“I conjure neo-medieval, Magic Realist imagery and custom frames, using
time honored methods and materials, seeking to “edutain” my audience.”
Best known for her neo-medieval “magic realist” paintings dealing with courtesans, organ grinder monkeys, Moors and vanished landscapes, Kei J. Constantinov’s work may be likened to historical fiction excerpts: gilded vignettes of a European dreamtime featuring Venice.
Her self-crafted oil panels embedded within frames redolent of 15thC Italy, enhance her narrative oil and egg tempera work, executed with time-honored Flemish and verdaccio techniques. In tandem with ancient materials she often uses contemporary methods and tools, such as CMYK oil glazing, for an indirect and jewel-like effect.
Conjuring influences such as Albrecht Durer, Rembrandt, Holbein and German illuminated manuscripts, she invites us to reflect on her imagined, nostalgic milieu, reconsidering the splendor of human folly.
What concept or narrative is behind your work? When I was a lithographer everyone asked me “what’s the story here?”, so I came to understand my work was narrative, and began using triptychs with the beginning-middle-end model. Now I am working serially and larger in painting, employing nostalgic, old world imagery – Italian, and (often) specifically Venetian. Through the use of metal foil gilding, high relief frames and nostalgic imagery I create time capsules, often alluding to medieval courtesans, organ grinder monkeys, imagined cityscapes and palettes which I hope are evocative of the past, but with a contemporary spin.
What medium do you use for your studies, and how does that translate to the final painting or artwork? Because each of my paintings are embedded into a Faux Relic, self-styled frame, the process is considerably longer – so my preliminary studies are often just dashed off on scrap paper, but then refined and drawn directly onto the image area. In the old French method one would do many studies, but unless I received a large commission, which entailed showing the client the concept, I prefer to work directly.
What turns has your art career taken? Following an MFA at Umass, Amherst, I moved to New York and taught for seven years at Bob Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop in Chelsea. At that time I also received a Revson Grant from the Art Students League, which enabled me to create an artist book with handset type and lithographic images – so I was very much identified as a stone lithographer. Fate and marriage took me into the realm of interior design, where I had the opportunity to convert an historic church property into a B&B and cultural center on UM campus in Ann Arbor, which I ran for sixteen years, untold we sold in 2013. So since then I have been painting almost exclusively, while keeping my hand in as a fiction writer.
Explain your process. Tempus Edax Rerum was executed in a CMYK oil process (cyan, magenta, yellow, key = black), a commercial method of color layering in printshops, which I teach as an oil approach. Using transparent oil glazes one can achieve a stained glass effect, as the colors bounce up from the image below, creating a glowing effect. The wood panel was embedded into the custom frame, prepared with oil ground, then secured and sealed from behind. An antiquing process, corner bosses, gilding and forger’s varnish were used. The same approach was used for Venetian Monkey and A Moor in Venice. These works are all available at present, at Studio Krakow or through 33 Contemporary Gallery. Haven Gallery in Northport, New York also has some works available for purchase.
What is the impetus of your creativity? I think many Creatives are blessed with excess energy, and perhaps my compulsion to paint many hours each day stems from a channeling need. I do take infinite pleasure in it, and it is my “practice”, much as other people have yoga, religion, or cybergames for channeling. Then there is that metaphysical explanation, the “je ne sais quoi” aspect which approximates a spiritual experience while working! Habit forming . . .