Maria Tsypovyaz. Art and mental security

"Imagine this: a tired and irritated person, having stood in traffic for several hours, finally returns home after a hard day's work. What does he do? He sits down in his favorite chair with a cup of hot tea or a glass of wine and for a few minutes immerses himself in the contemplation of his favorite painting..." says artist Maria Tsypovyaz. Painting helps to create a kind of resource space that neutralizes human fears, doubts and negative thoughts. It is a place of power, where a person is filled with energy and inspiration, where he or she feels safe. In mental safety.

Art is a way to develop both for the author who creates the object and for the observer who is in resonance with this object. That is why Maria treats her work with "mental caution". "I never sit down to paint in a bad mood or if I don't feel well," says the artist, "I want my paintings to bring joy, to set me up for good thoughts, to make people happier. A painting is a conduit between the author and the person who looks at it or brings it into their home. Filling the canvas not only formally but also energetically is Tsypovyaz's main goal. "When a client buys a painting, he buys emotions," explains Maria.

For her works, the artist chooses a palette of positive emotions and high vibrations. Tsypovyaz moves away from specific subjects and focuses on conveying the atmosphere and images, so color becomes the main character in her abstract compositions. For her works, the artist chooses a rich palette, unpredictably combining bright colors. Maria uses oil paints, which are made by hand at the oldest factory in Europe, and a topcoat varnish to extend the life of the works. Maria has always been interested in color.

First, as a child, when she studied at art schools and mastered various techniques, then at the KNUSA Faculty of Architecture, studying painting, graphics and sculpture, and now in her professional practice. A special course in Washington, DC, helped Maria deepen her knowledge of color. "I always pay a lot of attention to color and feel inspired when I look at great masters, watching how fashion designers work with color, how interior designers combine color and texture. I love bright shades in nature and in photography, and I work with color not only in painting: I like to observe its influence on mood in everyday life," says Maria.

In his latest collection, EQUILIBRIUM, Tsypovyaz uses color to create a mental route to a state of balance. There are 11 paintings in the series, each of which is a stop along the way. EQUILIBRIUM, or balance, is the canvas with the same name as the collection - the first and key painting. It is the starting point from which the journey in search of balance begins. It is a painting about the nature of a woman. It depicts the moon, but a part of it is hidden from the viewer's eye, which tells about the ambiguity and contradictions of female nature. "Finding and knowing yourself, your good and shadow sides - that's what this painting is about," says Maria. Now the artist continues to work on the theme of different states of women, but in a new project, which will be presented in 2022.

The final point of the route is The Absolut, which depicts the very state of serenity that each of us strives for. The idea was embodied in capturing the transition from night to dawn. "There is a time in the day when all night sounds - birds, wind, crickets or cicadas - are silent, and an existential vacuum silence sets in," says Maria, "it's like that before dawn. The Bible says that it is at this time that angels sing. She sees her absolute in the turquoise tones, the calm static composition, and the brilliance of the moon, which started it all.

This year, the EQUILIBRIUM collection was exhibited at two exhibitions: in the VIP lounge of Boryspil International Airport and at the Museum of Kyiv History.

In each work, the artist conveys her emotional experience - an intimate moment of cognition of the inner world, the darkest time before sunrise or the path to wisdom. As the painting changes hands from the artist to the owner, it changes its charge, because it evokes completely different associations for each person. "The EQUILIBRIUM collection includes Eternity, painted in rich yellow shades," says Maria, "and its meaning is a reminder that the world is abundant and full of possibilities. And what we have today is exactly what we allow ourselves. But for the client, this canvas evoked associations with a field of golden ears from his childhood and memories of spending summers in the countryside with his grandmother. And every time a person looks at it, he or she returns to the pleasant memories of carefree joy that are so dear to the heart." Non-figurative painting is interesting because it makes the client a co-author of the creative process, including imagination, and complements the composition created by the painter with his or her own meanings.

It is very important for Maria to understand and accept her clients. She has been working with individual orders for 11 years. Tsypovyaz's paintings are in private collections in Ukraine, the UK, France, Monaco, Qatar, and Kazakhstan. Among the artist's buyers are people who choose works from ready-made collections, but Maria also creates canvases or even entire series of works at the request of the customer. The mechanics of this process are interesting. Firstly, before starting to create a painting, the author talks at length with its future owner, capturing the main points about his lifestyle, values and hobbies. "It's a format of a light, pleasant conversation about life, family, work, when I ask questions that are important to me," the artist explains. Secondly, she creates a digital sketch of the work in a special program: technology allows for a very realistic representation of the texture of the oil, and the sketching process itself prevents the risk of not guessing the client's wishes. Tsypovyaz combines the skills of a designer and a painter. Sometimes the artist integrates her sketches into interior visualizations, collaborating with designers at the project development stage. Maria often brings her paintings for fittings if the client is in doubt about how the work will look in the house.

Objects of art transform space, thinking and elevate. There is no place for stereotypes here, the mission of the canvas and how it touches the soul are important. Clients often worry that the size of the work they like is not in scale with the space. The painting should be in a frame, a large canvas should be perceived from afar or must be placed on the wall - Maria has an answer to such statements: "A painting does not owe anything to anyone, except for the positive emotions it gives to its owner."

Maria Tsypovyaz makes her paintings human-centered, because it is often the objects of art that speak eloquently about the owner of the house. "Sculpture, painting, and decor are cultural codes that contain information about the owner," she says. "These are things that people try to take with them when they move. And they are more than just objects. They travel from house to house or from generation to generation, they bring a person back to particularly precious places and states."

Does the space call the painting or does the painting look for its home? Does a person choose a painting or does a painting choose a person? In any case, when the environment and the object of art come together, subtle energies - the thoughts of the creator and the viewer - are also combined. A painting is a portal of transition between actual and mental reality. The artist's goal is to make the latter safe.