Black Light Organic Art

Black Light Organic Art, the mysterious title of the newest painting cycle of Manja Jerič, professor of art education, sources from the same secret substances and lighting that she uses in the creation of her organic iridescent art works, leading the viewers into a totally different imaginative world than in past cycles, like the previous cycle of vibration mandalas, or a little bit further back to her obstinate fields with pumpkins with often anthropomorphic physiognomies and so on, pointing to the artist’s drive to experiment, but always in a goal-directed manner.

Thus, in her newest cycle she joined different techniques of laying the substances; not only acrylic paints, but different glues, thinners, solvents, oils, soaps, causing the effect of eternally live stream, where all is actual flowing, mixing and vibrating, and on the other side causing the accentuated illusion of depth by three kinds of illumination, adding beside warm-cold contrasts or colour perspective and glazing shine-throughs additionally to the effect of space infinity - one could even say, transmitting a sense of the space-time continuum.

The above-mentioned three ways of illumination encompass firstly the usual external illumination with white light (the surface lacquer coating can accentuate it even more), then the innovative internal illumination of art works with the UV light, causing the radiating of UV-sensitive substances (this technique is used also by forensics), and lastly, the glowing of luminous substances in the dark, meaning the dark or Black Light in the title of the cycle.

In the selection of materials, Manja Jerič paid attention to light-sensitive materials, but also to reciprocally repulsive substances, as her basic creative principle in using the new technology is joining the contrasts as a dynamic harmony of contrasts, achieved by pouring, blowing, brush interventions, trying to introduce order into the chaos, and other means of applying and spreading of materials on the picture’s surface on different foundations.

In the artist’s own words, the final product does not transfer the ecstatic atmosphere that she was experiencing during the processing itself, i.e. at the creation of the works, meditatively emerging in it with her soul and body, as in some transcendental art creative ritual.

The unbelievable number of works, created with the new technology, testify about the creative drive of Manja Jerič, which she passes, along with her knowledge, on to her pupils in the framework of the SORAJ club.

Mario Berdič, art critic, Maribor, May 2019