Vital Harmony

Series: Res Bina
Name of the artwork: Vital Harmony
Dimensions: 55.1 cm x 71.1 cm
Medium: Oil On Canvas
Year: 2025
Characteristic: Unique, Certificate of Authenticity, Unframed

Meaning:

"Vital Harmony", is an affirmation of the necessity of mental clarity to explore and temper the excesses of the heart, whether pleasant or unpleasant. The artist shows that the state of serenity and true balance results from the perfect harmony between reason and passion, thus preventing feelings, even the most beautiful ones, from overwhelming us.

The Heart: Emotional Excess     
At the center, the vibrant heart (deep red and pink) is presented in its natural state of excess. The red symbolizes the extreme power of passion and vitality, while the pink and the grey-white clouds bursting from it represent this raw emotional energy which, when pushed to the extreme, leads to extreme reactions and can become harmful. The white lightning bolts are the visual representation of this intense, chaotic and unpredictable energy.

The Mind: Clarity and Direction     
Faced with this intensity, the mind offers the point of balance. It is symbolized by the bright yellow circle, the colour of light and wisdom. The woman's head, perfectly centered in this circle, represents the mental clarity necessary to evaluate and manage the emotional excess of the heart.

The Woman: The Representation of Harmony     
The figure of the woman, with her serene posture and the gesture of her arms, is the symbolic representation of harmony achieved. She is not struggling against the heart; she embodies the ideal state where the brain and heart are in perfect harmony. Her gesture is one of channelling: she uses her mental clarity to direct the excessive energy of the heart, thus transforming potential chaos into a constructive and balanced force.

The Background: Dynamic Serenity     
The olive-green background, nuanced and slightly cloudy, is essential to the meaning. It is not a flat calm but represents the serenity that sustains harmony. These subtle nuances show that balance is a dynamic and evolving state: even when we achieve peace, the internal or external environment is never free from movement.

About The Series:

Res bina is a Latin term meaning "dual being" and union of opposites. The artist highlights humanity's distance from a natural balance between the masculine and feminine principles, spirit and matter. The spirit, represented by the brain, is meant to elevate itself through divine light and bring clarity to decisions. Matter, symbolized by the heart, is guided by desires that are often superficial and material, leading to dissatisfaction and disorder in individual lives as well as in the world.
Gilles associates the heart with the feminine principle, often motivated by emotion, while the brain, the masculine principle, acts through objectivity. He invites us to reconnect these two forces to allow life to be balanced: reason must monitor the desires of the heart, and the heart must soften the choices of the brain. He also uses geometric symbols to describe man (associated with the number 3, the triangle, protection, the shield) and woman (associated with the number 4, the square, stability, fertility and growth), showing that each one's roles are complementary and necessary for family and social harmony.
Gilles emphasizes the importance of avoiding rivalry between man and woman, who share neither the same functions nor the same essence. He calls for an inner union of the two principles and an openness to divine light to enable a more peaceful and balanced human life. His artistic works illustrate these ideas and seek to inspire an essential reconnection between these poles within each individual.