Dancing in the Flames and the year of 2024

2/24/20252 min read

2024 was the year of clarity in my life as an artist.

Having experimented with various media on both paper and canvas for the last four years, I have molded my painting process to what I believe represents my personal aesthetic - simple elegance through color and soft movement.

My paintings are abstract expressions of the extensive cultural experiences I have had over the last four decades, as well as the physical landscapes to which I connected, having lived in both familiar and unfamiliar environments around the world.

“Dancing in the Flames”, painted in the fall of 2024, is the pivotal painting in my artistic practice in which my favorite fall memories of growing up in Ukraine are layered with tumultuous life experiences thereafter, including the ongoing social and political crisis in the Eastern part of Ukraine. This layered narrative translated unto the canvas in a series of both unexpected and intentional gestures and marks.

I began by pouring thinned acrylic paint down the tilted canvas which created this particular gauze-like texture that I was able to produce for the first time. It was then complemented by the upward curved brushstrokes through which I intended to communicate growth, change and perseverance. Spontaneous drops of fluid paint, once dried, also delivered an unexpected outcome, revealing the sense of unpredictability that I believe underlines our existence. My choice to use multiple layers of pigment in various colors and hues represented the diversity of the physical landscapes, as well as the complexity of the cultural landscapes that I had absorbed, thus shaping me as an artist.

I think of each painting layer as a particular memory, be it of an event, emotion, or experience that marked my life, and now marks the canvas. Some are gentle, others rigid. Some are fluid, others firm. There’s energy, yet softness. There’s movement, yet serenity. There’s hopefully peace, inner peace, amidst the external noise.

I feel like ‘Dancing in the Flames’ was a culmination of all my previous painting experiments and trials. It helped bring into focus my vision of what and how I wanted to paint moving on. It was also the foundation upon which I plan to continue to follow my curiosity as this new year unfolds.

Sign up below to receive my ArtFull Postcards Newsletter via email.

ArtFull Postcards is a human-written monthly publication by Anya Baboyedova filled with art, creative inspiration, personal notes, studio updates and new work announcements.