It’s about time for my first blog post on this site. I have been working on adding images and descriptions and frankly just figuring out how to work this site for a few months now. I have no experience managing websites, it took me a while to learn how to navigate the inner workings of this thing. Luckily, a dear friend of mine was gracious enough to start it for me. She does web design for a living. My first blog post is definitely overdue. So here we go.
I’m Ulyana Stebelska. I’m an abstract artist. I’m also a chemist, a mom, and a wife, but I will be mainly focusing here on my art practice. I started painting a few years ago. I always wanted to paint and wondered what it would be like if I could paint but I believed this is an area for which I had no talent. You see, I had a close childhood friend who had these amazing abilities in many different areas. She could draw, she could paint, she played piano and violin, she danced, and was a top performer academically. None of those things were easy for me. And the products of my creativity paled in comparison to hers. And this caused me to start believing that I can’t do anything creative because I lack talent for it. A lot of time has passed since then and, as often happens as we mature, some of my self limiting beliefs needed to be challenged. I didn’t consciously set out to challenge my believe about not being creative. It happened by chance (or, I like to think it was serendipity). I invited my girlfriend to a local paint and sip event with the intention to just have a good time and was forever hooked as a result. The painting I produced at the painting event wasn’t a masterpiece by any means but I fell madly in love with the process. I loved handling the paint, mixing it, seeing how recognizable shapes appear on the canvas. The colors stimulated me visually. I had a blast. I few months later, my husband went on a fishing trip. I was on my way home from work, thinking what I will occupy myself with in the evening after my daughter goes to bed. And I thought of painting, and my years long imagining and wondering about what it would be like if I could paint. I went and bought some basic painting supply at local arts and crafts store and that evening was the beginning of my painting journey. My first attempts were disastrous, of course. But I could not stop. And night after night, I would pull my supplies out and paint, paint, paint.
My very first painting supplies. I’m so glad I took this picture.
I was very strongly attracted and interested in painting abstractly from the beginning of my artistic journey. Abstraction offers unlimited freedom of movement and expression. I love the raw emotions just colors and shapes alone can evoke in a viewer. There is so much to read in how the painter applied the paint, what tools were used, what color was chosen and how it was placed. The response from these elemental things could be so powerful. And that’s what I strive for in my work. I want to make paintings that bring joy to the viewer and offer a moment of visual pause amidst the business of one’s life.