What does your soul look like?
灵魂会是什么样的？
Defining the visual representation of the soul is like an unending search for the unseen. It is not visible but rather felt throughout our lifetimes. Yet, we do not doubt the existence of the soul and accept the functions that it provides to our body and mind. It is in a sense a self-reflecting journey that allows us to define who we truly are.
想要对灵魂的视觉表现进行定义就像对看不见的东西进行无休止的搜索一样。它是不可见的，但在我们的一生中都能感受到。我们并不是怀疑灵魂的存在，而是接纳感受它为我们的身心提供力量。从某种意义上说，这是一次自我反思的旅程，让我们能够定义真正的自己。
Likewise, for generations, artists have been self-reflecting visually through their works, trying to capture the energy of a moment in their life interpreted using various forms of art. Through this process, artists immortalize themselves, leaving a part of their soul forever ingrained into the artwork. While many artists choose to place themselves into their works to achieve this, Brazilian artist Leandro Machado places a watchful eye to watch over himself, juxtaposing his defining characteristics to portray the heart of his experiences from a direct yet discerning divine watcher whether it is nature, god, or an otherworldly force.
同样的，几代人以来，艺术家们一直在通过作品进行视觉上的自我反省，试图用各种艺术形式来捕捉他们生活中某一刻的能量。通过这个过程，艺术家将他们灵魂的一部分永远根深蒂固于艺术品中，某种程度上使自己永远的保留下来。虽然许多艺术家选择将自己置身于他们的作品中以实现这一目标，但巴西艺术家Leandro Machado却用谨慎的眼光注视着自己，找到了具有自己有代表特征的特征，来描绘他直接体验到的但神圣的经历，无论这种力量是自然，神，还是其它超凡脱俗的能量。
About the artist
关于艺术家
Leandro Machado (Machado x Leao), the self-proclaimed “Lion-headed” guy, is an emerging Brazilian artist that entered the world of art in 2019 when the pandemic took over the world. After losing his corporate job, he turned his hobby into a serious endeavor. Sharing his digital collage and surrealist artworks on Instagram, he became known for masterfully combining his works with mobile photo editing. Machado’s works are explosive with color and depth that evoke the scale and sense of the divine, grandiose, and infinite surreal universes. Many of his works carry symbolic imagery with references to gods, sculptures, and the divine which become the main subjects of his personal experiences. While just starting as an artist, Machado is constantly creating and collaborating, leading him to make his most famous collection with Joe Gonzalovich for “The Trippy”, which has now gained over 10K followers on Instagram.
Leandro Machado (machado x leao) ，自称“狮头”，是一位新兴的巴西艺术家，在2019 年疫情刚开始席卷全球时进入艺术界。在失去了公司的工作后，他将自己的爱好认真发展起来。在 Instagram 上分享他的数字拼贴画和超现实主义艺术作品，他的作品与手机修图软件相结合，这使得他的作品被知晓。Machado 的作品具有爆炸性的色彩和深度，唤起了神圣、宏伟和无限超现实宇宙的规模和感觉。他的许多作品都带有象征性的意象，其中涉及到上帝、雕塑和神灵，这些都是他个人经历的主要主题。刚开始作为一名艺术家时，Machado 一直在不断地创作和合作，他与 Joe Gonzalovich 一起为“The Trippy”制作了他最著名的系列，该系列现已在 Instagram 上获得了超过 10,000 名粉丝。
Understanding the soul
理解灵魂
In order to better understand how the artist’s work is part of his soul, it is important to understand the definition of a soul. While the meaning may differ based on religion, philosophical belief, or tradition, the general definition is: The soul is the incorporeal essence of living that make up our mind, character, thoughts, emotions, and memories. With regard to the artist, his artwork is welcoming yet surreal and holds a very personal piece of the artist’s being that carries the essence of his lifetime. Each work turns into an organic embodiment of his thoughts to be reinterpreted by the viewer.
