Symbolic Beings
Before developing Naive Symbolism as an artistic language, I explored how living forms could be transformed into symbolic presence. Rather than depicting animals realistically, I used simplification, ornament, rhythm, and colour to create figures that exist between nature, folklore, and imagination.
Influenced by Ukrainian naive art, folk ornament, and Celtic visual traditions, these works investigate how decoration can become structure and how stylisation can carry meaning. Looking back, they represent an important stage in the gradual formation of the visual vocabulary that would later evolve into my practice of Naive Symbolism and the Emotional Cartography Method.
Title: Bird
Direction: Before the Worlds / Naive Vision
Medium: Canvas, acrylic paint, acrylic markers
Dimensions: 77 × 55 cm | 30.3 × 21.7 in
Format: Horizontal
Framing: Unframed
Year: 2023
About Artwork:
Bird explores how ornament can become structure rather than decoration. Inspired by Ukrainian naïve painting, the work transforms a bird into a symbolic being whose feathers, flowers, and patterns merge into a single visual language. It marks an early exploration of stylisation, rhythm, and symbolic repetition that would later become central to my artistic practice.
Title: Fish
Direction: Before the Worlds / Naive Vision
Medium: Canvas, acrylic paint, acrylic markers
Dimensions: 77 × 55 cm | 30.3 × 21.7 in
Format: Horizontal
Framing: Unframed
Year: 2023
About Artwork:
Fish continues my exploration of imagined creatures through simplified form, repeated ornament, and expressive colour. Rather than depicting a real species, the work invents a symbolic character whose identity emerges through pattern and rhythm. This painting represents an important step towards developing a personal symbolic vocabulary.
Title: Dragon
Direction: Before the Worlds / Naive Vision
Medium: Wooden panel (pyrography technique)
Dimensions: 25 × 36 cm | 9.8 × 14.2 in
Format: Vertical
Framing: Unframed
Year: 2024
About Artwork:
Created through pyrography, Dragon explores knotwork as a symbolic language rather than decorative ornament. Drawing on Celtic visual traditions, the work investigates continuity, transformation, and interconnectedness through interwoven forms. This study later informed my interest in cultural symbols as carriers of memory and meaning.