Pregnant Monster

I think the artist is trying to show that there is not much of a difference between humans and monsters. Notice the expression of joy on the mother's face, and also on the face on the baby/fetus. The joys of family are not exclusive to the human world and maybe our relations with monsters will better once we realize that and accept the facts that deep down we are all the same. Well done Nova, you have opened our eyes again.

Collage [kuh-lahzh] noun - (1) a technique of composing a work of art by pasting on a single surface various materials not normally associated with one another, as newspaper clippings, parts of photographs, theater tickets, and fragments of an envelope, (2) a form of art completely reinvented by Nova by using colored construction paper to represent clothing on figures in her art work.

This piece is a venture by the artist into perhaps a future in commercial art. This one of many examples of her greeting card work, specifically a birthday card for her aunt Teri. It is interesting how the artist takes the part of the recepient of this piece, by refering to her own parents as Dasha and Rob, rather than Mom and Dad. She is obviously creating this piece through the perspective of the viewer. One must also notice the emphasis put on the main character 'Aunt Teri', she is bigger than the others, and also takes the focal point of the work. Another noteworthy feature of this piece is how the artist refuses to have the labels of the subjects take a front seat to the actual visuals. In all cases, except for Dasha, the artist throws conventional writing out the window by seperating the names of the subjects and leaves it to the viewer to piece together, as to say who they are is not as important as what they look like.

Self Portrait #76 is one of Nova's more recent depictions of herself and one of her few signed pieces. Notice the beauty of her movement, as if she had the grace of 1000 ballerinas. And also we find her trademark knee-high little brother Miles, as if she is saying he will always be by my side, but I will always be the big sister. A wonderful wonderful piece.

Jack and Sarah, is the title of this work, which is a bit misleading. Jack (a friend/soccer teammate/neighbor of the artist) is of course the central character of the piece, sitting at his desk during a normal school day. One might believe that Sarah then is the person to the right of Jack, this however is not the case, Sarah is actually sitting at her desk in the distance and can barely be seen under Jack's right arm. This is a great use of depth by the artist. The figure on the right of the picture is actually Ms. Konectnie (sp), Ms. K for short, Jack's kindergarden teacher. The artist explains this picture as a typical day at school, Ms. K is telling Jack to do his homework and Jack is dreaming of video games. We are not sure how the artist gained insight into Jack's daily school experiences, seeing that she is not even in the same class as Jack, but nevertheless this is how she explains it.

In celebration of Halloween, Nova would like to share with you some of her Halloween themed art. The first piece (top), Witch, was made in 2005, right after Nova turned 4 years old. Witches, Ghosts and Monsters have always been a favorite subject with Nova, at the age of 3, her favorite hobby was ghost hunting which involved turning out all the lights in the house and walking around with flashlights looking for ghosts. This seemed to always end with her mother yelling boo while Nova and her friends scampered away. Her second piece (middle), Halloween TV Party, shows a collection of frightening creatures gathering together for a fright night. From left to right we have a Frankenstein monster, a bat, two skeletons, a goblin, another bat, and a witch up above. They have all gathered to watch a scary movie on TV which, naturally features themselves. Are all monsters so narcissistic? One can only hope not. Our final Halloween piece (bottom) is entitled, Second Thinking Trick or Treating, this is one of Nova's many self portraits. In this piece she is trick or treating when she comes upon a house that seems harmless at first (notice the fake ghost hanging from a string on the left), but then she realizes there are monsters inside, a bat up above, and a real ghost on the right. Not at all what she had hoped for. Her choice on whether she should knock at this house is clearly expressed in the center of the page. No.

Nova's first work for this site and probably her proudest work to date is entitled A Happy Family. As you can see it includes (from left to right) Miles, Dad, Mom, and Nova who is holdong the leash of her dog Cherry. As is common in Nova's work, Miles measures only up to about Nova's waist, although his actual height is up to her ear. We have yet to determine if this is an outward expression of some subconscious feeling for her brother. Also the very obesrvent will notice that Cherry was cut off. Was this part of the original work, or a problen in scanning the image, yet another mystery of Nova's work. Finally one cannot deny the similarities between Mom and Tim Burton's character Sally from the great film The Nightmare Before Christmas. What does this say about Nova's opinion of her mother? Not much probably, seeing that Nova has never seen this film.