"Making Day," suggests dedicating a specific day to creating artworks. For me, this approach doesn’t resonate. Every day is a “making day.” Even when I’m not physically working in the studio, I’m always creating—whether through conceptualizing, reflecting on art theory, or visualizing new ideas. If anything, I’d benefit more from a designated “pause day” or “holiday day” to step back, as making is already ingrained in my daily life.
Back in the studio, my focus has been on exploring the visceral quality of my sculptures. I aim to pinpoint the moment when external forces translate into visceral emotions.
In the video ...
... you can see how my process is intuitive and natural, resembling assemblage. I work by reorganizing, reassembling, and reshaping materials until they feel balanced.
Since I currently can’t work with ceramics, I’ve been experimenting with polymer clay.
However, the process of baking the clay feels a bit out of place for me—almost like stepping into a kitchen rather than staying within the studio’s creative energy. Still, the results are exciting.
For example, in my recent pink sculpture, I spent a long time searching for the right shade of pink. My initial attempts were too loud and bright, but the final colour feels much more natural.
It evokes the rawness of the human body, resembling abdominal or gut - like forms.
Interestingly, this sculpture began with an AI - generated draft. While the AI draft served as a starting point, I find that my tactile process brings a depth and originality that’s absent from the raw digital image.
In parallel, I’ve been working on blue
and orange sculptures.
The orange piece, in particular, has been a challenge. It hung in my studio for a long time as I wrestled with its composition. Over time, I found a satisfying assemblage that combines building materials, debris, and a refined use of color.
These sculptures have been incredibly time - consuming, particularly in achieving the right hues. Painting the construction forms took hours and involved layering colors—sometimes five layers—to achieve a rich, deep tone. This makes me wonder why these materials aren’t more recognized in the art world. While they might seem simple at first glance, working with them requires immense effort and precision to manipulate them into their final forms.
I see a strong connection between these sculptures and my current drawings. The drawings, with their wooden elements and intense, dynamic lines, share a similar visceral energy and material focus. This parallel inspires me to continue developing this series, as I feel the dialogue between the two mediums deepens my practice.
In parallel to my sculptural experiments, I’ve been working with drawing.
However, this process feels complex, and I sense that I need to delve deeper into analysing the lines and their dynamics. At the same time, I’m cautious about overanalysing - if I start breaking it down too much, I risk losing the intuitive “gut feeling” that drives these works. For now, I believe the less conscious the process, the stronger the result will be.
I’ve also been working on a painting that incorporates three Russian words: Патриот, мед, молоко ("Patriot, honey, and milk"). While I’ve been trying to finish this piece for a while, it still doesn’t feel quite right. The brushstrokes, colours, and composition are dynamic, but they seem unsettled - too much is happening at once. The balance I’m looking for hasn’t fully emerged yet, though I can see potential in the piece.
Another ongoing work involves combining oil painting with a plywood element. The top section is a canvas painted with intensive, dynamic brushstrokes in green tones using oil paint. Below that, I’ve included a plywood element, which I initially painted with oils and then scratched into, creating marks that feel raw and wild, almost like wood engraving. My intention is to frame these two components together, bringing the painted canvas and the scratched plywood into direct dialogue.
This approach parallels my earlier works where I combined newspapers with building materials - fragile, temporal materials juxtaposed with something solid and permanent. In this piece, the oil painting at the top represents something fluid and emotional, while the scratched wood at the bottom feels raw, visceral, and physical. The marks on the plywood resemble wounds, contrasting sharply with the smooth brushstrokes above. This contrast between fragility and permanence, or fine and aggressive gestures, is a recurring theme in my work.
I’m also planning a new piece where I’ll combine oil painting on top with newspapers at the bottom. I’m curious to see what emotional impact this pairing will create. Newspapers, for me, symbolize the fleeting nature of media - fragile and ephemeral - while the painted sections often feel more timeless and rooted. This interplay between the transient and the enduring continues to be my central focus.
Through these explorations, I’m developing a deeper understanding of how different materials and techniques communicate. The contrasts between control and chaos, permanence and temporality, and fine and rough gestures are helping me to develop my practise further.
