Art Dump 10

Hello Greenies.

It's Nikolai again and welcome to today's Art Dump blog.

I seriously can't believe we've made it to 10 of these! That's so much art! This one is pretty special to me cuz it's almost entirely pieces I made after graduating from AIT. I had a lot of pent up creative energy during that time away from my typical art supplies, and I had many a realization about myself which is reflected in my work. There has been a distinct tone change in my art and for those of you who've been following me for a while, I'm sure you'll notice it. I focus less on the songs and more so on what they mean to me. At the end of the day, these pieces are made by me and for me, and I'm so glad I've come back to this mindset. Anyways, without any further ado, on to the art!

All of these pieces were created by me. Please do not repost or claim any of these as your own. Please do not save any of these to your device either. Art theft is wrong and unfair to all parties involved.

~Enjoy~

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Before we get right into the pieces, I wanna preface you guys with how I'm changing up the way I'm presenting them. Normally, I explain the physical process of "first I painted then I used tissue paper etc" but I feel like the process isn't as important anymore as is the intentions I had while making these pieces. This art has become very meditative for me and I want to share that part with you. Of course, if people want to know about the steps, I'm happy to answer questions. However, the emotions are most important to me, so that is what I'll be sharing. I know some of you are curious as to what goes on inside my brain, so without further ado, here's just that.

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Salamander by Thornapple

Ah, the color green. I took these images from a little magazine about the forests of Maine, a state I'm very fond of and have so many blessed memories in. These depictions of the forest, however, brought about more recent memories. Sitting in the woods wearing a tactical vest, Kevlar, and listening to the distant sounds from the weapons ranges on Fort Jackson. From the woods of ones backyard, to the woods God made for only the eyes of the wild, to the woods meant for Soldiers to learn how to be just that. I won't go on and on about how much I love the color green, that should be obvious to most people now. It brings about such calm, as does the song Salamander by Thornapple. Although the album cover is predominantly red, this song just felt so right to go with these images and visual vibes this piece was developing. I chose the lyric cuz of the imagery of seeds relating to plants and growth but also cuz of the sense of longing they hold. There's a sense of longing always within me for nature. The serenity of the natural world. Untouched by the corrupt hand of mankind. I included the date, time, and my nickname Kolya. No one who's still in my life calls me Kolya, but I love it. I love that nickname so much. I love Kolya. I suppose that's who's ear I planted a seed behind.

Materials used: Magazine cut outs, brown paper bag, sheet music, pages from an old book, and a black gel pen

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Black Star by Thornapple

I did some cleaning when I got home from training and found this decrepit little book about space that I initially got to use for art projects. It was time for an art project. These black and white photos of galaxies and other nebulous creations struck a chord with me, and that chord was that they match perfectly with the sheet music I use for my art pieces. Upon seeing these images, a song by Thornapple came to mind. The song started playing in my head, but I couldn't the title. I shuffled their music until I found it and quite coincidentally, it was titled Black Star. How fitting. I don't feel comfortable translating the journal piece on the first page as it is rather personal, which is why I didn't write it in English. On the second page, I wanted to replicate a drawing style I used often during AIT with graphite pencils but instead using ink and a brush. It depicts a parent and a child. The child is asking "parent*, what am I?" and the parent responds "you are of the stars" or "you're made of stars" *Translators note: the word used here is a gender neutral word for parent as opposed to saying mother or father. Both entities depicted here are genderless.

Materials used: sheet music, pages from space book, brown paper bag, black pen and black ink

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General Ateez inspired piece

The song in my head that prompted me to make an Ateez piece was Promise, but then throughout the process there were a few Ateez songs, mostly earlier releases that stayed afloat in my mind. I really wanted to utilize this old book of seaweeds that I got from my dad and make that the focal point. I hand painted pieces of white paper bag with some green watercolor paints to give kind of a seaweed look. Ateez are pirates, right? Pirates sail on the ocean. Where does seaweed grow? That's right. The ocean. I wanted to keep most of the text legible on the page that's on the left side, I would've felt bad if I had covered it. This was a much less meditative piece and more so a "enjoying the process and having fun with a designated color scheme" kind of piece. More so low key. I wanted it to remind me of pirates and the ocean and have a fun and fresh yet elegant piece. The text "Will You Us?" came to mind towards the end of the process. It holds so much mystery and excitement, and I think it's perfect for this Ateez piece.

