Tatjana Krizmanic

This collection of work is a retrospective of sorts. It is a selection of my favorite pieces from the first three decades of my career. Some of these paintings are "key" paintings from which many others emerged. Others, are simple details which might provide a ground for future painting. I will often revisit a composition or a topic of a painting in my current work. 

The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. The race in known as Run for the Roses (named after the blanked of 554 roses draped over the winner), and also as The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports. While the infield at Churchill Downs is reserved for hearty revelers (who see very little of the race), the stands are occupied by people in fine outfits, ladies' in particular, lavishly accessorized with large, elaborate hats.

I've been showing my work at B. Deemer Gallery in Louisville, KY for almost 30 years and over time have created a handful of images relating to the Kentucky Derby. The ladies in hats series, commissioned by a client, portrays ladies of the family decked out in their derby creations. I am currently working on a series of horses and jockeys. The colorful silks and breathtakingly beautiful horses provide endless inspiration. 

In the early 2000s, I set out on a bold departure from the illustrative and representative into abstraction. Large fields of color woven together by fine, flowing lines across a range of tonalities, from saturated to ashen, may at first surprise those accustomed to my style. In order to declare a more raw artistic statement, in this work I am building a unique vocabulary of form, stroke, density and fluidity, and relationship between objects.

The body of work shown here specifically draws on the vast, open landscapes of Southern Colorado as well as the artist’s many years of Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice. In the work one may perceive a landscape or sense inner turbulence, but much is left to interpretation.

“Ocean Rhapsody” was created during several off- season months spent on the outer Cape, around Truro. Its quiet world of moors, ocean bluffs and rolling dunes inspired these paintings. I sought to capture the atmospheric charge and exquisite rough beauty of the cold months by the sea. Using broad swaths of color and stylized forms to capture the essence without focusing on details allowed me to take a new direction, toward abstraction while maintaining a sense of the place and moment.

The main players in most of these paintings are the ice floes themselves. In some treatments I softened them to be almost cloud-like, and in others, brisk strokes render them ragged as if raging against the frozen shoreline. Additionally, the works are permeated by a silence that was perhaps inspired by cold winter days, but more likely it speaks to my own wish to simply be a vessel of expression.

The name, Ocean Rhapsody came through a conversation with my young son who is a classical pianist. I think of this series as a single work, episodic yet integrated and wanted to use a musical term to recall a moment of first inspiration, listening to the sound of the heaving ice floes. I heard it like a yearning, haunting song from the deep. When searching for the right musical term, I showed my son the paintings and without hesitation he shot out: “A rhapsody! It’s a rhapsody!” Such is the gift of someone who thinks in notes while we painters think in color and form.

Over the years I have collaborated with several ceramic artists. Most notably, Mindy Moore, with whom I created a body of work entitled Skupa, which means "together" in Croatian. We produced large hand-built porcelain pieces, some of them functional as pitchers and vases, others purely decorative. The "Brotherhood and Unity" pitcher exhibits pastel pigment rubbed into un-glazed porcelain - the inside of the pitcher is glazed, making it functional, while the outside pastel pigment is permanently set with matte fixative. 

"For the Birds" is a functional birdhouse made of paper clay with pastel pigment coloring and clear UV varnish. 

"Cowgirl" is a wire sculpture intended to hang at a distance of a few inches away from the wall where the flow of air creates changing shadows on the wall behind. It was inspired by mobiles and sculptures of Alexander Calder. 

WOMEN’S MARCH

On January 21st, 2017, in the freezing mist at 4:00 a.m. somewhere near 83rd Street and Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a small group of determined protesters some sporting pink knit caps and carrying protest signage ranging from humorous and soulful to raunchy and enraged, awaited patiently the arrival of a chartered bus. They were headed to Washington D.C. for something called the Women's March - a grass roots protest against the election of the tragedy that is Donald J. Trump.

As the arranged time came and went, we, who had joined the crowd just after 4 a.m., were supplied reports of the large amount of chartered buses clogging up the approach to the city. Apparently, thousands of New Yorkers had the same idea. As my family and I slowly lost hope of the bus' arrival we also marveled at the spirit and heart of the people who in such numbers showed up to let their voices be heard. It was a moving and inspiring moment despite the missing bus.

