2019: Results of the Year

The year 2019 was the first creative year after four years of depression. I finally started to feel pleasure from creating with glass again. I am quite pleased with what I have created this year, so allow me to present you with the results. If you do not see the logic between these works, do not worry about it. Most importantly, I see it. This year is special because I started to experiment with glass once again. For those interested, the results of the first 15 years of my artistic career with glass and my story can be found here. 

Starry Night (story here). I for the first time worked with medium sized frit. The town below is done with glass powder. 

Homo Explorer (story here). It is a continuation of my work with regards to drawing with glass powder. I am quite pleased with this work. It is a very beautiful glass work. 

Sun. Stained glass. Sun, is a translation from arabic of the word “shamsa”. That is the name of the illuminated 1338 Koran decoration which is covered in gold leaf and painted pigments. It can be found in the library of Dublin, you can see it here. Both the original picture and my work are not symmetrical but close to it. I wanted to see how it would look in stained glass. I am pleased with this work. 

Ornamental Cat. Unfortunately, this work blew up in the kiln. I worked a fairly long time on it. When I saw this self-portrait of Yayoi Kusama, it shook me to the depth of my soul. 

This cat is a projection of my admiration for her. Kusama-san, is a female artist with a mental disorder. She is the richest of all female artists in the world. She is 90 years old and she works daily in her workshop. She is my role model. I decided to show you my non-fused work to illustrate how beautiful it is. It pains me that it did not work out. It was supposed to be my finest work yet. I hope to someday recreate it again. 

Flying Ship. I, with great pleasure, have made another sailing ship. The last time I made a sailing ship was in 2005. It was a long time ago… two lifetimes ago. I wanted to re-experience that feeling of making the sailing ship again. I really like sailing ships. This time, it is flying from night to day towards the sun. This time around, I worked under the wing of a professional. Rock Laplante came up with the idea of the lines in the background. I had a completely different idea from his, but I am very satisfied with how this work turned out. I managed to retain the pattern in the glass for the background. 

Road of Pilgrim (story here). I am continuing the experiments with the technique of drawing with glass powder. This time around I made non-repeating brush strokes, essentially a complex ornament. I have never done this before. I wanted to reach a point where on the painting everything is in motion, a star flickers, an angel flies in the sky, shrubs and cypress sway and the road runs. If you take a step back from the monitor, you will better see the movement. I felt very free when applying these brush strokes. In this work, there is a whole lot of me. 

Medieval Town. I really love making these works. In my blog, I have a full post about medieval towns (only in russian) here. It takes a really fine hand; it is truly the creation of a miniature. I work with a thin needle and practically count the particles of powder to create these thin lines. This is my test to see how well my hands work. I am showing the work in progress. This town will be laid upon beautiful pink glass. I am very satisfied with the thickness of the lines; they are even finer than in my work Homo Explorer. The work should turn out as fine as lace. Showing the status as of today.

Road of Pilgrim. 2019. 27 x 33 cm.

I, with great pleasure, would like to show you my latest work. It is called the Road of Pilgrim and it is inspired by Van Gogh’s, Road with Cypress and Star. This time I will try not to mix lyrics with technique and I will write two separate parts. The lyrical part is for those interested in the thoughts of the artist. The technical part is for those interested in the details behind the making of the piece.

 Lyrical Part.
The Road of Pilgrim is a logical continuation of my previous work called Homo Explorer (story here). I will remind you that Homo Explorer, is about a pilgrim who saw and heard the Unknown. He walked to the edge of the earth, found a loophole in the fabric of reality and took a glance at the Universe. Here I thought to myself, that the Road of Pilgrim is about the pilgrim returning from a meeting with the Unknown. He will be meeting with people on the road, telling of the things he has seen. What will he tell the others? Will he be able to convey his feelings, emotions and new vision? It has always concerned me how knowledge is passed on. What should I believe? Who should I believe? How do we see? How do we understand what we are told? Finally, since everyone sees the world through their own perspective, it is truly difficult to convey something without distortion. 

 Take a look at my work. It is different from the original, that is obvious. It is a portrayal of my vision of the original work. This is how I see it, do you understand? It is incredibly interesting to me. At some point in time, I was examining a photo of my finished work and was disappointed to see that it looked like a child’s drawing; naive art. I was flustered. I started to analyze how I went about creating this piece. I tried really hard. It was the first time I used this brush stroke texture. But the work is very dynamic. Try to play with the picture by looking at it closer or farther away from the monitor. You will see the effect of movement, which is exactly what I was trying to convey. I personally see it loud and clear. If you catch the desired focus point - everything is moving. A star flickers, an angel flies in the sky, shrubs and cypress sway and the road runs. 

