firebird
with this painting, i explored several new directions. i painted it at the end of 2025, around the time when i started phase one of the sun project. evidently, the motif of the sun became an important part of my visual language and extended beyond the frame of the art drop project. blue, because i love challenging the reality of things we know so well. or perhaps i was craving warmth so bad, that i raised the sun’s temperature to the point of turning blue.
another motif that i borrowed from a different practice is the bird. animal depictions are rare in my work, but earlier that year i focused a lot on patchwork—i had a few commissions for patches, and made many more for an art booth. with patches, i have to fit between the dimensions of 12x12 cm or less what i normally express on large scale canvases. that meant that i had to be especially deliberate about what i painted. i painted several birds and found that they embody exactly what i wanted to fit into the patches. something concrete that still carries the same freedom and expressiveness that i so easily attained on a large scale. so i borrowed that motif from myself and actually put in on a large scale.
i also had watercolor ink on hand, given to me by my sister. it’s not a medium that i ever buy myself, but i wanted to make use of it. that’s the body of the bird. nothing else could’ve created the swirling fire-like quality that is now the highlight of this artwork. it was a thick layer that took forever to dry, but my cat is very respectful of art and didn’t walk over it once, over the days that i had it lying out to dry.
another thing that makes this piece unique is the texture i accomplished by use of a grainy texture paste medium that i bought on a whim. not something i’d willingly use again, so i guess that makes it extra special? the texture paste made a lot of sense with some sun paintings i did after this, but that required a looot of it, and it’s a lot more trouble than its worth. though, to be fair, i don’t think firebird would be the same without this texture.
all of these details added up to creating a captivating painting that is unlike any other i’ve done, and now it’s very close to my heart. special snowflake. created in the dead of winter, yet lively and vibrating with a sense of warmth and visual poetry.