The twists and turns of a creator's journey are much like that of an old Oak tree, each notch and knot showcasing another story of growth. These chronicles of life serve to inspire, mold, and shape the visual outcomes of the artwork that artists create. Embark into the imagery of the artist Natasha Chomko aka POST WOOK’s origin story with the powerful, triptych-based, storytelling of the ‘Where my roots have been’ series.
Dig your roots in, reminisce about your own origins, and get vulnerable about the experiences you have had in life with POST WOOK and ‘Where my roots have been’.
‘THE ORIGIN’
The path of an artist is rarely one that goes directly from point A to point B but rather is a winding road, full of chance and adventure, as POST WOOK can attest. As a child growing up in Maryland, right in the shadows of Washington, DC, Natasha can always recall her parents pushing her to be creative and explore whatever it is that she loved most. “My dad works for NASA, my mom is super creative. I’d like to consider myself a lifelong collage artist – it’s the medium that has always made sense to me. My parents always encouraged me to be creative, but initially, I had different pursuits.” Natasha went to American University in Washington DC to pursue a career in politics, and she did… for a bit. “I’ve worked on Capitol Hill (House side), for the Maryland Democratic Party, and on a campaign outside of Detroit, MI. (I promise all of these details are relevant)” She recollects.
“After a while working in politics felt stale, I felt my career press up against my values and I reassessed. I didn’t know what to do, but I knew it wasn’t going back to DC. I initially thought about going to law school and working in entertainment law so I moved to Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world, to gather some experience before taking the LSAT.” All the while Natasha was beginning to revisit another side of herself and create art again.
POST WOOK would never make it to taking the LSAT because her unique approach to art and signature collage-based style began to take off in unprecedented ways. “Throughout college and afterward, I was very involved in the music festival world and a part of the tight-knit community that formed around festivals,” Natasha remembers fondly. “They took to my work like wildfire. A few of them even told me they had never seen work like mine before, and I brought a completely new perspective of art to their eyes.” It was a compliment that would inspire Natasha to go head first into her artistic endeavors. A calling she could not ignore. Things snowballed from there Natasha exclaimed, “I went from making $50 album covers to working with major brands like Toyota and major labels like Sony.” From the combination of freelance clientele and selling prints, POST WOOK quit her job and began using art as a full-time revenue source in January of 2020.
The pandemic, for most, was a time of major change. For POST WOOK that change was not all negative and represented a time of growing freedom as an artist. “The pandemic exceeded my expectations for e-commerce. I was able to live solely off print sales and had nothing to do, so I could churn out 5-15 pieces of art a week. I was still mostly making art on my phone at that time, so I could make art from everywhere,’ Natasha remembers.
POST WOOK’s surreal landscapes collaged together from visually recognizable imagery, conscious concepts, and psychedelic undertones soon would find their way onto the blockchain; though through admitted mild apprehension. “I was not interested at first. The only information I could find was about huge payouts and auction houses and that didn’t interest me.” She mentions. “I knew my e-commerce audience was adverse to a $200 print, there was no way any of them wanted digital assets.” Like many of POST WOOK’s contemporaries, once she began to look beyond the surface and opened Pandora’s box there was no going back. “I liked the idea of things being “on-chain”- having a clear ledger of information to promote transparency.” She mentions, “Since I worked in political finance I knew the power of transparency and saw how that same transparency could be applied through blockchain.” The transition Natasha mentions was natural.
After much learning, contemplating, and soul searching POST WOOK’s first NFT was minted in July of 2021. “The tech actually interested me enough to stay and I exploded with ideas that I couldn’t bring to life through prints, digital art on my own, or even commercial projects with endless budgets.” She remembers fondly, “I could actually create without constraints through technology and that felt awesome.” While POST WOOK ventured into a new realm of NFTs, she never abandoned the audience and clientele she worked so hard to build. “Without going into too many details I now juggle ecommerce, NFTs, and commercial work to make a living. I enjoy the mental challenges of all three and they help keep me fulfilled so I can keep doing what I love the most: making art.” Natasha views NFTs as a path forward for other models of revenue and sustainability for both herself and her contemporaries.
‘Where my roots have been’
Reconnect with your own personal journey of growth in ‘Where my roots have been’. POST WOOK’s triptych storytelling project ventures into distinctive eras that have defined the powerful visual language that she is most known for. “This series is meant to serve as my origin story. It tells you where I started and where I’ve been”, she explains. Laden with hidden and personal meaning each piece navigates the viewer through a rich tapestry. “From starting in a wooded area, ‘I was born in the trees’ portrays how my family has been east of the Mississippi for centuries. The people surrounding me are my ancestors watching me come of age. I’d like to think my bloodline has done a lot to heal and reverse the curses of the past, but I know that’s been true for myself and this image pays homage to that fact.”
POST WOOK’s artwork instills a sense of wanderlust through not only this series but thematically across her body of work. She hopes her art serves as a constant reminder that the most unexpected parts of life often are laced with beauty. “‘I found myself in the water’ is about the short albeit impactful detour I had in my young adult life in Detroit.” She mentions, “I moved there for a job and left with lifelong friends. One of them is going to be the Maid of Honor at my wedding. I learned so much about myself and my values in that time that I go back every June. The Midwest holds a very special place in my heart.”
As a child, POST WOOK can remember her ventures out into the West, a land far different from the fertile soils which she was raised. The imagery of the West has subconsciously made its way into much of POST WOOK’s art, “I think I’m drawn to western landscapes because they remind me of good memories from childhood”, she states.“‘My heart lives in the Desert’ is the true self-portrait, the image that conveys where I am now and how I’m feeling about it. I live in the desert. I’ve always loved it here. My work heavily conveys that, too.”
‘Where my roots have been’ is a departure for POST WOOK in many ways, whilst also following the labour-intensive formula that the artist has come to develop over her career.
“Typically I work in three segments”, she mentions, “shooting and sourcing, composing and first round of editing, then the second round of editing after sleeping on it. All of these segments typically happen on different days, especially since shooting can take multiple days to get the perfect shot.” Each photograph undergoes a meticulous color grading process that Natasha admits “takes an increasingly longer time”. Whilst much of POST WOOK’s art is landscape based that did not stop her from exploring the medium of self, ‘Where my roots have been’ serves as the very first time POST WOOK has embedded her own self-portraiture and personal journey into her collages. Rather than meeting this seemingly tall task with apprehension, Natasha states that it was actually a freeing part of the process. “Using self in my work allows me to control the narrative of the work. I don’t need to rely on landscapes to tell a story, I just need to pose and angle myself in a way that conveys the message I’m trying to send”, she elaborates. “It also deepens my connection to my work, since every image is meant to be a dreamscape from the perspective of the viewer.”
‘Where my roots have been’ is a set of 3 editions, 22 pieces per edition, that not only tells a powerful origin story but also marks yet another new embarkation by POST WOOK, the artist's first release on Solana. As a lifelong fan of grassroots movements, the Solana community has been interesting to POST WOOK for some time. “I am a huge fan of accessibility. I would rather have 1,000 dedicated fans who can spend $100 than one person who can spend $100k on my work.” She continues, “I don’t like being beholden to one person. Like Lady Gaga said, I’m a free bitch, baby! Grassroots all the way”.
Venture into new beginnings, fresh new artwork, and New Moons with POST WOOK in the captivating ‘Where my roots have been’. Explore the series on Exchange Art here!