 Why did I choose this work? For the effect of movement and the road. I feel as if I am a pilgrim on the road attempting to talk about the beauty of the world. I am meeting people on the way. Some are interested in what I have to say while others do not care. That is normal. The road itself awakens within me a sense of anticipation new, new meetings and new places. I love this feeling. I love the road. This work is a tribute to people who feel they are on their paths. May the guiding star always shine on you. 

This is my third work based off of Van Gogh’s paintings. Firstly I created Irises in December 2018 (story here), next came Starry Night in January 2019 (story here), and now my Road of Pilgrim. I think a lot about Van Gogh. He interests me very much. For those who read my blog, you know that I am a self-taught artist with bipolar disorder. My vision and understanding of Van Gogh as an artist with bipolar disorder is my own. I understand his passion for creation. I too, also dream of creating art day and night. I am grateful for the opportunity to create glass, and develop myself further as an artist. For those interested in what I have created this year (2019), there is a post, 2019: Results of the Year (here). 

I created a picture for comparison. What do I want to show with this picture? I am satisfied with the colour scheme that I chose for this piece. You see two different works on the same subject. Two different human visions. You know, researchers say that Van Gogh thought about death when creating this painting. I do not know. But I can tell you what I was thinking about. For me, it is a life-affirming work. The understanding that I am going and moving forward. Thank God I can continue to create my glass and further develop myself. During the time that I worked on Road of Pilgrim I formulated for myself my future steps. 

I created my technique of drawing with glass powder for the opportunity to create my favourite pictures in glass with maximum accuracy. In this work, I enjoyed the freedom of not having to draw accurately. I like how it turned out. I really like how the texture of this piece turned out. 

What ideas am I trying to convey? For the first time, I allowed myself some freedom in the design. I applied brush strokes of glass powder as I felt. There was no incentive to draw with precision, it was also not possible because of the difference in medium. I feel like I have progressed a step further in developing my own artistic style. 

Technical Part. 
I want to show you how I go about my work. I explain the basics of my technique here. 

First of all, I have never done such a texture with glass powder before. I call this texture a complex ornament. This is my first attempt, first experiment, 91 hours of work and a total of 5 firings. 

What is the texture of a complex ornament? It is the alternation between different colours of glass powder. A simple ornament would have a basic pattern such as ABABAB. A complex ornament on the other hand would have a more intricate pattern such as ABACABABAC, ABCABC or any other combination up to ten colours. 

I worked with five to ten colours at a time. The road for example is comprised of ten different colours. Each colour has its own brush to avoid any contamination with different colours. Of course, you can make do with one brush and wash it after every brush stroke… but it is more comfortable with ten brushes. Here the photo shows six colours ready to be used. To the left of the work, you see six containers with glass powder with a brush in each one. 

If you take a look at the slide show (here), the first picture shows how I drew on different areas of the piece. I would start on the sky, then the road, then the shrubs. After I have worked on different areas of the piece, the work was fused for the first time. After seeing the result of the first fusing, I increased the density of the brush strokes a tad. Finally, in one centimeter I had 4.5 brush strokes. This is a fairly fine work, let me tell you. In total, it took 91 hours to complete. I calculated that I could draw up to nine square centimeters per hour. In the slide show, the pictures are taken approximately every five hours. 

It is very important to keep track of the viscosity of the glass powder paste. More than anything, it needs to be of a similar consistency for all glass powders. I myself eyeball the viscosity, but the point is clear. If you have a paste that is too liquidy while another is too thick, and you place them next to one another, after fusing the liquidy paste will disappear to reveal holes in the work. For this piece I used a thick paste. Very thick, very very thick sour cream. This picture was made after the first fusing, as you can see, there are many holes. As a result, I increased the thickness of the paste and the density of the brush strokes. What to do with the holes? Fill them up with a new layer of paste. 

Just as well, I kept track of which powder colours I used. I only work with Bullseye glass.

Why did I need five firings? Technically, you can make do with two. First, to understand the colours and the density of the brush strokes. And the second, for the final fusing. But I had the opportunity to do intermediate fusings, it was interesting to see how the colours of the powders changed. 

I also enjoy seeing the backside of the piece. Moreover, I sign my work with glass powder of the reverse side.