On a different note…
Sometimes creativity doesn’t begin with a blank canvas. Sometimes it begins with an impulse purchase, a quiet dissatisfaction, and the sense that something cute but average is asking to become something more.
During the holidays, while preparing our home for celebration, I kept returning to our accent wall. It was nice. Balanced. Finished enough. But something was missing. So I did what many of us do, I started browsing home décor, looking for a way to elevate the space.
That is how this triptych entered our home.
Originally, it was a mass-produced abstract artwork purchased online. Visually pleasing. Modern. Neutral enough to live comfortably on a wall. And yet, it felt unfinished. Too polite. Too silent. It occupied space, but it didn’t speak.
So I listened. To my own response. To my instincts. To what the work was not saying yet.
What followed was not restoration, but transformation.
Over time, I began engaging with the work directly. Layer by layer, I introduced gold, silver, and bronze paint left over from my son’s bedroom accent wall project. These additions created tension, reduced excess, and established a dialogue between the three panels. Gold was restrained rather than celebrated. Thin black lines were added slowly and deliberately, as gestures instead of borders. Texture was emphasized. Silence was shaped.
The result is no longer decorative. It is singular. One of a kind. No longer anonymous.
After finishing, I found myself returning to it repeatedly, often standing in front of it for extended periods of time. What emerged in the center panel was unexpected but unmistakable: a woman seen from behind.
Her long black hair falls straight down her back, threaded with subtle gold, like light caught mid-movement. At the crown of her head, gold gathers and lifts, reading not as ornament but as a jeweled crown, symbolic rather than literal. She faces forward, into a wide white field that feels less like space and more like distance. The viewer is invited to stand with her, not behind her, and to look into that unknown expanse together.
The left and right panels shifted into something architectural. Their heavier geometric forms began to read as interior space, structure, or containment. Walls. Rooms. Boundaries. They frame the central figure without touching her, suggesting both protection and restraint. The thin black lines act as quiet interruptions, marks of presence and intention, guiding the eye without dominating it.
The horizontal gold line that runs across all three panels was deliberately enlarged and then reduced. Once decorative, it now functions as a threshold, a moment of grounding. It connects the trio without resolving it.
This evolution matters deeply to me. Not only because it improves the piece aesthetically, but because it changes its authorship. What began as a commercially produced object has been materially and conceptually altered into a new, original work. The surface has been repainted. The composition redefined. The narrative rewritten.
This is no longer an Amazon artwork. It is a transformed triptych with its own identity, story, and intent.
Crowned Toward the Void
Artist-altered mixed-media triptych on canvas
Artist: Mikhail Oparin
Year: 2026
Format: Triptych (three-panel unified work)
Dimensions: Three panels, each 24 Ă— 36 inches
Status: One of one
Work Description
Crowned Toward the Void is a three-panel abstract composition exploring interior space, presence, and forward gaze. The work exists at the intersection of abstraction and suggested figuration, using restrained geometry, layered brushwork, and controlled metallic accents to establish architectural enclosure and quiet movement.
At the center stands a silhouetted figure viewed from behind. Black forms read as hair cascading down the back, threaded with gold that functions simultaneously as crown, inheritance, and illumination. The surrounding white space becomes distance, horizon, or void, inviting the viewer to look forward alongside the figure rather than at her.
The left and right panels carry visual weight through geometric mass and structure. They suggest walls, rooms, or constructed interiors that frame the central presence without enclosing it. Thin black linear gestures move across all three panels, creating continuity and tension without outlining or resolving form. Visible brushstrokes are intentionally preserved, maintaining depth, movement, and honesty in the surface.
Artist Statement
This piece is about facing forward without spectacle.
At the center, I see the back of a woman. Her black hair runs downward in long strokes, marked with gold that reads as both crown and inheritance. She does not turn toward us. She looks into white space ahead and, by doing so, places the viewer in that same position of looking forward rather than back.
The side panels feel architectural to me. They carry weight and structure, like interiors or modern buildings, framing the figure without containing her. The thin black lines function as quiet gestures rather than borders. They connect the panels while allowing room for interruption and silence.
I was careful not to over-polish this work. The brushstrokes remain visible. The gold was reduced rather than added. What matters here is restraint. The piece is not about arrival, but about standing still and choosing direction.
Process & Transformation
This work involved extensive repainting, reduction of surface elements, and the introduction of original black linear gestures. The final composition is materially and visually distinct from its original state and exists as a one-of-one artist-altered work.
Provenance
- Originally acquired as a commercially produced abstract triptych
- Substantially altered and re-authored through original mixed-media intervention
- Finalized as a unified, narrative-driven work by Mikhail Oparin
- No reproductions exist or will be created
This provenance accompanies the work and should remain attached to any future transfer or sale.
Copyright & Authorship
The physical artwork is legally owned by the artist. While the underlying commercial design remains copyrighted by its original creator, the final work presented here represents a lawful, materially altered, and original artistic transformation.
Authorship is claimed solely for the final altered composition.
Artist Valuation
$1,500 USD (complete triptych)
Mikhail Oparin 