The Connection Between Marine Style and the Horror Vacui
- Marina Manukian
- Oct 11
- 6 min read
Updated: Oct 12
How a simple exercise in the Artists' Incubator, led by Galia Pavlichenko, led me on a journey to discover the meaning behind my paintings
The Diary of an Artist - Marina Manukian's blog 0017 - Marine Style
Hi everyone, this is Marina Manoukian, and I wanted to share with you a profound experience I went through in recent months - the creation process in the Artists' Incubator, at the Ramat Eliyahu Art Workshop in Rishon LeZion. It was a journey where my art, and the circular shape that has haunted me for years, became a map of my soul and my roots. This is a story about wandering, soft clay, and the discovery that emptiness, and also horror vacui (the fear of emptiness), are actually the places from which peace grows.
The Diary of an Artist - Marina Manukian's blog 0017 - Marine Style
Chapter 1
When Wandering Becomes Art
It all started with a simple exercise: to wander. Adva Weinstein, the workshop director, read a passage from "A Field Guide to Getting Lost" by Rebecca Solnit, and spoke about the Situationists movement. This movement views aimless wandering in the streets as a type of art. Without purpose, without expectations. Just getting lost.
As an artist, I am used to aiming, planning, creating a composition. But here, I was invited to release control. I went out to wander in a familiar area, and suddenly I found them: simple, discarded plastic bowls, stamped with "MADE IN CHINA." There are grooves on every bowl.
They captured my gaze. Not because of their beauty, but because of their simplicity, their repetitiveness. They became my starting point. In the next meeting, the search led me to a material that changed the entire direction of the work: Super Clay. Soft, colorful plastic clay (I was drawn to white) that air-dries. I immediately fell in love with its flexibility, its pleasant touch, and its softness. I used it to create new bowls, utilizing the grooves on the bowls I found in the street as a template for their design.
It was an act of reinvention - taking the discarded plastic and turning it into an art sculpture. The process was not perfect. The new bowls were not meant to hold water, but meaning (which I will discover later). I grooved circles into them. This shape, repeating circular arches, is the shape that has haunted me for years.
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Chapter 2
The Arches That Were Given Names – Clams, Cream Puffs, and Shells
When I presented the sculptures to the incubator members, and later at the "Cultural Pulse" event no. 4, I asked the audience to name the shapes. The answers were varied and surprising: some said "shells" or "clams," others called them "cream puffs" or "marshmallows". Everyone saw something different. This reinforced my understanding that a work of art is a mirror - and the viewer sees themselves in it. But what do I see?
I recognize that I am seeing the shape I drew years ago.
Chapter 3
Fear of Emptiness – A Journey to Ancient Roots
I realized that this shape, which I have been intuitively drawing for years, is not accidental. It is something deeply ingrained in my subconscious. Where did I see it for the first time? In childhood? In studies?
The starting point was an ancient Greek art history course I took as part of my B.A. in Art at Tel Aviv University. Another starting point was the concept of "fear of emptiness" horror vacui - also called kenophobia (from Greek, "fear of the void"). This is the fear of nothingness, of the unfilled space. The fear is expressed in ancient Greek art by filling every area of the artwork with details and decorations, with figures and geometric shapes. Is this shape my way of filling the void?
The search for the sources of the shape led me to the Minoan culture in Crete, a period older than the ancient Greek period, the root of its development. There, I discovered the Marine Style: Mycenaean or Late Minoan vases, like an earthenware jug with an octopus figure on it, were decorated with paintings of octopuses and fish. The octopus arms writhe rhythmically and fill the surface of the jug. These symmetrical and abstract shapes, wave-like and containing movement, looked to me like the ancient version of my doodles.
Marina in Spanish means "small sea" - was this a reminder from the universe?
Here I also first found a connection between this shape and other shapes from the sea: fish scales. It turns out that fish scales have ridges and valleys, which create annual rings called circuli. These are used to determine the age of the fish. These overlapping circular shapes are a documentation of growth in fish.
Chapter 4
From the Silk Road to Uzbekistan - Family Roots
Here the story becomes personal. After my discovery to the incubator members, the team sent me to search through family albums. Although I didn't find the colorful rugs or traditional clothes there (the family didn't keep them when we immigrated to Israel either), the search online led me to the place where I was born - Uzbekistan. There I was exposed to the Suzani embroidery. This is a colorful fabric sheet embroidery, rich in floral shapes and diverse ornaments. The floral motifs and geometric patterns of the Suzani clearly reminded me of my rounded arch shape - a motif I tend to draw at every opportunity. These are motifs that likely arrived in Uzbekistan via the Silk Road from China and Japan. This was the physical and cultural connection to my childhood.
My continued research focused on China and Japan and the connection between them and the formal similarity in the rounded arch motif: In China - Lishui (Sea-waves). This is a pattern of parallel, semi-circular waves. It was used to decorate the Emperor's dragon robes and court garments. In these garments, Lishui represents the deep water, and it is part of an entire cosmic landscape.
In Japan - Seigaiha (青海波) - The Blue Ocean Waves. This is a classic pattern, composed of overlapping semi-circles, symbolizing a quiet and calm sea, movement, and harmony. This formal motif was first used on ancient maps to describe the sea.
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Chapter 5
Inner Peace – Doodle, Zen, and Self-Healing
But beyond all the historical and cultural meanings - what does this shape mean to me?
The main reason I create, especially drawing these arches on paper, is my need to relax. When I fill the pages with this shape, I enter a state of deep calm and peace. It is a complete disconnection from the environment and from troubling thoughts.
This is not schematic or planned art. My arches vary in size, some overlap each other, and all grow one above the other. This is a repetitive action, almost infinite, and it silences the internal background noise.
This process has a name in the therapeutic world: Doodle Art or Zendoodle. Zendoodle is a creation characterized by drawing repetitive patterns in a meditative and calm way. This is a state of free flow, where the hand becomes a tool of silence.
I realized that this shape is the tool that allows me to reach this special state of consciousness. It is my connection to the deep sea (Marine Style, Lishui), to my roots (Suzani), and to the peace found in the repetitive movement of my hand. My Role Model is a woman who is connected to her roots, understands her cultural complexity, and knows how to find her peace within the chaos. My new creations, the white bowls and the arch drawings, are the art of practicing inner listening.
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Finale
Thanks to this journey, a new work was created, and I can proudly say that I am an interdisciplinary artist. Thank you very much to the creators of the incubator, the Ramat Eliyahu Art Workshop in Rishon LeZion. A special thank you to the incubator facilitator Galia Pavlichenko, performance artist and curator. Thank you very much to the incubator artists, who were present at every meeting and contributed their unique perspective to my artistic development. And a personal thank you to my dear parents, who went with me in the searches for the motif in their memories. If this story touched you, and if you are looking to connect your home and your life to art that has a story, meaning, and calm, I invite you to share. Tell me in the comments: What is the shape that "haunts" you? What is your strongest childhood memory that is expressed in your adult life?
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