Catch Up Print

Maria Mylenka (alias moonolog) is a Ukrainian artist, currently based in Canada, with architectural background – both academically and genetically – and a self that is in a continuous and accelerating flux, drawing being perhaps the only constant in her life.. *I shall switch to first person here* My creative practices range from drawing and painting to digital art, tattooing and wood-turning; through my art I – largely subconsciously – explore topics of femininity and physicality, supernatural and spiritual, mental health and “everything that’s wrong with the world” through a lens of sarcasm and stoicism. These and other themes are, of course, also subject to change as my interests progress and change. I often find myself being heavily influenced by people, places, things – a book I am reading at a given time, a city I’m in, external global events, personal internal turmoils, random hyper-fixations, and a million other factors. Despite drawing constantly, with and without a reason, since early childhood, it wasn’t until the beginning of 2020 that a shift in consciousness happened for me, and I realized and began embracing my nature as an Artist, along with the fact that making art – in whatever shape or form, but primarily drawing – is a calling, as opposed to just some silly hobby, which I considered it to be for far too long. My works are mostly minimal and can be [subjectively] characterized as weird, naïve, dark, seemingly nonsensical. I practice art as a sort of self-therapy and a coping mechanism. Art for me is, in fact, a cry for common sense and adequacy, which – quite counter-intuitively – often calls for confusing and chaotic forms.