Divine Painting

"Divine" from Talking Heads series, 140x100 cm (55,1 x 39,3 inch), acrylic on glued paper, 2022. "Divine" captures the iconic persona of Harris Glenn Milstead, better known as Divine. The painting reflects his bold presence, embodying the spirit of a groundbreaking drag queen who became a cult figure through his roles in films like Pink Flamingos and Hairspray. The vivid colors and dramatic composition mirror Divine's impact on pop culture and his lasting influence as a symbol of self-expression and LGBTQIA+ empowerment. The "Talking Heads" series became a means of liberation in which I practically peeled the skin off the portraits, leaving the flared, exalted, colorful heads without masks. Working on each painting required more and more distance from the process of depicting the experience to the process of working on the experience. The "Talking Heads" series depicts exaggerated, inflated talking heads with something to say all the time. Most of the works were made on glued sheets of paper. In the Belarusian art community, I became known as an artist working with "beauty," creating canvases with aesthetically appealing people. Despite the popularity of my works among viewers and collectors, I quickly locked myself in this area, experiencing a serious crisis related to the search for meaning in this kind of work. The lack of competent and professional art institutions in Belarus and the expectation of "understandable" content from the artist only accelerated the process. After a long break of more than a year and emigration to Poland, I returned to work on the old "beautiful" canvases, but very quickly moved on to a new series, finally admitting to myself that this kind of art is extremely foreign, unnecessary and unpleasant for me. ! The primary material of all the paintings is slightly damaged due to the intense creation process, which is a conceptual part of the artworks !