Alysha Kostelny: July Artist of the Month

Alysha Kostelny is our agency-wide artist of the month for July! She was selected by her peers on our curating team as the recipient of this honor based on her dedication to her art practice and prominent attendance on our virtual programming platform.

Alysha met with curating team member, Ted Hamel, to discuss her art practice. Please read on for the details of their interview.

Ted Hamel: Hello, Alysha.

Alysha Kostelny: Hi, Ted.

TH: How have you been doing art?

AK: At home? I’ve done some stuff with paint and my sketchbook. I’ve done some collage and drawings and colored them in during in-home programming. I’ve also done some stuff with pastel.

TH: How long have you been using paint?

AK: I don’t know.

TH: that’s ok

AK: I think I first started using paint at Arts of Life. I was doing some abstract work and I took a little bit of a break and did some collages. I’ve been doing paint pretty much since I started at Arts of Life in 2016, maybe 2017.

TH: Wow. Are you using chalk pastel sometimes when collaging?

AK: I’ve never used the chalk pastel. The oil pastel, I’ve used. So if I use pastel I use oil pastel.

TH: Have you been using marker like I’ve been doing a lot?

AK: I only have permanent marker here, and just a couple. I’ve used it once but it’s kind of see-through a little bit. I drew a symbol of a baseball team.

TH: Oh. Was it Chicago or another team?

AK: It was not Chicago. It was the Arizona Diamond Backs.

TH: Oh, Arizona!

AK: But I am a Chicago fan—a Chicago Cubs fan.

TH: Same here. Have you been doing image of the Chicago skyline a lot?

AK: I have not. It would be neat to do one. I’d have to look it up online and get the pictures printed out to do the collage.

TH: Are you doing sketching with pencil?

AK: Yes, I do my sketches in pencil. When I make a project I do 3 sketches.

TH: Cool.

AK: I always do three sketches and color them in.

TH: Nice.

AK: Would you like to see an example of something I’ve painted?

TH: Yes

AK: With glitter watercolors, I drew this. I’m still deciding whether I’m going to leave it open.

TH: From the left corner it almost looks like a rainbow there.

AK: It’s almost. Pretty close.