One woman is wounded, roiled by pain, and limited by male-dominated traditions. Another is bursting free, hoping to live life like Frida Kahlo, and to pursue her art without boundaries. She wanders, the rebel “sending a lesson to women everywhere, ‘express yourselves, take risks.’”Poised next to The Beauty, a painting that reveals her conquering past hurts, and moving on to new emotional terrain, Senka Tujkovic admits, “I was carrying pain for a long time. I’m emotional. I used to paint to survive. It’s still a way for me to find respect in a place where women are not respected.”
Once an artist in Paris, a trained cosmetologist, and now living in Budva, Montenegro, Tujkovic suffered through a marriage filled with “humiliations.” She would fantasize about painting to find joy. Stressed, and ultimately getting a divorce, she became diabetic. But art, the impulse to picture women with a hopeful future continued to obsess her. She painted to explore life. “Frida Kahlo is a thoughtful woman, she is a book, a picture and a sculpture,” says Tujkovic, softly, now married again, and far more optimistic about the future. “She is a loud message to women. Be like Kahlo, like Celine Dion, and through your uninhibited actions buy a ticket to eternity.”
Turning towards Blue Touch, a woman unafraid to be defiant, Tujkovic insists, “she is fragile, on the run from something cruel and dangerous. Fleeing life, no one seeks her. No one cares. I have been there.”this painting offers a measure of hope. Its vivid palette of colors emphasizes the golden-necklaced woman will break out of her “vault,” and “push into the shores of heaven.”Tujkovic is waiting for her there. Her work reveals she is already tapping into a new sense of exhilaration, and is eager to share that passion with us.
Senka TujkovicMaslinska bb Budva85310 BudvaMontenegroMail; tujkovicsenka@gmail.comFb; Senka ArtInstagram; senka_artLinkedin; Senka TujkovicTlf; +382 69 169 669
