Female Portrait with Moroccan Lamp Through Two Crystal Balls

This painting explores the boundary between realism and abstraction through the optical complexity of two sequential crystal spheres. Acting as lenses, the spheres refract, invert, and transform the image of the objects placed behind them. While the spheres themselves are rendered with attention to realistic light behavior — including, supposedly, either subtle scattering of the bright light on the internal imperfections of spheres, or fine effects of the interference, or both, and subtle reflection on the border — the imagery within them becomes increasingly abstract. The second sphere intensifies this transformation, creating a distortion where recognizable forms dissolve into complex visual structures.
The work suggests a parallel between optical transformation and artistic perception: just as lenses reshape reality, so does the artist’s vision. What remains physically realistic in execution simultaneously produces an abstract visual experience.