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.

Starry Night. January 2019. 37 x 30 cm.

So, a month after the completion of Irises (you can find the story here), I have created and am gladly presenting to you my new work. Starry Night. January 2019. 37 x 30 cm.

 The original Starry Night was painted in June 1889 and is in MOMA, New York. Moreover, it is known from Van Gogh’s letters that he was not happy with Starry Night.

 You know, Van Gogh liked to copy and compared it with music and would find consolation in copying other works of art (letter to Theo of September 20, 1889).

 I thought of what Van Gogh would say when he looked at my copy of his work. When such an idea comes to mind, you are trying hard to show off. I was doing my best and I always do my best while working with glass.

 First, glass is a completely different material. Glass frit and glass powder. You have your palette of colours, but it can not be mixed together. Moreover, I confidently began to make a Starry Night out of material I never worked with - from medium sized frit. At first I thought it would not work. Then with a new technique I completed my version of Starry Night in 25 hours.

 Secondly, it is absolutely clear to me how to create this work by painting with glass powder (the description of the technique can be found here). Furthermore, I drew the village in Starry Night with glass powder. If I were to use medium-grained frit, I could not achieve such accuracy. The houses, fields and frontal trees were created with powder while the sky, stars, mountains and gardens of trees was made with medium sized frit.

 I made comparison pictures to compare the two Starry Nights side by side.

 Thirdly, I will be happy to show you my rhythm and my steps as I was creating the work. Here in this order was the progression of my starry night.

After final fusing.

 What did Van Gogh think when he painted this picture? There are thousands of interpretations. What did I think when I worked on this picture? About Van Gogh. I read his letters, read the two-volume book of the 2010 Taschen Complete Collection of Paintings. My son presented me this book for the New Year in 2012. I also thought about how my vision of Van Gogh is completely different now ... In 2012, I did not know how to approach when creating such a piece with glass. And now I pretty quickly managed to make Starry Night using techniques invented by me.

 Here is the article about the Starry Night and 10 facts that you did not know about the Starry Night by Van Gogh. There is something to think about. Van Gogh considered this work a failure. And he wrote the view from the east window 21 times, but he never wrote a grille on the windows.

 I want to quote from Van Gogh. He writes to Brother Theo on July 10, 1888

"But the sight of the stars always makes me dream in as simple a way as the black spots on the map, representing towns and villages, make me dream.

Why, I say to myself, should the spots of light in the firmament be less accessible to us than the black spots on the map of France.

Just as we take the train to go to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to go to a star.20 What’s certainly true in this argument is that while alive, we cannot go to a star, any more than once dead we’d be able to take the train. So it seems to me not impossible that cholera, the stone, consumption, cancer are celestial means of locomotion, just as steamboats, omnibuses and the railway are terrestrial ones.

To die peacefully of old age would be to go there on foot."