The four of us decided to jump in the car and take our chances with what promised to be heavy traffic in D.C. As luck would have it, we were able to drive into the heart of the city and park near the Capitol where we were truly awed to see the large numbers of people streaming towards the Mall and the Women's March start point. There were times when we couldn't actually move, we just stood there together with other protestors, chanting protest slogans and feeling our democracy in action.

At one point we looked up towards a low wall where a mild mannered guy stood holding a sign that read: “Never underestimate the power of a faggot with a tambourine”! That started my passion for recording protest signs. There were large signs, banners, placards and huge props, even a full size parachute decorated with slogans by the We Make America group.

Someone could be heard saying: "There, the Earth is moving!”and that signaled the start of the march. Everyone followed the large papier maché globe as we wound our way along the route that led us past the White House and the Trump Hotel.

I was struck by the ingenuity, humor and heart of the signs we saw along the way and it inspired me to make a series of small paintings depicting the marchers and their paraphernalia. This is but a small sample of the hundreds of images that came from that day. 

PRAYER FOR UKRAINE

I painted Prayer for Ukraine over the last 6 weeks as a personal response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In deep sympathy with the human suffering we witness escalating daily and with the violation of the nation-state of Ukraine itself, I researched and included many symbolic elements of Ukrainian land, culture and history. In each line and each application of paint to the best of my ability I infused my own prayers for peace, harmony and healing. I would like to describe the symbols in depth:

The angel of peace is wearing the traditional Ukrainian vyshyvanka blouse - a symbol of health, good fortune, love, honesty and decency. The crown of corn represents the fertile lands of Ukraine. The head scarf and braids are traditional Ukrainian head dress.

The "embroidery" shows sunflowers, poppies, periwinkles, olive branches - all symbolic of vitality, destiny, excellence, strength.

In the center, the universal symbol of peace, white dove with an olive branch in its beak flies up to meet the angel.

Flora and fauna images are plentiful in Ukrainian folklore and contain deep meaning and symbolism. The poppies, cornflowers and sunflowers on the sides symbolize the 24 "oblasts" - provinces - of Ukraine. The river Dnieper, which runs through the center of the country, contains lotuses, Buddhist symbol of compassion and six fish which portray new life and prosperity.

On the sides of the painting are a birch tree and an oak tree, and in the center cherry, snowball and chestnut trees. Oak is sacred tree in all Slavic traditions symbolizing life force and interconnectedness, while chestnut is associated with Kyiv, snowball tree with life, blood and fire, and cherry is a symbol of Ukraine itself - native land and mother principle.

There are nightingale - symbol of love, and cuckoo - symbol of mother mourning her children. Stork, the favorite bird of Ukraine, symbolizes new life.

The cow/pig in the lower center is symbolic of nurturing, nourishment and prosperity. The spots on its body represent the babies killed in this war - when I started painting, there were only a few and after 129 I lost count. I prayed for people of Mariupol with all my might while painting this animal.

Under its feet is a representation of Putin being devoured by his own ego, the horrible weapons of war, like supersonic rockets being destroyed. The three-headed beast represents three poisons of greed, aggression and confusion. In the Buddhist philosophy these are the three root causes of all suffering.

Under the pig's head there are periwinkles - symbol of loyalty.

The peas in the lower right corner represent good luck and the snowdrops symbolize change, new life and renewal. In the center are hills and fields representing the beauty and fertility of Ukrainian land, the young and harvest wheat are on either side and the deer on the central hill represent philosophy of truth and peace.

The two cypress trees represent Crimean peninsula.

Much of the symbolism and folklore in Ukraine is quite similar to that of my native country Croatia. The language is similar enough that I can understand the speeches of President Zelensky. Our own bloody civil war is still fresh in our collective memory and the current war in Ukraine reveals the same rotten tendencies and helplessness of human beings. As an artist, all I can do to lift my voice against the brutal senselessness of war is to paint.

All proceeds from sale of prints, posters and the original artwork will go to support the displaced people of Ukraine through these organizations that are doing invaluable humanitarian work: The IRC, Doctors Without Borders, Lifting Hands, International Committee of Red Cross.