Alexander Nathan

Alexander Nathan | Part 2-Anxious Internal Scene | 2024

Your background in engineering and interest in psychology are quite unique for a visual artist. How do these disciplines inform your creative process?

My unconventional background serves as a way to tune-in to my creative process… informing me of my current “state…”

It allows me to hear my needs (to get in a creative space) and also be realistic of my current artistic capabilities…

I can only plan a piece, sketch the foundation, or lay out a piece when I am more in my “mind” state… but, it lacks flow and feeling…

I can only paint/feel a piece in my “body” state.. it lacks doubt, hesitation, and restraint

If I can’t focus on planning a piece and I am also unable to paint/feel… It serves as a reminder to repair self connection.

When distractions are removed from my mind, I can focus on the senses in the body (sensory).

When I can focus on my senses, it is clear that it is safe to feel deeply again.

I am very hypersensitive (internally and externally); so, maintaining safety/security (and emotional well-being) are critical to being able to tune in to my creative/conceptual side.

If I did not have the technical/detail oriented/planner side, I do not think I would be able to get my mind to a secure space to allow my body to feel safe to create.

I also think the engineering side/psychology side is a survival response to be able to be functional in the fast paced world.

I just leaned into it so hard that I made a day job out of it…

My current position requires me to create custom designs as standard products.

This has my conceptual/detail orientied mind constantly tripping over itself to complete any tasks…

I am currently a Consistency and Value Engineer by day (continuous improvement), I do mechanical design, electrical design, and controls (and software) engineering in the automation field… along with lots of hands on experience..(not surprising that I wear many hats…)

…and the rest of the time I try to be an artist (has always been a dream; but, never received belief/support).

Can you describe the concept of “Mind Body Felt Sense Art” in your own words? What role do perception and intuition play in experiencing your work?

For describing the concept of mind/body felt sense art:

My interpretation is the Mind Feelings are visual while the Body Emotions are physical/sensory.

Internally, Mind Feelings cause Body physical/sensory feelings (intuition creates a scene to perceive in).

An external scene/environment typically drives  (Body) physical/sensory feelings

Externally the Mind Feelings can also be projected onto a scene/environment (when external/internal safety/security are maintained)

I have a few new collections in progress that serve to show the difference between Mind Feelings vs. Body Emotions:

Example Mind Feeling: Anxiety..interpreting a threat from a scene (applying your mind=intuition).. a scene example would be; floating in outer space with no hope/rescue…. there is no immediate threat because you are safe in the moment in your suit; however, when you interpret the threat of “no rescue/running out of air”, you create a mind feeling of Anxiety causing a body feeling of Panic (Fight/Flight) AFTER the threat is interpreted.

Example Body Feeling: Fear…unpredictability/shock… the piece (scene) is covered/not visible until the viewer can be immersed (by standing in the vantage point for perceiving the scene…no intuition/mind allowed).

Example scene would be underwater (threat 1) with aggressive sharks (threat 2) blocking your escape route.

The immediate threat does not have to be interpreted and is a pure “fight/flight” scenario.

These 2 pieces would show the differences between mind feeling and body emotion (Anxiety vs. Fear).

To answer the second part, what role does perception and intuition play…

Perception is the body’s way of feeling based on your 5 senses… and the environment.

It gives emotional/physical reactions.

Intuition is the mind’s way of interpreting a feeling based on past experiences/or what you are receiving in your five senses/or your environment. It changes/influences the scene/environment to drive a “mind feeling” and a “body emotion”… The sensitivity level (example Fear vs. Anxiety), related to frequency of occurrences, influences how much you experience.

See emotional sensitivity page on artbyalexandernathan.com

Alexander Nathan | Part 3-Healing Grounded Energy | 2025

Several of your works seem to visualize internal emotional states. Do you consider them to be self-portraits in a psychological sense?

The art is just one avenue, and just a means for sharing something that you cannot take a picture of (because it is an internal scene).

Or a means of a sharing my interpretation.

The internal scenes in the “healing connection collection” are a self portrait of what I experience during self-connection repair.

In your “Healing Connection” series, what stages of emotional recovery or connection are you exploring? How do these evolve across the pieces?

The pieces are a chronicle of healing self connection and then connections with others.

I have to get into a safe space and a calm environment.

I typically use various sound frequencies playing loudly to help initiate the healing/frission.

The first 6 pieces are my interpretation of healing self-connection, (or re-aligning mind/body).

Disassociated->Anxiety->Body Healing->Decision Point (Heal body or Mind Project)->Internal Projection->External Projection

The other 2 pieces are my interpretation of healing connection with others.

Internal/External Safety-> Internal/External Security

Through each of the 2 progressions the color intensity/mediums are stronger/more vibrant.

Alexander Nathan | Part 1-Numb Disconnected Lost | 2024

What are some of the techniques or mediums you find most effective for representing the difference between emotions and feelings?

I think every 2 pieces I have been switching mediums/combinations… It truly depends on the piece.

Right now for the body emotion collection… I am even experimenting with Ink, chalk, etc.

As far as technique wise, it depends on the piece again, it changes depending on what I am portraying.

For the external mind projection on a scene (the yoga scene)… I researched impressionism techniques on perception etc, and how they were able to depict feeling in a scene and have the viewer experience what they were perceiving.

For that piece I used impressionism techniques in the base (one of the only paintings that is oil paint), and of course used all proper materials/accessories/brushes/mixed my own colors… solely to create the base… the body feeling from the scene.

Then on top of that I applied oil pastels (not a typical medium) to create a type of “3D impressionism”  (Intuition on top of perception),

The mind feeling I experience when I interpret that scene.

You can also see how that scene makes me feel in my body if you ignore the oil pastels on top.

The oil paint brushstrokes follow impressionism techniques to help guide/call attention to certain aspects of the scene. True to the original style, it moves you visually around the piece… in 2D.

The oil pastels over are meant to create a 3D perspective of mind feeling and meant to “draw you in to the scene….” (as this is what I experienced)

Alexander Nathan | Part 6-Love Connection Safety Security | 2024

How do you approach the challenge of illustrating abstract internal states—like “intuition” or “safety”—without relying on recognizable imagery?

I do not share this side of me in my personal life typically, this has been a new experience of sharing this side of me.

It’s very uncomfortable because I have been experiencing/doing this since I was little…and have not been in environments with like-minded people.

There is some comfort now…because we have the internet… and I am recently seeing alignment in terms of colors/experiences/visuals etc.

As an engineer… I think all of this is ridiculous…

But then, you can’t argue when interpretations are starting to become heavily aligned to what I experience..it becomes unexplainable.

But there is nothing wrong with believing something if it makes you feel good… to each their own… and this is my “weird thing”…

Plus, now we have nice words/surface level titles:

Body Felt Sense, Projection, Frission… gives me more confidence to put this out there in hopes of helping others heal connection.

 It has definitely been a slow process of expression.