My grandmother was Russian Orthodox and had many icons in her house that I wondered about as a child. I grew up Catholic surrounded by corporeal images in states of both ecstasy and torture. Though I have been deeply influenced by both worlds of imagery, I am neither Orthodox nor Catholic. Still, I have a yearning for a practice that fills a void that religion seems to fill for other people… a time and a place to contemplate what is unknowable, to sing with each other, to give thanks.
This is what making art has become for me. Like prayer, painting gives form to something that I do not understand. In some way making sense of the mystery and stalling it in time to further contemplate. Painting is an act of love and faith. Painting is a kind of prayer and protest that says, I am here and remain hopeful while evil prevails.
This new series uses form to sum up a collection of reoccurring feelings of my personal history as well as the desire to connect with something beyond what I can comprehend. I hope the paintings create a space for reflection of a shared human experience.
Kelly Popoff
2024