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Carmen KOD Art

@paintforpeacephd

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Mixed-media artist +
PhD psychologist
Vulnerability, vitality, impermanence, and the illusion of our separateness.
DM to connect, inquire, collab
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Don’t Tell Me What I Cannot Do Not shouted. Not whispered. Just this. Mixed media on Paper (May, 2025) 18x24in [ India ink, watercolor, gauche, oil, fabric, hair, thread, black swamp clay ] (The image is already doing the thing. The title is a record of how often we’re asked to prove it.) I’m leaving it here my friends, with so much love to all of you doing the things. Under-resourced survival, rescue, & resistance — under scrutiny. The image is already doing the thing. The title is a record of how often we’re asked to prove it. You’ve got this. AND so do I. AND we ALL need support. Biggest love in all directions, Carmen #mixedmediaartist #howtobeanartist #abstractfigurativepainting #psychologicalart #emotionalrealism #timelineart #artislife #iamhere #zenartist #survivalart #galleryartist #carmenkodart #laart #newyorkart #chicagoart #clevelandart #artspeaks #artgirlrising #carmenoemigdworsky Mixed media painting featuring a cloaked figure with flashlight in lower left, flashlight beam shines to a child like form swimming just out of view in a Red Sea heading toward a hand that is out of scale of the child but in scale with the butt0ck of a person bent forward (only legs and bum visible with rest dissolving into sea or room-like architecture that holds a whisper light meditating figure with an anatomical heart. On the upper line of a he flashlights beam a human adult figure is balanced precariously with a head in motion or ghosted (open to interpretation). The figure has elongated arms with one reaching back to the meditating figures heart, the other grabbing hold to fabric that hangs along side a basement easement window and above the cloaked figure with the flashlight by @paintforpeacephd
114
a year ago
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Human Route (2024) There is a fragile beauty in human connection—the ways we collide, hold each other, and sometimes heal. ⭕️ This piece emerged as a meditation on interdependence and the illusion of separateness —- The intimacy and estrangement it makes nearly inevitable. ⭕️ Watercolor’s unpredictability mirrors the complexity of being human in ways I appreciate. ⭕️ through these layered textures and abstract forms, I hope to create a space for reflection. ⭕️ Beyond decoration, I aim for my art to transform, evoke, and invite conversations about what it means to be human; together. 🫀What is the first relationship or experience that comes to mind when you observe this piece? Or is it the context you notice first? There is no wrong answer here, just opportunities to connect through art. I hope you will join me. Big Love, Carmen Carmen Oemig Dworsky @danielsmithartistsmaterials watercolor on hot press. #contemporaryartwork #watercolorart #figurativeabstraction #spoonieart #HumanConnection #transformativeart #artcollectors #EmergingArtist #ArtCurators #artislife #ArtGallery #artoftheday #carmenkodart #carmenoemigdworsky The watercolor painting includes bruised purples, earthy ochres, and grayed greens—they are bold yet understated, speaking to themes of resilience and fragility. There is an interplay of softness and sharpness, as the brickwork and geometric grids of the background seem to almost dissolve into the bodies that show areas of matter-of-fact exposed bone. There are two figures, one standing one kneeing, they are holding each other, but the relationship and felt sense of the two is as unclear as it is be human. Carmen KOD Art is digitally written at bottom left. The artist has also signed the painting Carmen KOD. by @paintforpeacephd
119
2 years ago
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Unarranged, 2025 I made this. Trusting you to meet it. Slide for detail video. Sending big love, Carmen 24x18inches Original work by Carmen K. Oemig Dworsky (Carmen KOD) Alt text: Abstract figurative painting titled Unarranged, measuring 24 by 18 inches. The artwork features three organic, body-like forms in deep red and brown tones clustered together meeting in such a way around a central closed cluster of markings that may read as stamen or face. All is set against a textured, mottled background. A muted green, stem-like shape extends downward from the forms. The surface shows layered brushstrokes, tonal variation, and a worn, tactile quality, suggesting embodiment, duration, and persistence without resolution. #contemporaryart #abstractpainting #originalart #womenartists #slowart #psychologicalart #embodiedart #durationalart #longcovidartist #paintingpractice #contemporarypainting #artistsoninstagram #carmenkodart #carmenkoemigdworsky Abstract figurative painting titled Unarranged, measuring 24 by 18 inches. The artwork features three organic, body-like forms in deep red and brown tones clustered together against a textured, mottled background. A muted green, stem-like shape extends downward from the forms. The surface shows layered brushstrokes, tonal variation, and a worn, tactile quality, suggesting embodiment, duration, and persistence without resolution. by @paintforpeacephd
79
7 months ago
