Byron-Bay-based artist Jai Vasicek imbues his work with femininity of a mystical quality. The abstract tribal women in his paintings have soul. The colors, fluid lines, and whimsical shapes that create them project a spirit so alluring you can’t help but feel compelled to ask “Who is she? What power does she possess?”
Vasicek says his creative process is more like channeling, so it comes as no surprise the beings in his paintings appear other-worldly and all-knowing. “I generally don’t know the colours I am going to start with, I tend to go on feeling. I randomly select colours from a mixed box then I feel if that works or not. I don’t think there are many tools for art. I like to embrace the freedom, not to feel restricted.”
A creative at heart, Jai doesn’t define himself as one thing. He is a maker exploring paintings, ceramics, and fashion and mediums on canvas such as oils and acrylics and resins. “I prefer to make everything, then to design and get it manufactured. Everything I make is really some facet of me – the personality that I am.”
Jai is a self-confessed ‘sea gypsy’ having spent his childhood sailing on a family boat named ‘Malachi’, where he learned a deep love for the sea and the cultures of the world. “Making reflects where I have been and travelled and also how I’m feeling.”
