Olga Nazarkina: from Concrete Images to Abstraction

Abstraction is necessary for understanding the essence of reality. However, the reality can be perceived not only rationally but also intuitively. A scientific fact that women naturally have better concrete (or figurative) thinking rather than an abstract one gave me a hint to find my way to abstraction via depicting concrete objects. Since I can well apprehend the reality through my feelings, sensations and intuition, I can use designating qualities of concrete objects to express abstract concepts, which are not associated with the symbolical meaning of the depicted objects themselves. For instance, I searched the way to express the feeling of the infinite space being limited by the size of canvas. To create a sense of the abstract concept of endlessness I used concrete objects - clouds and a bird - symbolical meaning of which does not matter at all and remain "unnoticed" by a viewer ("Sky").

My exploration of abstraction recently led me to an idea of three dimensional images. To add the depth into my works I tried a new "multilayer application" technique. Thick layers of color-aid paper allowed me to play with shadows and create additional nuances of the original colors.

The extra dimension also enhances an illusion of motion. The colorful application texture of "Rain" helps to take a viewer's attention away from the subject itself focusing on the feeling of fragility that I tried to express by the rain threads.

To substantiate the effect of depth I trued natural wooden materials. Incredible diversity of the wooden textures allowed me to minimize the degree of artificial coloring in the works to praise the beauty of the nature. In the untitled wooden application I challenged the idea of a multilevel perception.

Allusion of flying birds with a streaming in the wind organza or falling leaf were my tools to express my desire of freedom. I have always dreamt to pursue the career of a free artist. It was a miracle when I got a chance to fly to USA to study art. That was like my dream to break the boundaries and feel like flying.