Saginaw art museum - mature audience

Saginaw art museum - mature audience
art portfolio for mature audience
by Lily Lihting Li Kostrzewa

 1. don't wait for tomorrow, 50" x 60", mixed media, 2011

2. hidden dragon crouching tiger, 36" x 48", mixed media, 2011

3. anticipation - money, power and sex, 48" x 36", mixed media, 2012

4. yin and yang - nude, 36" x 65", mixed media, 2011

5. couple, 32' x 40", mixed media, 2011

6. lying nude, 30" x 20", mixed media, 2011

7. reclining nude, 20" x 24", mixed media, 2011

8. sitting nude, 20" x 24", mixed media, 2011

9. sleeping nude, 20" x 24", mixed media, 2011

 10. identity search, 36" x 36", mixed media, 2006

 11. psalm, 24" x 72", mixed media, 2007

12. love in paris, 48" x 50", mixed media, 2009

Saginaw art museum - general audience

Saginaw Art Museum - portfolio for general audience
by Lily Lihting Li Kostrzewa

1. great lake evening, 20" x 28", mixed media, 2010

2. great lake cloudy, 20" x 24", mixed media, 2010

3. great lake misty, 20" x 24", mixed media, 2010

 4. great lake sunset, 20" x 30", mixed media, 2010

 5, great lake frosty, 20" x 30", mixed media, 2010

 6. great lake rainy, 22' x 34", acrylic painting, 2010

 7. great lake snowy, 20" x 28", mixed media, 2010

 8. blue sky eiffel tower paris, 22" x 30", mixed media, 2010

 9. blue sky grand hotel taipei, 30" x 22", mixed media, 2010

10. blue sky from east to the west, 29" x 59", mix media, 2010

 11. water lily - vertical, 34" x 22", acrylic painting, 1996

 12. love in paris, 48" x 50", mixed media, 2009

ArtPrize - LK's art is on display at Minty Keen

by Lily Li Kostrzewa

If you've never heard of ArtPrize, this year check it out. It is the largest art prize in the world, and it will turn downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan to an art capital tomorrow.

I have a very interesting work at ArtPrize 2011 named “Couple” see link here. It was done by Chinese ink on rice paper first, then I cut the figures and paste them to a very striking background which I made by dripping acrylic paint on a brown paper. This picture tried to depict the intensiveness between a relationship, and the emotional difference between man and woman. The figures were done by monochrome brush lines against a very expressive colorful background to continue my cross-cultural art theme.

ArtPrize takes place in Grand Rapids, Michigan Sep. 21 – Oct. 9, 2011. Detail event information see website here. http://www.artprize.org/event-info

Opening Day (Wed. Sep. 21, 2011): 6pm – 10pm

My work will be in downtown Grand Rapids, Minty Keen, 125 Ottawa NW, Suite 170 ( a local antique shop), store phone 616-551-1613 and my voting code 57321. Detail also can be found on my website www.LilyKostrzewa.com.

New exhibits on display at Art Reach

August 5 to August 27, 2011

Friday, August 12, 2011 7:04 AM EDT

By Lisa Satayut
Sun Special Writer

Artist Lily Kostrzewa sees the world in a different way.

“I see the future and a vision for the eastern culture and western culture,” she said of her contemporary oil and acrylic painting.

Kostrzewa and local artist Linda Oates were part of an artist reception held at Art Reach Thursday evening.

Kostrzewa’s cross-cultural vision tells a story of how cultures merge.

“I try to bring my own vision. I want to bring the east cultural to the west,” she said.

A single piece of her work could include a famous hotel in Taipei, China and a large architectural building in Chicago.

“For me, my artwork is a visual tool to speak the words that cannot be spoken by creating metaphorical structures, figures and emotion,” she said.

Kostrzewa said her ink-like brushstrokes are deeply rooted in her Chinese culture and her years of training in Chinese art.

“I try to bring this global village vision to everybody hoping people here not only appreciate the art but also understand the different cultures and really enjoy the different cultures merge.”

She was wearing a reconstructed dress her 11-year-old daughter, Isabella, made.

Kostrzewa’s work has been exhibited in Taiwan, Austria, Canada and Greece.

She was born in Taiwan and moved to the U.S. when she was 25 to study art. Kostrzewa currently lives in Mt. Pleasant.

