Emerging Artist | Stanka Kordic - Southwest Art Magazine

Capturing a life force

Stanka Kordic Maya, oil, 30 x 36.

This story was featured in the December 2012 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Order the Southwest Art magazine December 2012 print edition here, or purchase the Southwest Art magazine December 2012 digital download here. Or simply subscribe to Southwest Art magazine and never miss a story!

When the day came for the Portrait Society of America to announce its annual awards last spring, Stanka Kordic anxiously checked her email account. When no congratulatory letter appeared bearing the good news, she almost gave up. But sometime later that day she happened to look in her spam folder. Voilà! There sat the email announcing that her painting, MAYA, had won a coveted certificate of excellence. “I was so thrilled,” Kordic says. “I respect everyone that is accepted into that show, and it’s just astounding to see my painting with their work.”

MAYA is a good example of the Ohio-based artist’s focus on painting women and children in a powerful yet sensitive way. As an expressive painter, she likes to convey as much as possible through the figure but also relies on the environment and her brush strokes to evoke energy and movement. For Kordic the brush strokes led the way in the award-winning work. “Intuition is key in all I make,” Kordic says. “The paint will often determine my next move. This is what I call ‘the stepping-back time’—looking at the piece as an observer and finding things to respond to in a two-dimensional way.”

Stanka Kordic Boundless, oil, 30 x 36.

Kordic is a first-generation American born of Croatian parents; she has two brothers who are also artists. She attended the Cleveland Institute of Art, graduating with a fine-arts degree in illustration in 1985. Following graduation she spent several years working as an illustrator, creating editorial art, package design, and book illustrations. But in 1998, seeking additional creative satisfaction, she left the commercial-art world and concentrated her efforts on painting portraits and figurative works. The figure continues to capture her imagination to this day. “The variety of expressions, moods, and individual characteristics that can be translated into universal themes never ceases to amaze me,” Kordic says. “The life force in a human, in combination with the life force in nature, is a wellspring of inspiration to me. —Bonnie Gangelhoff

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Featured in the December 2012 issue of Southwest Art magazine–click below to purchase:
Southwest Art magazine December 2012 digital download
Southwest Art magazine December 2012 print edition
Or subscribe to Southwest Art magazine and never miss a story!