Artist statement:

There are many ways to approach the forest, ecologist, forester, developer, scientist, hunter, tourist, - everyone interprets it in their own way, I explore forests from a visual point of view, I am fascinated by their otherness, visual difference, shapes, colours, smells, textures, contrasts, compositions, atmosphere.

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I'm fascinated by the idea of what life in a mountainous area can be like, what it means to grow up in the middle of a forest.

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Although I work with the motif of branches and trees, it doesn't limit me from being able to express anything - it's a language for me. Let me put it this way: my means of expression is the forest, then the individual themes come next. Imagine if you had different branches on your keyboard instead of letters and numbers and you had to write a sentence. So the forest is an endless source of letters for me, where I can express myself freely about anything. Painting nature is like dancing to hard music, but also peaceful breathing in complete silence. 

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I sometimes gum the drawn trees out of paper. For the feeling of emptiness that is also in the forest, where the trees disappear. I explore what their absence leaves us. We know there is something missing. But their absence on canvas and paper remains palpable, the traces of their removal remain forever. It may seem that a certain personification of trees takes place in my work. But the opposite is true - we are the ones who are supposed to adapt and learn from the trees. We are the ones who can easily identify with their outward steadfastness, their feelings of paralysis, their loneliness, but also with the good feeling that comes from helping each other. That's why I portray them, because I find a tremendous degree of theatricality in them, and the fact that no two trees are the same ensures a never-ending cycle of stories.

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​I try to create situations that we couldn't experience in real life. A trunk that is made of two different trees, one with branches growing towards the sky and the other towards the ground. Or when a tree exceeds mountains in size. They find themselves on the canvas in conditions that would not last long in nature: standing still, hanging, lying down. I situate them in different relationships, leaning against each other, coexisting tethered to each other, or just breaking the laws of physics when a heavy and massive trunk suddenly appears as light as a feather.

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In various Slovak forests I purposely place branches that I paint blue or purple. I hang them or tie them with natural ropes to the trees and then a local photographer takes the pictures. The whole process is very intimate for me: when I pick a branch, paint it, place it in the forest - it's the equivalent of total freedom. That's how I stay connected to it. Nature then does what it wants with the branch.  I use lanolin oil paints with natural pigments. I don't want to disturb anything, just draw attention to it. I then return to those places and document how the environment changes. Sometimes it's unfortunately for the worse.

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I also work on creating floral hybrids, consisting of different types of needles on one branch, from different natural plants and forest finds, unusual combinations. I focus on the dialogue between the different twigs that suddenly find themselves in a state of fusion, they may seem to be strangers to each other - each of them just came from a different corner, but that doesn't mean that they can't live together in a harmonious symbiosis. It carries a symbolic message: the act of relocating a specific element to a different environment where it coexists seamlessly with a new one, forever fixed in a transparent natural substance. In the work called “I feel you Friedrich” I replaced the Man´s gaze to the tree´s gaze, now it´s the tree who is taking care of the valley and becoming a guardian of the hill. That's why I portray them, similar to how people are portrayed. With portraits, the portrait artist tries to penetrate into the nature of the individual, so I try to understand the trees. Every tree is an individual for me. The thick layer of resin symbolizes indestructibility. Because man cannot destroy nature in my work. It remains forever fixed and untouchable. You may notice that I don't depict people, my works are completely depopulated, so that there is at least one place in the world that is beyond human reach, where no tree is cut down, no animal is hunted and killed.

With my work, I want to pay tribute to the trees and plants that grow in spite of the unfavorable environment, the unpredictability of the weather, harmful human activity and make their way to the surface.                                                                                                                                                                         

20. sept. 2024
 

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