为了更好地理解艺术家的作品是如何成为其灵魂的一部分，先理解对灵魂的定义很重要。虽然它的含义可能因宗教、哲学信仰或传统而有所不同，但一般的定义是：灵魂是构成我们的心灵、性格、思想、情感和记忆的生活的无形本质。至于对这位艺术家来说，他的艺术作品既具有流行元素又超现实，并承载着艺术家本人一种非常个人的存在，承载着他一生的精髓。每一件作品都是他思想的有机体现，观众可以从中二次解读。
Reading through the artist’s statements and texts through his many interviews, Instagram posts, and magazine features, the artist’s body of work is, in a way, his method of expressing his dreams, thoughts, and inspirations. What makes his art different from others is that it is distinctly a part of his conscious state and personal identity, and it is through his works that people can begin to reflect and realize their own inner selves. Therefore, connecting with the artist’s past and understanding his experiences, thoughts, and reason for being, provide a much richer experience as time goes on.
通过艺术家此前的采访、Instagram上的帖子，以及杂志报道呈现出的作者表达，艺术家的作品在某种程度上是他抒发梦想、思想和灵感的一种方式。他的艺术之所以与众不同，是因为那显然是他的意识状态和个人身份的一部分，正是通过他的作品，人们开始意识到自己内在自我的映射。因此，联系到艺术家的过去，了解他的经历、思想和存在的原因之后，随着时间的推移，会产生更丰富的欣赏体验。
The path to realization
觉醒之路
Artists create their best works once they have realized who they are themselves. For Picasso, it was the awakening of cubism, and for Yves Klein, it was an obsession with the color blue. While Machado has not fully achieved such a feat, he is well on his way to one day creating his Magnum Opus. The artist constantly redefines his artistic standard through research just as he did with his major influences, Emma Rodriguez, Mr. Babies, and Josh Hayward. Taking their expertise and path as a model to help build his own brand as an artist. Each artist carries a characteristic that Machado strives for in his works. It is the purity and perfection of Emma’s works, the editing skills of Josh, and the enticing mystery that Mr. Babies evokes that influence his works the most. Here he is constantly experimenting and refreshing his imaginary palette and mental clipboard. At the same time, he follows in the footsteps of artists that he strives to be like, taking their best unique characteristics and making them his own.
一旦艺术家意识到自己是谁，他们就会创作出自己最好的作品。对于毕加索来说，是立体主义的觉醒，对于伊夫克莱因来说，是对蓝色的痴迷。虽然 Machado 还没有完全实现这一壮举，但他正在努力创造属于自己的杰作。这位艺术家不断通过研究重新定义他的艺术标准，就像那些对他起主要影响的艺术家，Emma Rodriguez, Mr. Babies, 和 Josh Hayward所做的那样。Machado 以他们的专业知识和经历为榜样，帮助自己来建立艺术家品牌。每位艺术家都贡献了一个Machado 在他的作品中努力追求的特点。他从Emma Rodriguez的作品中看到纯洁和完美，从Josh Hayward的作品中找寻编辑技巧，以及学习Mr. Babies的作品中诱人的神秘感。他不断地尝试和刷新想象中的那块调色板，心灵上也不断获得收获。同时，他向那些自己想要成为的艺术家们不断追随着，学习他们作品中的特点，打造为自己的特色。
“It doesn’t matter where you are now if you have something to keep your spirit alive. Your life will change a lot in the next 10 years and you will see how surreal it was.”
“如果你有一些东西可以让你的精神保持活力，那么你现在处于什么阶段并不重要。在接下来的 10 年里，你的生活会发生很大的变化，你会看到它是多么的超现实。”
Building towards the infinite possibility
建设无限可能
A soul is contradictory by nature as its concept can be seen as completely fictional without basis or rational justification while simultaneously being understood by most if not all. However, this aspect is what makes it the most appealing. As an artist goes through the process of self-realization, there is the synergy of discovering new possibilities built from the abstract space of our minds. Machado plays on this synergy as he subconsciously paves the path to becoming an artist from a very young age.
灵魂本质上是矛盾的，因为它的概念可以说是完全虚构，没有依据也没有合理的理由，同时被大多数人理解。然而这才是它最吸引人的一个方面。当艺术家经历自我实现的过程时，会产生协同作用，从我们的思想抽象空间中发现新的可能性。Machado 发挥了这种协同作用，因为他从小下意识地就认为自己将来会成为一名艺术家。
As a child, he grew up in an artistic environment: His father sang songs, his mother played the guitar, his grandmother relaxed to fine-tunes, and his cousins would smother him with the influences of comics. Having grown with a liking for art, movies, poetry, and photography, Machado would go on to make album covers for songs he liked, creating concepts, poetry excerpts, and compositions from photos that he took, using them to escape from the stresses of life. This would pass over into the artworks he creates today with each image containing an element of literature, film, photography, and his personality.
