Winners of ARTquest#8 Announcement!

The entries for Artchallenge #8 impressed me most of all as they are all fantastic!!!!!!!!!!! And they all equally great to me.

The task of the ARTchallenge#8 was to give the interpretation to the surreal painting by
Gyuri Lohmuller.

The name of this painting is "Almost at home"although I didn't give the name in the announcement.

Gyuri Lohmuller

I don't know if it corresponds to the name but for me this fish is like a bird in a golden cage. It could be about a woman or a man who got married because of money or due to other other circumstances. You are safe, you are well fed but you are not happy. The ocean can symbolize other couples where both love. The fish is on the pedestal but ocean with real feelings and emotions attract her. There is a wall between them which is almost invisible but it exists.
To correspond to the name of the painting it could be even about people who moved abroad. I had this feeling when I lived abroad. I turned out to be a big patriot. That country was great and I found friends there and I had support from everybody but my heart was at my motherland.

It was the most difficult choice for the the whole history of the Artchallenge.)))
And...I just divided the prize pool into 10 participants and if you read the interpretations you will understand why I did that.

So, all 10 participants get 70 TRAIL + 6 STEEM each

@snooway

https://steemit.com/artchallenge/@snooway/artchallenge-8-calm-before-the-storm

We usually see goldfish in a bowl in people's homes or in office
spaces. This painting alludes to this idea of the decorative pet
goldfish in the urban environment because we can see the big city
skyline in the background. The beach in the foreground seems much more
inviting but why is the goldfish in the bowl placed on a pedestal on
the sand? Goldfish cannot survive in saltwater so this goldfish would
not be able to live in the ocean. However the fish may still long to
enjoy the view of the vast open sky and sea and hear the gentle waves
kissing the shore. Maybe that is why the owner put him there. But
where is the owner? Has the owner abandoned the fish? There is a sense
of danger lurking though because when it is high tide the waves will
become bigger and may cause the pedestal to topple over and the bowl
to break, leaving the goldfish in dire straits. What will happen if it
starts to rain? I see the painting as a warning for people to be aware
of the "calm before the storm" and "be careful what you wish for"
because it may not necessarily be good for you in the long run!

@looftee

https://steemit.com/art/@looftee/my-entry-in-art-quest-trail-8

Very nice painting, Here is my Interpretation: The motive of painting
is to give a message to those free spirited people, to those who don't
want to get lost in crowd that world want to see us like this. A fish
trapped in a fish bowl, in front of the sea. We can see the sea, we
are just at the corner of the sea, we could feel its waves, could feel
the taste of freedom. But the world had a lot of dominant power that
would scare us from going into the sea, telling the sharks would eat
us. The building staring at the fish is the world. Like buildings, the
world like to stand at a single place and stagnate for throughout the
life instead of measuring the depths of sea, instead of facing the
dangers of eaten by shark. But we are different people. We are free
willed people. We could make a choice. To choose to jump out of fish
bowl and get our freedom, or to live our life watching our freedom die
and telling ourselves that we could not jump out of the flask. The
painting is telling us that we are always at a brink of choice. Either
we could ignore the world and jump out in the sea to seek our own
ventures or we could just spend our lives thinking we could not jump.
The painting is asking us a question, are we strong enough to make
that choice and believe in ourselves?

@ace108

Minnows, your dream home here on steemit

I didn’t find much information about the artist other than him being
from Romania. The landscape of the city makes me think he spent much
time in major city. However, he wants to be away from the hustle and
bustle from the life in the city and close the beach by the sea where
he can build his home where he gets view of the sea and beach but
close enough to the city. The little fish in the bowl sort of
represent where he wants his home to be. So, #whysocurious me google
for: Gyuri Lohmuller home See the result include two images that is
the same piece of art?

As a result, I found the piece is called “Almost at home”. Now, to
the all the little minnows who just came to the steemit family, I hope
you get the same feeling that you are almost at home and soon enough,
you will be comfortably at home here with the rest of us. ;-)

While waiting for your dream home, let’s relax a bit and meditate to
the view you will want to see with this video I found from youtube.

@stillwater

Hmmm..... I see the gold fish as a person, an individual who is inside
the fishbowl of the "rat wheel of life". He/she is trapped in there
own mind, shackled in a sense to this invisible idea of having to
repeat this cycle day in and day out. He/she can see through it all
and look out beyond the shackles of this bowl and see a great vast
ocean where anything is possible if only he/she would just let go and
take that first step into the surf releasing themselves from the fear
of the unknown and into the new. The sky is gloomy up above
representing the past but the beach behind is bright and all is
possible for this person. It represents the present choice at hand.
The city off in the distance represents the life he/she currently
dwells in and so wishes to leave behind. Looking out at the ocean, the
unknown, with great wonder and curiosity........ what choice will
he/she make? Thank you. I do enjoy these.

@yakuhi

https://steemit.com/artchallenge/@yakuhi/art-challenge

Agent Goldfish reporting, from capsule experiment Earth, subject
Humans. The humans have taken an unexpected path. Instead of making
use of their highly evolved brains, the humans have chosen to deviate
from their natural strength and encase themselves in artificial biomes
to protect their bodies from the reality of life. They have
effectively allowed their bodies to become weaker while the rest of
the life on the planet has continued to develop into stronger, better
adapted lifeforms. Where there should be at least one human to be seen
from any location on the planet, they are instead concentrated in
small areas, perfect for breathing and transmitting harmful diseases
quickly throughout the population. They have also not managed to
inhabit any other biomes and are restricted to a surface plus air
biome or they will perish quickly. Even the air which they rely on for
life is not well taken care of as is evident by the permanent smog
present in the air. Humans have failed to find equilibrium with the
natural rhythms of the planet and are instead on a self destructive
path that will eventually end when their available resources have been
exhausted. Agent Goldfish out.