Therefore, I began to think about the possible structure of the essay for these works. I return to this type of research, since I was very impressed on the course "Research" through the analysis of theories and the creation of new works, I was able to build a connection and delve into the understanding of my art practice. I need a structure and a clear understanding for what I am doing something.
Therefore, here I give my working version of the structure of the essay with the title: "From Affect to Intuition: Exploring the Translation Between External Forces and Internal Reflection Through Art"
1. Introduction
• Overview of the Research Topic:
Introduce the central focus of my research - exploring the relationship between external affect (forces like media, propaganda, and environment) and internal intuition (gut feelings, embodied and pre-linguistic responses).
• Research Question:
Present the central research question: How does art mediate the translation between external forces and internal reflection?
• Significance of the Study:
Explain why this question is relevant to contemporary art practice, especially in light of affect theory, material agency, and the embodied experience of art.
2. Literature and Contextual Review
• Affect Theory and External Forces: Discuss Brian Massumi’s theory of affect as a pre-cognitive intensity. (subject of my previous essay). How can I relate this to external forces in my work, such as media and propaganda?
• Embodied Intuition: Reference Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s concept of the flesh of the world and Antonio Damasio’s somatic markers. How intuition is an embodied, unconscious response to external stimuli?
• Material Agency: Explore Jane Bennett’s vibrant matter and Karen Barad’s agential realism, particularly how materials act as active participants in the artistic process. How can I to connect this to my use of newspapers, plywood, and oil paint, highlighting their transformation and decay as central to my practice?
• Artistic Contexts: Situate my practice within a broader context by referencing Joan Mitchell’s gestural painting, Phyllida Barlow’s material-driven installations, and Anselm Kiefer’s engagement with temporality and history. How these artists explore similar tensions between external narratives and material expression?
3. Research Methodology
• Practice-Led Research Approach: I need to justify my use of practice-led research, emphasising how creating artworks allows me to explore the research question through material and intuitive processes.
• Material Experiments: How my experiment with materials (e.g., layering, scratching, assembling and decaying) evoke both external forces and intuitive gestures?
• Embodied Artistic Process: How my use of intuition guide my artistic decisions, from mark-making to composition? Can I explain how this process mirrors the translation of external affect into internal reflection?
• Audience Engagement: How can I gather the feedback on my works to analyse how viewers unconsciously respond to my materials and gestures?
• Cross-Disciplinary Approach: Can I incorporate insights from neuroscience, philosophy, and material studies to enrich my understanding of affect and intuition?
4. Case Studies: My Artistic Practice
• Case Study 1: Temporary Permanence. I can describe the installation’s materials (newspapers) and its themes of temporality, decay, and resilience. How the vandalism and weathering process mirrored the external-to-internal translation, creating a visceral experience.
• Case Study 2: Current Paintings (e.g., На Патриках Na Patrikah…) I can examine the use of engraved words and energetic brushstrokes to represent external forces (e.g., historical (?) and spatial narratives). How material textures and gestures create intuitive, pre-linguistic responses?
• Case Study 3: Future Work… How upcoming projects will build on these ideas, using materials and gestures to explore the ineffable moment of translation between external forces and internal intuition?
5. Findings and Analysis
• From Affect to Intuition: How my artworks reveal the process of translation between external forces and internal responses? I can highlight key insights from my material experiments and audience feedback.
• Material as Mediator: How materials in my practice act as active agents, embodying and transforming external narratives into internal, affective experiences.
• Intuitive Engagement: How intuitive gestures (e.g., scratches, energetic strokes) allow for pre-linguistic, embodied communication in my works.
6. Conclusion
• Restate the Research Contribution: Summarize how my research advances understanding of the interplay between affect, intuition, and materiality in art.
• Future Directions: Outline potential directions for expanding this research, such as deeper audience studies or collaborations with other disciplines (e.g., neuroscience or philosophy).
In addition, I received a huge commission work, which should sponsor my furnace for firing ceramics.
At the same time, I still think and try to understand where is the balance between commercial work and real art? Can't real art be attractive to the viewer?
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