他在一个艺术氛围浓厚的家庭中长大：他的父亲会唱歌，母亲会弹吉他，他的祖母喜欢在闲暇时听优美的曲调，他的兄弟们会用海量漫画影响他。随着对艺术、电影、诗歌和摄影的喜爱， Machado 为他喜欢的歌曲制作专辑封面，从他拍摄的照片中创作概念、诗歌摘录和作品，用它们来摆脱生活的压力。这些都在他如今创作的艺术作品中体现出来，每幅图像都包含文学、电影、摄影和他的个性元素。
In this image, the artist recalls the advent of the majestic eyes that populate many of his most well-known works. The eye represents the self-reflection as well as the link from the body to the camera which had made the images that would become the basis of his digital collages. It is also a look into the past of a fond memory that the artist has burned into his mind which, in space, affirms a timeless nature to the image floating through the artist’s soul. This work is significant in that it shows the artist’s transformative moment where his reason for being is defined while also bringing viewers into the artist’s psyche.
在这张图片中，艺术家回想起他许多最著名的作品中曾出现过的那只宏伟的眼睛。眼睛代表了自我反省以及从身体到相机的链接，这是他数字拼贴图像的基础。这也是对艺术家刻在脑海中的对美好经历的回顾，在宇宙中，它肯定了漂浮在艺术家灵魂中的图像的永恒本质。这部作品的意义在于，它展示了艺术家的变革时刻，定义了他存在的理由，同时也将观众带入了艺术家的心灵。
“This art is very important to me because it reminds me of many of my roots. Did you guys know that my first giant eye art was with a photographer I discovered by chance? We did some art together, but I think this one represents our entire trajectory and our friendship.”
“这件作品对我来说非常重要，因为它让我想起了我的许多根源。你们知道吗？我的第一个巨眼艺术是和我偶然发现的一位摄影师合作的，我们一起创作了一些艺术作品，但我认为这幅作品代表了我们的整个发展轨迹和我们的友谊。”
– Leandro Machado’s description of the artwork
– Leandro Machado对这幅作品的描述
At the end of the day, a soul is not defined. We only begin to understand it through self-realization, a process building towards transcendence and the creation of something that is meaningful, yet not tangible like the feelings and thoughts an artwork arouses in the viewer. Likewise, Machado Leão is in a constant search for his soul by creating each work with gravity and embodying a treasured memory that captures a sense that is unseen but felt… And just like the soul, what’s created is infinite possibility.
在一天结束时，灵魂是没有定义的。我们仅仅是开始通过自我觉醒来理解，这是一个朝着超越和创造有意义的过程，但它是无形的，无法像艺术品那样在观众中引起的感受和共鸣。同样，Machado Leão 也在不断寻找自己的灵魂，通过宇宙对他的吸引力来创造每件作品，并体现一种珍贵的记忆，捕捉一种看不见但能感觉到的情绪……就像灵魂一样，创造的东西是无限的可能性。
Machado LeãoSupeRare NFT “The Creationist”
“Throughout life, we make many plans and dream many big and rare dreams, but sometimes things just get out of hand and you need to take another road. I could say that I’m a little pessimistic, but I don’t believe in life’s hazards. I don’t believe in coincidences. I am where I have to be and I do what I should be doing because I believe in a greater spiritual plane.”
“在我们的一生中，我们制定了许多计划，梦想着去实现许多伟大而罕见的梦，但有时事情会一发不可收拾，你需要走另一条路。可以说我有点悲观，但我不相信生命的危险。我不相信巧合。我在我必须在的地方，做我应该做的事，因为我相信着一种更伟大的精神。”
*all images and artworks belong to the artist & his representing galleries respectively
*所有图像和艺术品分别属于艺术家及其他们代表的画廊
Translation 翻译 Rona Xia
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