Mt. Pleasant resident Wilma Blackman attended the event with her granddaughter Katie Schrock.

“I think it’s amazing,” she said of one of Kostrzewa’s acrylic pieces titled “Blue Sky Cherry Blossoms-from the east to the west.”

Artist Linda Oates creates high-fire stoneware that she describes as “very user-friendly.”

She uses her own glazes.

“I have the ingredients in a little recipe book,” she said.

Oates, who started as a biology major in botany, began her art career after taking a ceramics class to make pots for her plants in the 1970s.

“From there I was hooked,” she said.

Oates uses a gas-fired kiln and said she fires at about 2,300 degrees.

“It makes a really nice hard finish,” she said.

Mt. Pleasant resident Carole Kennett admired a birdbath piece shaped like a hosta plant.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Kennett said. “It’s a beautiful piece.

The artist reception attracted many art enthusiasts as well as local artists and spilled out onto the sidewalk as people enjoyed the artwork in the display windows and mingled with the artists.

Both artists will have their work displayed at Art Reach through Aug. 27.

URL: http://www.themorningsun.com/articles/2011/08/12/entertainment/doc4e444e2b8d149628483924.prt

© 2011 themorningsun.com, a Journal Register Property

Art Mural - Asian Garden

by Lily Lihting Li Kostrzewa

My kids' school had an annual fund raising event. The theme of this year is about Asia. Event decor committee wanted me to make an Asian Garden Mural as a background. I was given two weeks to make a 20 feet wide and almost 7 feet high mural in my studio. Following pictures are the process.

In the beginning we stabled the huge drop cloth paper on two 10' by 7' wood frames in my studio to make 20' by 7' canvas.

I used charcoal to make outline drawing according to many of my outdoor drawings from Taiwan.

I applied acrylic paints donated by local paint shop for this fund raising event project.

I continued to work from one side to the other, and applied the first layer of colors.

More details applied on after first layer of colors.

More details of Asian building I worked on.

More details of Asian building I worked on.

Finished all the details of rock garden.

Applied water lilies on the pond. Also added mountains on the background.

Added Asian bamboos in front of landscape.

After final touch, It was almost finish.

It was time to move to kids' school. We had five guys with a huge covered moving truck to come to help.

The murals were so huge and we had to drive back forth twice to move them.

It is finally set up time, and kids all come to take a look.

My son walked by and very happy to see the mural at the first time.

My son walked by and very happy to see the mural at the first time.

The whole mural was in the school Gym for the special weekend, and the annual fund raising event just came to the end. It was time to take the mural down.

Journey in Life

by Lily Lihting Li Kostrzewa

I started with five canvases and painted them all in washed yellow background.... I looked at each of them with many long hours until we come to the common understanding of each journey...

Journey in Life - Mystery

Journey in Life - Courage

Journey in Life - Celebration

Journey in Life - Curiosity

Journey in Life - Two of Us

One day while in church, I listened to Father Loren give a homily on the “Journey in Life”. The homily centered on one’s journey in life and the understanding and acceptance of the full experience of good and bad; without sorrow we would not fully understand joy, and without pain we would not fully understand happiness.

In the homily I caused a picture in my mind of people walking through a tunnel of trees, the tunnel of life. Sometimes the tunnel appears full of glamour and excitement, and at the other times it is full of sorrow and pain. Sometimes we all walk together, and sometimes a person has to walk alone until he reaches the end. I thought about King David talking about life in Psalms 103 “As for us, our life is like grass. We grow and flourish like a wild flower; then the wind blows on it, and it is gone – no one sees it again.” I cherish the many experiences that life has given me and wish to catch the experiences of life in colors.

When I started working on these five canvases, I thought about all my dear friends that have gone through the journey before me and all the young and energetic those come after me. We all have one thing in common - we are all walking through this journey in life.

The above five paintings are my depiction of the journey in life series; it will open public to preview locally from 12/21/2010 to 1/31/2011 at Café American, 1525 Washington St., Midland Town Center, Midland, Michigan (corner of Patrick Rd. and Washington St.) and will travel to New York City from 3/25/2011 to 3/27/2011 at Pier 94 on the Hudson River (between 55^th St. and 12^th Ave.) for the International Art Expo New York City, Solo Gallery.