natalya kochak:a temporal slice

The Family of Man In Watercolor
To date, this body of work is composed of two distinct series, The Bruised Fruit and A Temporal Slice. While both series embody themes particular to themselves, they both reflect the interrelationships of man, and in this sense they are one.

A Temporal Slice
In the pieces of this series, figures of men and women occupy an environment. In the larger canvas settings ethereal figures of men and women are set upon a background. In this situation, my technique mimics the message. I begin by painting a setting in watercolor. These are places of which I have taken several photographs, with and without people. After the backdrop is complete, I silkscreen individual figures as they appear in the photographs, which were all taken at separate moments in time. A crowd is formed, composed of many figures moving through a setting. Here we are now involved in a true three-dimensional experience. Two-dimensional in the sense of a backdrop or setting, three-dimensional in that Man is moving through space, and four-dimensional with the inclusion of time. All these factors impart both the substantial and the ephemeral nature of Man. The smaller pieces done on paper differ from the larger works, but not enough to consider them a separate series. Here the people are much smaller and occupy no certain setting or environment. The people are their own context, a mass of individuals placed together on a ‘tabula rasa’ stage.

Images from The Family of Man exhibit, August 2010, at Pump Project in Austin, Texas:


Artist Statement The Family of Man In Watercolor To date, this body of work is composed of two distinct series, The Bruised Fruit and A Temporal Slice. While both series embody themes particular to themselves, they both reflect the interrelationships of man, and in this sense they are one. A Temporal Slice In the pieces of this series, figures of men and women occupy an environment. In the larger canvas settings ethereal figures of men and women are set upon a background. In this situation, my technique mimics the message. I begin by painting a setting in watercolor. These are places of which I have taken several photographs, with and without people. After the backdrop is complete, I silkscreen individual figures as they appear in the photographs, which were all taken at separate moments in time. A crowd is formed, composed of many figures moving through a setting. Here we are now involved in a true three-dimensional experience. Two-dimensional in the sense of a backdrop or setting, three-dimensional in that Man is moving through space, and four-dimensional with the inclusion of time. All these factors impart both the substantial and the ephemeral nature of Man. The smaller pieces done on paper differ from the larger works, but not enough to consider them a separate series. Here the people are much smaller and occupy no certain setting or environment. The people are their own context, a mass of individuals placed together on a ‘tabula rasa’ stage. Images from The Family of Man exhibit, August 2010, at Pump Project in Austin, Texas: