By Lois Tomaszewski

Kei Constantinov’s art transports the viewer back in time offering a glimpse of times past with updated style and modern twists. Her style is neo medieval, evoking the style of art that adorned Europe in transition.

“I would say that people are more familiar with the Renaissance,” Constantinov says, “but it’s neo medieval which is a particular penchant of mine.”

This body of work has been in process since 2013, after Constantinov moved into her childhood home on Trail Creek in Michigan City after moving back to the area from Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Her published novella, “Mechtild's Medieval Adventures, an Adult Fairy Tale” which was published in 2021 was the catalyst for much of this genre. Through the creative process of writing the tale, Constantinov began to develop three dimensional and illustrative characters to depict the characters in the novella, such as Marco Polo and Violetta, a Venetian cortisone, and Death, referenced by the prevalence of the plague at that time in the 15th century. There are many layers to the heroine Mechtild’s tale.

“I have about 15 oil paintings that were to be a part of the novella as an expanded narrative,” she explains.

Taken from the book’s description, “our heroine traverses Dante's Inferno to recover her lost birthright… Once upon a Fourth Crusade the stars align, to forever fix a Holstein girl's birth to the Sack of Constantinople and Pax Mongolia. When famine and pestilence reign in a volcano's wake, its dust disabling creatures and crops, the young Novice seeks monastic refuge. She joins the heretical Free Spirits and plague doctors to nurse, as phantom ships, laden with fat rodents, dock in cog ship trading ports. Years later, exiled to the Black Forest for the sins of pride and lust, the Old Mystic meets her demons and is transfigured, her soul's epic journey recounted through a lamenting Gypsy's song.”

Constantinov paints with tempera with egg yolk and water combined with water-based pigments. The colors can last for 100s of years. The tempera is translucent. When she creates a painting, she adds veils of paint onto the canvas; you are looking through all the veils of color in the painting.

The plaque is the thread Constantinov followed to create both the novella and the artwork inspired by that creative endeavor comes from her historical research on Medieval times and tribulations. That scholarly pursuit of knowledge, which began from her early forays into books and learning, also leads her to create other works, such as “A Moor in Venice,” a nod toward the Moorish history of Europe as well as including the thriving art and trade mecca of Venice, Italy.

Constantinov’s goal is to celebrate a time in history that holds personal fascination for her, adorning her pieces with detail-rich embedded frames and high relief gilding. The 15th Century is considered the “golden age” of framing. These were used for ecclesiastical pieces and featured elaborate carving and gilding. Framers of that era were trained in many different art techniques, from sculpture to frescos.

“It was comprehensive,” she explains. “If you were going to be in the artisan’s guild, you would have to know so many things. They all knew how to make their own frames. They would craft their frames and embed their painting in there.”

The embedded effect of each piece’s framing gives the art contained within a presence - an importance - and centers the viewer’s attention on the neo medieval scene depicted within or in the vibrant portraiture of the characters one could find along the way. These portraits are Constantinov’s interpretation of the participants in medieval Europe, such as The Composer or The Alchemist, the titles of two of her works.

They are also as important to her as the oil painting housed within. She has been invited to do a workshop on how she utilizes the appearance of an embedded frame for her art, crafting it using traditional wooden frames and faux techniques to mimic intricate carving.

Constantinov holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Amherst College in Massachusetts. Her experience traveling domestically as well as internationally honed her appreciation for the “old world” as Europe is often referred to by late 19th and early 20th century immigrants to the United States. She taught printmaking at Bob Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop, Manhattan and refurbished a castle stone church complex in Ann Arbor into a bed & breakfast and 22,000 square foot art gallery. That project also took on a neo medieval style, she says.

“A Moor in Venice (Organ Grinders Monkey)”

See more of Kei's Art

Constantinov moved back to Michiana a few years ago. A vacation trip to the area to visit family felt like coming home. Plus, her former family home was for sale. This is where her art journey began – at that home in Trail Creek growing up with her father’s encouragement of what has become her life-long passion.

“He built me my first easel,” she recalls. “He taught me how to paint in oils when I was a tiny girl. We would dig clay by Trail Creek, and we would sculpt.”

Today, she practices her art in an upstairs studio of a house in Michigan City. Finished works are scattered throughout her studio, including some three-dimensional figures inspired by Mechtild’s tale. Some newer works stray from historic portraiture. Constantinov is working on pieces for an exhibition the focus of which is the Year of the Rabbit. These are still presented within her signature embedded frames.

Looking ahead, Constantinov says she always prepares for the future.

“I probably shouldn’t,” she says, “I’m a malcontent.” That future may also include a trip this autumn to the International Center for the Study of Painting in Orvieto, Italy. It is housed in a medieval city on a volcanic plateau about 60 miles from Rome.

“When I first heard about it, I said OK and put it on my bucket list,” Constantinov says. “It’s not on my bucket list anymore; I’ve moved it up to way at the top.”

EVERYTHING WONDERFUL & MYSTICAL KEI CONSTANTINOV