Friday evening Terra Nova Gallery hosted 220 people as part of Troy Night Out. TNO is a monthly Troy event, bringing together art galleries, restaurants, and music venues. Click here for a Times Union review of last month’s show. This month Terra Nova Gallery featured works by Jen Maher and Terra Nova’s own Kristan Hodorowski and Emily Armstrong. Below are comments from artist Kristan Hodorowski:

It is a strange thing to write about something you do without much thinking. That is painting for me. It is kind of a instinctual thing that gets done without much thought. I have been doing it since I was a little girl and most likely in response to being in an environment I realized I had very little control over (who does?) and was kind of frightened by. To capture my environment and the things I saw around me, by putting it down on paper seemed to comfort me in some way. It gave some semblance of control over it. So most of my work has a direct connection to reality…as in, I don’t do much fantasizing through my work and not much abstraction.

I like the idea of capturing a moment. A look. An emotion, or even the essence of a person through paint. I also find that the face can express so much, and can do so in unique ways, yet it is a matter of millimeters that make one different from the next. Most people have two eyes, two nostrils, a mouth, a nose, etc. So it is a matter of placement of these elements and the animating force behind them, that make one look pretty (a cultural assignment), angry, happy, etc.

And when painting them, it is an exercise that is carried out one millimeter at a time. I start with something very sketchy, yet still can ‘feel’ the person in it. And then a single, thin brushstroke make the thing come completely alive. At times, I truly feel the presence of a life force moving through me, and I cannot tell you how the end result came to be. The Chinese call this animating force Chi, I call it God, and painting makes my belief in Him grow stronger. So I keep painting, regardless of what my work looks like or what others think of it. It is something I do without much thinking…