Nova delights in inventing fantastic tales, believing them to be true and then creating artworks to make them so. Motivated by the Korean philosophy that 'it's all about the story', her work is not so much about making a statement or sending out a serious socio-political message; Indeed she maintains that "Art shouldn't have to be so serious, ghod knows we've got the news for that." Each to their own, but Nova's work is rather more about escapism: creating an alternative quirky reality by embellishing on society's shared reality
Light, perspective & physics
Her work spans the mediums of oil painting and drawing in charcoal or graphite. Additionaly washes and multimedia help to flesh out a 2D idea into something more sculptural. She also uses photography, music and tales from real-life to inform her work. One thing that characterises her unique work is lighting - where the light source eminates from within the image and and how the work will interact with the changing light of its hanging environment. 'The Urban Bushkid' series was where she first began to explore the interplay of light by applying multiple layers of different golden pigments and investigating brushstroke direction. This research resulted in works that shimmer like a Persian rug as the sun arcs slowly from one compass point to the next. In addition to light, perspective plays a hugely important role: The perception of the sitter and the assumption of their character changes greatly with a mere choice of angle
a little about her current work
Nova's upcoming series: 'In the Forest at Night', attempts to explore the psyche of her sitters, the challenge being to enable the dark and magical forest of their inner thoughts to spring to life on paper. Inspired by a recent visit to the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition at the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, this series is heavily influenced by Lautrec's use of uplighting in the search for a more dramatic atmosphere - In this series Nova truly embraces the Danish idea of hyggelig and uhyggelig