Tribute I

It all started right here. This is the very first painting in my series, where I decided to pay tribute to Pop Art and its unbridled colorfulness. I used the ancient Chinese Tangram puzzle as a foundation—it fascinates me how seven simple pieces can tell so many stories. For instance, you can assemble a cat silhouette in fifty different ways!

I enjoyed playing with complementary colors to make the result as cheerful as possible. But paradoxically, the biggest challenge wasn't any of the wild colors. I struggled the most with that seemingly simple black-and-white square in the center. Painting this pure contrast was one hundred percent harder for me than fine-tuning the rest of the canvas. It was the toughest, yet most beautiful start to the entire series.