Block Printing
I make block prints. I see prints as a way of telling stories. I spent my teenage years going back and forth between two different continents where people spoke different languages. I noticed that they used the languages differently to interact with the world. Perhaps this is where my passion for languages and storytelling comes from. I see prints as stories told in a language that can be decoded with the set of keys that are your own experiences. My work is informed by love of traveling and the things I see in nature: differences and similarities in the various patterns I find in the world. Whether it’s wilderness or human interactions, I believe we all try to to make sense of our experiences by comparing what we see to what we already know. Block prints lend themselves easily to the explorations of contrasts and patterns. Block printing is a medium that also lends itself easily to storytelling. The process requires the artist to distil the idea to the most important elements but also allows to develop a more elaborate narrative around it as the artist spends a long time time carving the image. The printing stage is always very exciting for me. I think I like it so much because I can experience the thrill of seeing something for the first time, I can become the audience, see what appears before me and be surprised. As someone who aspires to be a speech and language therapist I tend to think about the inner workings of human interactions. I believe that the best conversations between two people happen when both people are ready to talk, to listen and to be present. It is curious how art has a way of tricking the laws of time and space: I use prints to tell my story at the time when I am ready to tell it and later the image can be it discovered by the audience at a time of their choosing. I hope to work with kids and help them find their voices: tell stories and connect with each other. When working with children I found that their hunger for knowledge about this world (both factual and regarding inner workings of interactions with you and with each other) is so great that it can feel like you are under constant assault for information. It is important to remember that art is a way to suspend reality and to transform it, because it is a nonlinear way of creating space for conversations, a tool so powerful that it beats time. It defies the roles of a creator and the audience, because it allows one to experience the role of the other. Art is magical and I feel passionate about sharing my vision of it with others. WEB: kkolpakova.com
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