Redefining abstract art

Childhood memories

I was 9 years old when we moved from Russia to the U.S. I didn’t speak English and found solace in watching Russian movies that my parents rented from a store nearby. It seems like it was ages ago, but many quotes from those classic Soviet movies stuck with me till today.

One of these was from a movie called “Office Romance”, where an office director only cared about productivity and had absolutely no social skills to connect with her employees. Everyone has long given up on trying to interact with her.

By some odd turn of events, a man working under her direction saw something human in her. She didn’t know how to reciprocate and called on one of her female employees to help her appear more feminine. Among other things, her coworker said:

A woman needs to be enigmatic.

Modern feminism aside, I often recalled this quote during my dating years. In fact, for the first Valentine’s Day with my now husband, I created a series of riddles that lead to a statement that “I will always remain an ENIGMA”.

How does that relate to my art?

A couple years ago, I wrote a blog post on my skeptical view of abstract art. Here is an excerpt:

Is all art that an average person cannot immediately understand considered abstract? 

If so, then the irony is not lost on me.  I am sure that most (if not all) of my work seems abstract to a person who may just stumble upon it.  Without biomedical background, or at least reading the label, that person may dismiss my work as a bunch or random geometrical shapes. 

So does this make me a hypocrite?  Do I need to emphasize to every viewer that my work is based on reality; just the type of reality that most people cannot see?  To me, this feels really important.  Otherwise, I feel like I am not being true to myself.

The rebel in me

After thinking about this for a while, I have decided that no, it doesn’t make me a hypocrite. In fact, it goes along with my (partly) rebellious nature. It allows me to put an element of enigma into my work, which might seem abstract to most people, but in fact, has deep meaning behind it. Such meaning that might lead to biomedical breakthroughs and save lives. It just takes a little bit of time and effort to understand it. Then, you can join me on the enigma as well.