Artist Christina Saj
Meet the Artist Interview @ the Ukrainian Museum, November 21st 2021 | Contemporary Artist Christina Saj excplores making art in the time of pandemic and shares her current body of work a series of over 130 tondos on view at the museum until Jan 30, 2022 and series she is actively working on.
HOW DID YOU RESPOND TO THE PANDEMIC?
I retreated down into my studio and just started painting. The fact that they were all circles was somehow really quite meaningful. They at once reminded me of the actual shapes of the virus, and at the same time, a circle is something and complete, something whole. It has no beginning and no end and i could hold it in my hand, so there was a relationship to my body. They also offered bite sized paintings that I could do in the stints in between, nervous energy, taking care of kids, or running around trying to figure out what to do or just going for a a walk, because everyone was going stir crazy.
The early pieces were inspired by the virus itself. This is one the first ones. I call it GERMS. There are series, a bunch of them that all echo actual characteristics of the virus: spiky forms, certainly microbial behavior. Being an abstract painter I don’t go in the painting, I don’t go into a painting with a complete plan, there is a bit a little bit of serendipity. In this case the circle was talking to me A LOT. I also became inspired by the things that I would put down. My process is that I work on a lot of things at the same time. I can do a painting, a piece of painting and put it down and pick up another one. And with these it was really easy because they stack nicely. I had a studio full of them. Now I am well over 200.
So after I worked thru some of the very early pieces that spoke specifically to the virus, some of the more pleasant things, the “silver linings” came to light. Sprintgtime. taking a walk, DUSK, and some of the feelings that were happening. This piece is called Patron Saint of Essential Workers. This one is Memory of a Lost Firend. Fatal Blow In those first weeks we all had experiences knowing someone we lost, family members, friends, people we worked with people who died.
As the series progressed, there is no question that i also looked to create hopeful images. There is no question that my work is about creating “beautiful” things. I think there is enough ugly in the world, it makes sense to create something beautiful. This painting is called HOPE. and this one I call Seeing Thru to the Other Side — it was actually painted in in the first month of pandemic and geez its 18 months and we”re still not there.
WHAT INSPIRED YOUR WORK?
Inspirations were also found in very traditional things like Ukrainian embroideries. I’ve always been interested in pattern and my process has been, in the last 10 years especially, incorporating rich patterns into the surfaces, often using metallics creating reflections, and changing the way the paint sits on the surface. Painting on records offered me a couple of things i really loved, one was the circular format. I really like to work on surfaces that are stiff. I’ve done series on glass, on steel, on wood. There is something about the way the brush touches the surface of painting. There is a “bounce”. That’s the only way I can describe it. Canvas absorbs it more. I like to work on slipperier surfaces. I just like the way the paint sits.
Behind me are 40 pieces from the pandemic series strung on metal rods and supspended from above.
HOW DO YOU WORK AND WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS AS AN ARTIST?
My process is somewhat systematic. I start a painting by laying down some color and some sort of grid that holds it together and then it starts to build on itself. I put them down and walk away and come back an start other ones. Sometimes its a very particular mood or a subject, like “Memories of Kupala” so sometimes it’s a very particular feeling that was inspired by something (usually)… Artists are like barometers, we take in everything that’s around us absorb it and it comes out on it’s own. We develop our own systems of marking making and there is a playback feature. The purpose of the work is not only to be decorative but hopefully to spark joy and produce something beautiful. It is kind of surprising to me, and has been on a number of occasions when I had something hard or difficult and that on the other side of it managed to produce a beautiful painting. At the time of 9/11 I also felt compelled to paint a painting about the towers coming down, and I painted a beautiful painting which seemed counterintuitive. But it is what the work is about. I’ve recently have had bunch of people tell me that my paintings are “happy” which I’m not sure I know exactly what to do with that, but there is something actually gratifying about that. And I do think, that I’m happy to make paintings that people want to live with. And the fact that these are paintings that inspire some positive emotion, out of a very negative thing, seems like a success.
I have an undergraduate degree from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA in painting from Bard. I studied Byzantine Art History at Oxford University at Oxford University and while I was in college I studied with noted Ukrainian Icongrapher Petro Kholodny, the Younger. A Ukrainian Iconographer, whose work can be found here at the museum or about half a dozen churches on the East Coast (of the US). He came from many generations of iconographers.
My work has evolved over the last 20 years to incorporate a lot of contemporary influences. I love Modernism, it’s probably my favorite period, but there has been a lot of noise since then that also infomr the work. That and careful study of ancient traditions and classical examples.
I’d like to invite you to come and visit the Ukrainian Museum in NY and visit my pandemic collection. This is a museum i’ve been coming to my whole life and there are lot so of treasures to come and see.