ARTIST STATEMENT

Abstract expressionism traditionally idolizes individual moments. My bold abstractions tell entire stories through vivacious mixed media like acrylic and spray paint with a focus on climax and culmination– the end results of real interactions. I work entirely in abstraction because I’m seeking abstract themes from the in-between. My multidisciplinary practice spans studio painting, public murals, and client commissions, united by a signature sense of gesture and purpose. Stories serve my greatest inspiration, but their perspective springs from my own.

My career started 20 years ago in Serbia, where I worked avidly as a fashion designer. Every collection included hand-painted elements and asymmetry–the early days of my practice’s present colorful chaos, its delicate balance. I transitioned to painting when I moved to Chicago in 2007. I’d always planned to leave home—recognized the limits Serbia’s economic state implied at the hands of NATO bombs and all the rest. Moving to America was a reset. Though I held executive-level achievements in Serbia, I started at square one. In ESL classes I came to appreciate the immense diversity of this place, alongside its ongoing injustices.

Tales of overcoming have always been my favorite. Studio work offers the artist catharsis, but painting for other people provides an emotional service. Commissioned work starts with a conversation between myself and an individual or wider community. Once a story pours into my soul it’s then alchemized into material possibilities like color palettes and arrangements of texture. Time is an unseen medium–I take regular intervals to step away. There are intentional moments of leading and following in my practice, chasing and being chased. All the planning is my being chased, receiving both stories and subconscious guidance.

Painting is the chasing, a meditative dance honed through breathing and my own yoga practice. Each artwork holds its own bespoke symbolic language suited to its story. Shapes become characters, drops and splashes direct the flow of energy and action. My own handwriting punctuates every tale with an exclamation point–loops of automatic writing like actual words the viewer inadvertently projects their own narrative onto. Survivorship is just one badge a person wears. I include every part of a story from rising action to denouement to honor variety within the human experience. They manifest as layers.

Every time life requires a reset, my commitment to art gains renewed vigor. An assuredness that, like everyone, I must keep going at any cost. This assuredness grounds the necessary, omnipresent uncertainty in my painting practice. Although my background in design lends an at times unconventional approach to abstract expressionism, uncertainty creates space for the moment. Every project must provide room for unexpected problem solving, like jazz.

Maybe it’s the designer in me, but art should have a function. Someday I would like my practice to yield a physical space where creatives can congregate and communicate. Until then, the various channels in my practice serve a common purpose to elevate authentic stories and inspire viewers to recognize the immense potential within them. Every ephemeral spirit contains entire volumes, from rising action to denouement. My abstractions dance towards the liminal space where passion, moments, and music meet the concrete: color, texture, and details.