Monika Vitek,
Mixed Media Artist

My paintings reflect the wondrous reality of familiar yet often unexplored scenes. The space between the earth, which grounds and connects us, and the seemingly empty vast space above which makes us think deeply and dream. I paint from my own emotional center; with an added focus on providing my art with texture and depth. I center the use of dark iron sand from the Oregon coast in every piece of art I create along with additional earth pigments.  This process allows me to uncover what is beneath the ground and how the unseen reflects onto the surface. The “Uncommon Landscapes'' and “Our Land” series are my personal interpretation of this wonderful life, planet, and the vast unknown.

My ceramic work combines functionality with designs embedded deeply in my subconscious.  I am exploring intentional line work and repetition of designs with the Mishima technique of mark making.  Where one design ends and a new one begins is a place of abstract expressions of the connection, attachment, and relationship of our life threads. 

 Ilmenite: iron rich sand from Oregon, plays a major role in the health and life of nature and is ever present in my work; either in the clay body, slip, inlay, or glaze. Porcelain, translucent when fired, can reveal as well as disguise added sand and pigments. I search for transitions between layers of sand and free hand drawn inlay of colored lines.  Ilmenite in a clay body can retain its own original color, or be exposed to the atmosphere, which allows it to speed the process of aging and turn it into grain of rust, or simply just start moving with the melting glaze and find its own place to land.