ALMOST LOVE
graphite and colored pencil on paper
200 x 150 cm
Not For Sale
TEJA TEJGELJ, selceted by Anamarija Stibij Šajn. “ALMOST LOVE”, pastel on paper, 150x200cm, 2019. Teja Tegelj is rationally analytical and emotionally intuitive. He is also looking in depth for new possibilities of expression and is opting for experimental approaches. He seeks in himself and around himself what is immaterial and explores what comes from our physical appearance and materializes in the work of art. In her latest drawings on paper, lines get their dominance. In large-format works, he focuses on the concept of embodied cognition, where through an expressive gesture the work becomes a document of mental, emotional, spiritual and physical condition. When he enters a creative act, he adjusts to what he is currently thinking about. And then in the picture field he reveals his feelings and intercepts the flow of his thoughts. He draws the line… and says it all. With it, he visualizes himself most authentically, and at the same time he also takes space, especially natural environments, and time into his perception. The chosen primary and elementary way of artistic articulation represents to her a central and full-fledged means of expression and expression, with which she translates internal vibrations into fine art and uncompromisingly follows her inner vocation. The drawings are made “to her liking”. Gesturally accentuated inscriptions are not just the work of the hand, but involve the movements of the whole body. The series of works is therefore entitled "From the body", as the author almost stands in the drawing field and embraces it with the body. In it, he creates transitions from the inside to the outside and seeks connections between the self and the world. He imprints internal "images" into external ones and thus realizes his completely intimate iconography. In a bravura conglomerate, there is room for the (in) visible body of the author. The empty space that appears in the center of the circularly designed compositions is associated with the silhouette of a man. In this way, the artist proves that everything created is not just "From the body", but that she herself is literally present in the drawing. If I were to paraphrase the design of her works with a study by Leonardo da Vinci called The Relationship of the Human Body according to Vitruvius, then I could say for Teja's works that studies of her own "proportions" are excellent proof of how powerfully the line can express them.