. arts and dining .
ARTandtheCITY by Jim Magner
ARTIST PORTRAIT: ALEKSANDRA KATARGINA
A
leksandra Katargina wants to hold on to time…not just moments but the emotions of time: the expressions that flow through her consciousness and compose feelings and ideas. She captures the magic of it with a deliberate attention to every aspect of oil painting as a medium. “The emotion” she says, “is in your head.” It’s the power to look, to contemplate, to create something to compete with reality, not just interpret it. In “Lost in the Moonlight” you enter Aleksandra’s spirit in a time of solitude and emotional se-
"Persephone's Plight", oil on linen, 24" x 36"
90 H HILLRAG.COM
clusion. It is the inner bewilderment we feel when our paths are no longer clearly marked. It can be a sudden awakening or a gradual absorption of uneasiness. Give yourself time to think and you can identify with “Persephone’s Plight” — the goddess torn, divided, by the unexpected complications of simple actions with the dismay of apparent hopelessness. Aleksandra uses music to exist in that space between mind and soul and all the requirements of life and motherhood. “Silence can chatter in your mind and music helps to balance art with and all the demands on everyday life.” Aleksandra was born in Moscow, Russia. In 2001 she moved to the United States, “driven by curiosity and a desire to explore new paths in life.” She earned a BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art, May, 2009, and an MFA in Painting from Towson University, in May 2013 “Lost in the Moonlight”, Oil on ACM Panel, 24”x18”. Lately, she has been turning more to (Left) portrait photo by Julia Kachalova landscape. In looking at nature you can cleanse your mind…slow down to the pace Without art, we are merely simians with laptops. of growing things. “You become integral to The universe is made of art, not matter. Atoms nature, not just an observer.” Aleksandra projects are merely the brushstrokes, the means of expressher inner emotions onto the scene and welcomes ing the idea. It was the idea that burst from nothing. you to make your personal interpretation. It exploded and formed atoms—particles of matter She is included at the current exhibit at the that swirled and tumbled and filled the idea with art. Hill Center: see At the galleries. Glorious art. Never static. Never still. The universe is hillcenterdc.org • aleksandrakatargina.com made of beauty. Wonder. Art. An idea so immense it can overwhelm and disappear in the begoggled mind Jim Magner’s Thoughts on Art of the beholder. I recently heard a man on television say that he Humans have been allowed to encounter the didn’t like art. What? Gasp. He was joking, right? idea in tiny but ever expanding amounts. It has been No. And this is a very successful person who makes a glimpse of universal time, forever brightening as we lots of money. grow and expand in the idea. We have become able Maybe art, real art is too much to think about. to think beyond the immediate and nibble at its edge. Too much to see. What good is it anyway? We are Why us? We don’t know. Some magic has lifted us— long out of the caves and into hard cold reality, so allowing thoughts so large, so frightening that they maybe we don’t need the magic of art and imaginaare usually put away—locked in a dim vault in the tion. Maybe we’ve advanced beyond all that. mind and permitted only occasional contemplation. Nope. We may be receding. Retrogressing.