Materials used: pages from seaweed book, sheet music, lace from old curtains, hand painted watercolor paper bag, gold tissue paper, gold and green glitter glues, and a black gel pen

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Accidentally Sun&Moon by NCT 127

Now, after reading the title, you might be thinking "what does he mean by accidentally?" Well, he's about to tell you. I didn't set out to make a piece for this song. Quite frankly, if I were to, it would look much different than what we see here. I initially started this piece after being inspired by that book about space I mentioned in the Black Star piece and this little poem I wrote years ago. For those who may have difficulty reading it, it says:

"You are the moon and I am the sun. When your day is over, mine has begun."

"You are the sun and I am the moon. While I dwell in darkness, you thrive in noon."

This was meant to be a journaling piece for that poem, not the song. Of course though, being the Nctzen that I am, I couldn't not make the connection. I debated wether or not to make it song related while making the piece. Twas a struggle of "you're making this for you, Nik, not them." in my pursuit of having a personal relationship with my art again. As you can see, I eventually decided to at least add the song title as a nod to its relevance to the visuals of this piece. I added that along with smiling and frowning versions of my coat of arms, and my name Kolya. I'll be completely honest, this is one of my absolute favorite pieces I've made. It's quite different from the rest of my work but I'm really in love with it and would love to try similar concepts in the future.

Materials used: pages from space book, page from old book, black tissue paper, gold and red glitter glues, iridescent glitter paint, black gel pen and white gel pen

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Galaxy by Thornapple

This piece is like the opposite of the Sun&Moon piece in that I set out to make a piece for this song, but then it tied into a stanza from a poem I wrote recently. Back in high school, I was known for painting wolves and galaxies, so it was very nice to go back to my roots in a way with this piece. With such a broad color scheme, it was very therapeutic to just go at it with paint and tons of glitter and glitter glue. This was such a fun piece to work on and really sticks to the maximalist theory of "just keep adding more" which is exactly what I did until it felt correct. As I was working on this piece, a stanza from one of my poems just kept floating around in my mind, so it felt only correct to include it. For those who may have a hard time reading it, it says:

"Floating through this binary galaxy. Male. Female. Gender envy. I'm an alien, and the ufo is my body."

Materials used: black tissue paper, purple party streamers, hand painted watercolor tissue paper, doily from some restaurant, black paper; blue, purple, pthalo green, aqua, light purple, and white acrylic paints for the galaxy paintings; blue, black, iridescent, chunky green, chunky purple, and blue purple glitter glues; silver foam star stickers, loose iridescent purple glitter, a black ball point pen, and a white gel pen

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Gills by Thornapple

This piece is on the same level as Blue by Lee Taeyong for me both in of artistic approach as well as how much the song just hits me in my soul. I have so many words but also none at all in regard to this piece. I like to think that it speaks for itself. Before even reading the translation for this song, it spoke to me. Every time it would come on, I could just feel the sadness and longing this song held. Then I read the translation. Then I cried /srs. I'm almost certain that the entire song is written on these two pages. Similar to the galaxy piece, I just kept adding more and more and more until there was simply no more room on the pages. This piece is easily one of my most favorites that I've ever made. The song and this piece mean so much to me. I'll be honest, I considered not even sharing this one cuz of how personal it became to me, but I trust you guys. Ka is my comfortable corner of the internet, and I dually get to share this wonderful song with you all by sharing this piece.

Materials used: blue, green and pearl neo champagne acrylic paints, hand painted water color green tissue paper and blue tissue paper, blue ball point pen, green watercolor pencil, blue watercolor pencil, black paper, Prussian blue watercolor; blue, green, and pearl neo champagne glitter glues, and a white gel pen

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It is finished. Hope you guys enjoyed this blog. This was much more personal than most of my art blogs - or any blogs even, maybe save for the q&a's - but I hoped it was still enjoyable regardless. If anyone has any questions about the actual process, materials, or anything else, I'm more than happy to answer them.

Thank you for reading this if you did and have a blessed day today and every day

-Nikolai