DRAWING
The Quarantine CollectionÂ
Portraits: Windows to the Soul
The “After Mom” Collection
The Quarantine Collection
The Quarantine Collection reflects my experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic:
The profound loneliness, the omnipresent shadow of death, emotions that resonated with every person on Earth. Our world shrunk, confined to the walls of our homes. To protect our loved ones, we sacrificed the warmth of their embrace, replacing physical closeness with the cold light of screens.
Time stretched endlessly, each day bringing death closer, leaving less and less space for life. Long hours were spent in solitude, waiting. Waiting for the end. The end of death, or the end of life? I don’t know. All I know is that it felt like an eternal wait…
To represent this two-dimensional reality, a world confined to the stark choices of life and death, I chose drawing as my medium. Drawing, in its purest, most unembellished form, confronts the viewer directly, forcing an encounter with the very essence of meaning.
Portraits: Windows to the Soul
Portraits captivate us because faces are windows to the soul. I find drawing portraits incredibly rewarding.
The act of staring intently at someone’s face for hours feels natural, not awkward. I become absorbed in contemplating the person before me, wondering what thoughts and emotions are swirling within them. Sometimes, I’ll break the silence to learn more about their life, their hopes, and their past. These brief exchanges, followed by stretches of quiet contemplation, create a shared trance.
Faces are endlessly fascinating; the more you look, the more you discover. This process is more than just art for me; it’s a form of meditation and a profound connection with the person I’m drawing. Closely observing their features, capturing their unique details, and trying to understand the stories etched in every line and shadow allows me to see beyond the surface.
While drawing, I find myself engaged in brief conversations or deep silences, respecting the space that forms between us. Each face feels like a map, a complex tapestry of emotions, memories, and experiences. Exploring this map through art is a captivating journey, always revealing something new.
The "After Mom" Collection
The world went silent after my mother died, a deafening emptiness that swallowed me whole. I felt disconnected, adrift, as if I were dissolving piece by piece, dying alongside her. Life had lost its meaning, leaving me a hollow shell, watching the vast emptiness unfold before me. I fled my city, my family, desperate to escape the suffocating grip of grief, but the panic attacks followed, relentless, even in the unfamiliar streets. I clung to anything that could anchor me: my childhood home, my homeland, but the feeling of rootlessness persisted, a constant reminder of my suspension in this world.
Through this collection, I sought to make these emotions tangible, not just for myself but perhaps for the viewer as well. Using pencil on paper, one of the most primal and fundamental tools of art, I aimed to convey this raw, instinctive human experience, a testament to the enduring power of grief.
Through this collection, I sought to make these emotions tangible—first for myself, and perhaps for the viewer as well. The works are created using pencil on paper, employing one of the most primal and fundamental tools of art to convey this raw, instinctive human experience.
