is far more to the work of a medicine man than just a few dances and incomprehensible words – the training and personal experiences they endure to achieve the respected role in their society is surely the equal of any modern surgeon.
It seems there is a ‘commonality’ that surpasses a particular races interconnection with those people from far distant lands on this planet:
Mandala/Yantra – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandala
i choose to believe it is the Spirit of God in us that unites these ancient cultural beliefs that today we think are ‘meaningless superstition’.
While i understand there is a ‘common’ biology and mental structure amongst ‘primitive’ peoples that can carry ‘similar’ belief; that we have a direct connection to up to three generations in any single society; i also believe there is a greater ‘shared’ consciousness that is evident and exists between both all mankind – and further with all life.
Ths is my ‘understanding’ of a part of what God actually ‘is’.
<B
July 26, 2009 at 4:46 pm
danielle
I wonder if you can major in finger painting? that’d be cool. finger painting is fun.
July 27, 2009 at 1:07 am
edfromct
I will guess that finger painiting is one of the more instinctive art forms. You get to play with “mud” and call it art. 🙂
What kid doesn’t love to finger paint? Especially on the walls in their home. 🙂
January 13, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Alexander
she’s not from Russia, she’s from Ukraine, it’s different independent country
January 13, 2010 at 6:53 pm
edfromct
Thanks Alexander for taking the time to correct my mis-information on Kseniya Simonova country of origin.
She is a vey talented Ukrainian artist.