Notions of oneness, entanglement and human experience are central to my work. This
unfolds through a process that resembles an excavation, involving the continuous addition
and subtraction of paint. Using washes, as well as erasure through different materials and
overpainting, this continues until I reach an outcome that resonates with me. It is an
intuitive search for something that cannot be named or articulated, but which I am certain
exists — an essence of sorts.

By peeling away all unnecessary layers in painting, I am able to get closer to the true face of
things. This search has developed over the last few years, inspired by different scientific
discoveries in quantum physics, neuroscience, cosmology, psychology, as well as spiritual
teachings, among others. The 2022 Nobel prize winners in physics, for example, offer us a
new understanding from the perspective of quantum mechanics, which takes the universe as
a non-local whole. While brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor writes about her experience of
having a stroke, sharing insights gained from viewing the world from the right hemisphere of
the brain — through which a total unity of existence is perceived. My paintings are an
intuitive attempt to depict this universal interconnectedness through my own personal lens,
letting known and unknown merge on canvas.

There are two major (and opposing) approaches that I take to this: 1) starting with figuration
and disassembling it; 2) starting with abstraction and letting figurative shapes slowly
emerge. Either way, a similar result is achieved, as, embracing the full spectrum, I allow both
to coexist and complement one another. An example of the former is the diptych “Insomnia
Swirls”, in which fleshy forms resembling truncated torsos and limbs give structure to the
image, even as they disintegrate into a panorama of colorful flashes. The work is composed
of a continuum of figural forms — entangled in a mass that suggests an endless being, they
materialize through the relationships between them. It is my own deeply personal and
nuanced take on a particular human experience, which is nonetheless recognizable, brought
to a universal level.

“Liquid Sun” is based on a sketch filled with overlapping figurative shapes that possess a
certain stretching quality — as if in a process of transformation. While those shapes carry
the painting’s inner rhythm and are still discernible through careful observation, many of
them melted into magmatic splashes in the painting process. The end result is a dynamic but
peaceful scene of unity that brings up associations of floral, animal, human and solar flare
shapes, where in fact there are none. In “A Spasm, a Spark, a Sweet Murmuring Flame”, this
figurative principle is broken down even further, losing its solidity and melding more fully
with the tumultuous atmosphere. While in “Beneath the Light”, figuration gives way to a
swarming motion, conveying more of a feeling of rushing, ecstatic bodies than a
representation of them. Here, a repetition of figural shapes, which I often use as a grounding
element, structures the painting into a complex form symbolizing oneness.

On the other hand, the work “Ever-rising Waters” — whose wateriness guides its overall
movement and forms, like thrashing waves — begins in abstraction, bringing figures to form
along the way. This is similar in the latest series “Phoenix”, which was composed by clashing
colors against one another. I created wound- and ash-like breakages of color in some places
by using different painting media, which, as they flow into each other, cause small chemical
reactions on the canvas. This forms the basis for the vertical compositions, which were
further painted into fiery atmospheres containing sudden outbursts and an overall sense of
rising. And then there’s “Before the Beginning”, both earthy and ethereal, in which my aim
was to paint a preverbal peace, characterized by softness and delicate curves. Once again,
there is a gentle trace of human presence left behind.

Moving over the surface quickly, energetically and mostly through dance, I paint in rapid
bursts, through which tensions are opened up across the canvas. A sense of honesty, along
with the emotional and psychological charge of my gestures, outweighs my concern for
aesthetic appeal. As a result, my paintings are both rough and rhythmic, meditative and
tender. It is from within these in-between spaces that I explore intimate inner worlds and
their connection to the universal.

-Tijana Titin