The Day I Beheaded My Own Personal Medusa

Jiro Tcholakian’s “The Day I Beheaded My Own Personal Medusa,” a mixed-media work created with acrylic and ink, offers a dizzying composition with formal roots in action painting developed during the abstract expressionist of the 20th century. This juxtaposition of a mostly male-dominated window of time in art history - AbEx painting - with the subject of the painting, sexual violence against Medusa, creates a compelling contrast and adds another layer of interest to the painting from a critical perspective. Snake-like protrusions, created with rough, vivid brushstrokes, emanate from the center of the painting. Jewel tones and contrasting neons, combined with the decisive line work of the composition, exude violence and action. Lighter washes of color frame this graphic collection of thick, active brushstrokes. While darker tones of ink wash form defining moments within this composition, the artist keenly incorporates bright segments of yellow, neon pink and orange paint directly confronting these heavy sections of brushwork. These vibrant and expressive curvilinear forms are layered in careful overlap, intimating at the twisting and turning snakes being dispatched from the head of the Medusa alluded to in the painting. The upward motion which the artist captures in this composition correlates the sense of release referred to in the artist statement, offering the viewer a compelling and active painting while guiding the eye deftly through this vivid tableau.