Press

``His works are time-time consuming and require the patience and cunning to create backward images. Reverse painting is similar to the task a woodcut artist faces when producing a carving for print. An image must be depicted in reverse of how the viewer will eventually see the finished artwork. …Separate one glass painting from the collective body and the strength of Mr.Khomyk's work is exhibited. Each glass painting has an interaction of characters in a manner that usually portrays a hint of intimacy and sense of humor that allows the painting to stands on its own.``

``Painting in reverse, so that the viewer can see a flat picture through the glass, is not an easy task since the artist must paint an inverted or mirror-image of the scene. Mr. Khomyk is definitely up to it and, one can also say, into it… Glossing over the finer points of facial features and hands, the artist interprets depth and feeling with lines and forms so that the viewer instantly grasps the mood and meaning of a scene. But whether the work is completely realist or closer to cubism, Khomyk paintings are united by one characteristic, that of humor.``

``The tradition has heavily informed the work of Stamford artist Andriy Khomyk, who brought it with him from his native Ukraine… ``I love life in all manifestations and I try to show this to viewers,`` says the artist. ``I am interested in the internal world of people and its outer manifestations. Without such minutia as tiny defenseless flowers…or children's tears, the world would be a much poorer place.``

``He believes that laughter makes a person's life longer. He also has a good sense of humor - for this reason there is little place in my work for sadness and melancholy, which undoubtedly occupy a significant place in traditional Ukrainian folklore. He prefers to develop the optimistic, life asserting, side of the Ukrainian tradition``

``His philosophy is to find beauty despite man's seeming destruction of his soul and his environment. By utilizing a modern approach, he hopes to show unity and harmony where there is sadness, indifference and emptiness. Mr. Khomyk likes to give attention to the exactness of settings and costumes, and to the subtleties and bravura of color. Lines and forms appear to be his forte; with these he interprets depth and feeling so that the viewer instantly grasp the mood and meaning of a scene…``

``Besides his works based on Ukrainian folk traditions and religious holidays, Mr. Khomyk also enjoys dabbling in abstract and imaginative compositions, containing elements that are avant-garde and fantastic… Other works in his collection reveal nostalgia for the inter-war period in Lviv, which he labels as retro. Although too young to have seen the interwar period - the 1920s and 1930s - he has sensed the beat of the city during that time from stories older people tell, tales of an exciting nervous energy and economic progress, which he would like to see recaptured in his beloved city during this day and age.``

``…Find yourself in enchanted world where history is intertwined with humor, rites of our people with mystery of our folk tales, reality with phantasmagoria. It is hard not to mentioned color. There is a powerful symphony of color with chiming accords of violet and blue, ocher and azure. Colors carry you from one painting to the next in the series.``

``Andriy Khomyk's compositions are imbued with deep thoughts about man, his earthly ways of life, about the infinity of the Universe, the beauty of the earth, the unity of man and nature. His art is a whimsical fusion of ancient and modern, rational and intuitive, thoughtful and humorous ... His native land opened before him the accumulated for centuries, gave a golden thread that connects us with the ancestors, their beliefs, rites and traditions. His paintings are both reflection, and confession, and dialogue``