by Rina Ritzi

Artwork Description

Rising Icicle

0.0 x 0.0

35 x 130 cm oil painting on stretched canvas, ready to hang Although South Africa is a relatively small country, it is a climate patchwork of warm coastal subtropics, hot deserts, humid highlands, snow-topped mountains and an enclave of Mediterranean weather in the southwest. Something Rina finds very interesting is the forming of icicles – also patchworks of cold and warmth. Icicles are formed on days when the outdoor air temperature is sub freezing and heat from sunlight melts snow or ice on anything sloped. The droplets of water freeze as they loses their heat to the cold air, forming a cone-like shape of ice. Hot and cold creativity Different types of creativity can emerge when a person feels hot or cold, researchers found. In a series of experiments, researchers found that people who were given a heated therapeutic pad, a hot cup of tea or who were in a warm room were better at creative drawing, categorizing objects and thinking of gift ideas for others. But when they were cold, the participants were better at recognizing metaphors, thinking of new pasta names and planning abstract gift ideas. It's possible that warmth helps people with warm relational creativity, meaning they may feel psychologically closer to other people and more generous toward them. In contrast, cold may stimulate referential, or distant and cold processing, as people may feel more apart from others.

Artwork Details

Medium: Painting Oil

Genre: Abstract