@pyrowngs

https://steemit.com/artchallenge/@pyrowngs/bubbles-goes-on-a-field-trip-to-the-beach-my-entry-for-artchallenge-8

~Bubbles Goes on a Field Trip to the Beach~

Bubbles goes on a field trip to the "Nature Museum" (otherwise known
as the "outside world") and looks out at the ocean from the safety of
his own goldfish bowl.

"What an immense sea, such a vast ocean!" he thinks to himself...

He is greeted by the reverberations of sound waves like none he has
ever felt: the rhythmic crashing of waves, distant gulls, the sound of
people walking in the sand.

He sees the myriad of reflections coming off the rippling water.

Can he smell the salty air? or sense it?

Can he sense the impending doom that could cause his fishbowl to
topple into the sea with high tide? (probably not - after all he just
has a little fish-brain)

But, he can sense the largeness of the world outside his bowl - much
better here than he ever felt while at home on the table.

A quick visit is all he needs to remind him of the safety & security
of his regular meals sprinkled like clockwork overhead, and his
regular friends- the cuckoo clock, the potted geranium and his owner,
Sally (a little girl), who saved him from the crazy life at the pet
store.

Just knowing the ocean is out there is more than Bubbles could ever
have dreamed!

@saiku

What I see is the metaphor of the city as a fish bowl. People are
entrapped there either by their own doing or otherwise and are unable
to escape into the great big world around them, represented by the
ocean. The pedestal symbolises the fact that we place living in
stucco-walled condos up on a pedestal while it is less than ideal and
separates us from nature and the rest of the world as well as creates
an impractical and unnatural goal. Clearly, the goal of the fish is to
be outside of its bowl and in the ocean as it should be the goal of
the city's inhabitants to be outside their artificial 500 sq ft flats
and on the beach.

@sumsum

https://steemit.com/artchallenge/@sumsum/salty-water-and-the-sun-original-poem-for-artchallenge-8

**Salty water and the sun**

I see the sea but I don´t feel the salty water
I see the sun but I don´t feel the heat
and even tough everything seems quite in order
I feel a rising, burning need
The need to break all barriers down
to be the director AND the clown
to be the master AND the slave
to be week, but be brave
To be me without shame
to never stay the same
to feel the salty water and the heat of the sun
to be all and just one!

@wordsword
https://steemit.com/artchallenge/@wordsword/artchallenge-8-painting-gyuri-lohmuller-if-fish-could-talk-or-humans-listen

If fish could talk, or humans listen

Here I am in my "upper air"
in my way to small capsule
standing high on a pedestal
going nowhere
swimming round and round for hours and hours
should I be glad, should I be sad if I fall from the pedestal?
Isn't there someone who can take me to a freshwater lake
Instead of this endless view of endless water
which would kill me in an instance
Wow how cruel
to put me here in a bowl with sea view
Well that you humans go live in stupid boxes in the air
cramped together over there
suffocating in smog
Doesn't mean I like it here in this artificial environment
Where are your minds you stupid humans.
Put me back where I came from.
Go live in capsules yourself, like sub marine or space ships
Cramped together like sardines in a tin.
But I don't wanna be in this upper air capsule.
I don't want to see the world
or the sea's
I don't want to explore.
Take me home! Now!
Please.

@elementm

https://steemit.com/artchallenge/@elementm/art-challenge-8-but-the-bubble-keeps-you-safe-my-dear

Out in the distance, a city looms cold and lifeless. All we can see
are the tall grey buildings which stand as proof of humanity’s triumph
over nature. The air above it is thick with dust or smog and if it
contains any parks or green spaces, they aren’t visible. In the
foreground on the beach, there are still no signs of life except for
the lone fish in a glass bowl on a pedestal. He occupies a tiny
artificial world at the edge of the sea. It would probably be a very
cruel form of torture for a human to occupy a glass case in solitude
separated from freedom by forces he/she finds difficult to escape. The
unseen people in the far off city may similarly live lives that are
cut off from nature, from freedom and to an extent from each other. If
they have short memories like goldfish they may not be able to
formulate successful escape plans. The fish has the option to jump out
of the open bowl but it doesn’t know if it is able to survive the
saltwater or not. Similarly, those who feel trapped in that city may
want to leave but be uncertain of whether or not they can survive
outside of it.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS!

All the information about TRAIL and how to claim it you can find here.

To be short: (I have already made all the steps and it was not difficult)))

If you have never dealt with SteemTrail Discord , you can go and check what it is here.

To claim TRAIL you need to open an account. Just go to Open Ledger Account and follow the instructions. Then submit your Open Ledger account info (OL account “my-username” and Steem account “my-username”) in the #open-ledger-account-add channel.

If you want to open Streemian account, just go here

Thanks to Steem Trail team and @ogochukwu for providing this information.

THEME FOR ARTCHALLENGE #9 will be announced tomorrow, the 16th of May and I can say you will be surprised with the painting.

You can see the previous artchallenges here:

Winners of Artchallenge#7 6 participants
Winners of Artchallenge#6 7 participants
Winners of Artchallenge#5 8 participants
Winners of Artchallenge#4 9 participants
Winners of Artchallnege#3 11 participants
Winners of Artchallenge#2 6 participants
Winners of ARTchallenge#1 14 participants

EVERYBODY IS WELCOME!

I would like to THANK again those who supported this challenge.

Please FOLLOW, VOTE and RESTEEM this post.

I will be also very happy to any support of the artchallenge! If you want to be a judge or a sponsor, you are very welcome!

Join me on a quest to discover the treasures of beautiful artworks!

Always yours, @aksinya.