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Object Permanence Inside thoughts below ⬇️ Detail images on swipe ➡️ Sometimes a titling a painting is truly puzzling. I don’t want to hand you a solid thing for something that isn’t solid. Object permanence may seem in conflict with that, but in psychology it’s a term to describe a stage when we understand that things continue to exist even when we don’t see them. And so — here I offer 'Object Permanence' as the stand-in for my only other possible title: “Holding and letting go, never letting go and never being held — reaching back, meeting just in time, and too late, and maybe never… etc.”You see, it’s a real pickle 😅. I hope you find all the things you find in this, and hold them lightly. What ARE you finding here? There are no wrongs, it's for you. Meeting you in paradox and love, my friends. Thank you for being here. Original painting 9×12in (23×30.5cm) by Carmen Oemig Dworsky @paintforpeacephd Accessibility descriptions in alt text #carmenoemigdworsky #contemporarypainting #newwork #emergingartist #psychologicalart Watercolor and ink on paper by Carmen Oemig Dworsky. A foreshortened forearm and hand extend from the upper right, painted in dusty rose and brown with small strokes of gold and plum worked into the flesh. The hand is rendered in dense black crosshatching; at the point where a fingernail meets skin, a mark of deep red bleeds outward. A single fine ink thread descends from the hand to a small black oval — a pull-ring/pin or swing — near the lower center, its interior pale and empty, with two small hand-like forms gripping its rim. The background is a soft, stained field of off-white with scattered mauve and ochre ghost-marks, and a faint grey shadow at left suggests a seated figure that isn’t there. by @paintforpeacephd
40
7 days ago
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Wondering where THIS messy person went? Well, just in case, please know, I'm still all here 😅. I'm ashamed (🫣 not logical, but still true) and frustrated to say that I think I only continue to worsen (health-wise) in most ways. No matter what you see on a given day in what I post —the story you might divine, or I might tell through my art —I am a wholly imperfect hurting and grateful; scared and joyful, human. AND The hardest times to be witnessed ARE the messiest. I know that about me and I know that about most of you. We are built to stay as acceptable as possible and sometimes we do it by cutting off the parts that make us most vulnerable and connected to one another. So, in my former work and in this work, I will always endeavor to stay with myself...or return to myself. Because it is the only shot we have at really meeting one another. Here I am, Climbing into bed, 2026 (watercolor and colored pencil on paper). May we (collectively) find one another and grow better for it. Even those among us who make up the #millionsmissing 🫀 Big love in all directions, Carmen Accessibility descriptions are included in alt text. Original art by Carmen Oemig Dworsky @paintforpeacephd #carmenoemigdworsky #painting #medicallycomplex #psychologicalart Abstract figurative mixed media painting in watercolor and colored pencil depicting a woman with messy hair, too many arms (almost spider-like) and pained expression climbing into a bed with bare springs. Original work by Carmen Oemig Dworsky PhD by @paintforpeacephd
41
10 days ago
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Brain Fog In Bed, 2026 Watercolor and gouache on paper. Just this. Thank you for being here in all states of matter. Love, Carmen Accessibility description in alt text. #contemporaryartist #selftaughtartist #brainfog #carmenoemigdworsky #abstractfigurativepainting Abstract watercolor in muted lavenders, grays, browns, and blacks on white paper. A dark sweeping diagonal gesture crosses the center like a wing or a body in bedding. Above it, a pale purple crosshatched grid; upper right, a soft-edged vignette of a window with branches and dark foliage. Below, rows of short horizontal black dashes and vertical brown drips dissolve into hazy violet washes, as if seen through fog. The whole surface feels veiled and waterlogged, with forms half-emerging and sinking back #psychologicalart by @paintforpeacephd
51
16 days ago
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Slide for full collection of images Ceilings and Floors; Windows and Doors Yes, strange. I don't make the rules...it's in the water 😅. (2026; watercolor & gauche) Sending you great love and great compassion for every bit of wild and tame in you. ~ Carmen Mini Artist Bio: Original art by Carmen Oemig Dworsky Self taught artist, endlessly schooled PhD psychologist and mom with a 30+ year Zen practice (not nearly enough 😅). Impatient, patient with chronic illness and AI ethicist making human art and content...mostly from bed. Who wants a Mini Artist statement ? 😉 Accessibility descriptions are detailed fully in alt text for each image Full view of a painting by Carmen Oemig Dworsky in Watercolor and Guache in plum, ochre, and gold. Upper left, a mantis-like figure with large cat-slit eyes gazes out, humanoid hands clasped beneath its face in prayer or plotting; loops of gold circle below it, readable as beads or shackles. A wide diagonal band crosses the center — at a glance a giant foot pressing down through the composition, up close a wall of windows, doors, and ladders, some openings glowing white, some deep olive green. Small silhouetted figures stand at the lower left and then dissolve into the architecture. Lower right, a mother in profile bows over a swaddled infant held to her chest, bassinets in a row, warm orange light pooling around them, directly beneath the descending heel. by @paintforpeacephd
40
20 days ago
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Dharma Room, 2026, Watercolor on Paper. This painting gets to be whatever it is for you. For me, Dharma Room isn’t just that little space in the back with the plinth and the people seated facing the walls. It’s ALL of it. [swipe through for details] It’s the bowing robes — that blue-grey — and the counting, and the red energy of ten thousand years of trying. It’s the pulse lines that move through the mala and out into something that can’t be contained anymore. And…it’s the needle stitching our red thread right into chaos because that’s where the door is. None of us walk into a dharma room through a gate of completion. We usually walk in because something feels sufficiently broken to require it — to force a space to ask… What am I? What is this? Why? …In earnest, in a place where no one is handing out answers. And so a space opens (literal or figurative really doesn’t matter) to receive the question. 🫀🫂 There is a saying, “more suffering necessary.” NOT to mean that people should suffer more — but to notice out loud that sometimes it seems that we are so entrenched in repetition that suffering must grow so egregious that a person / a people / a nation / a globe / will finally do the work to wake up and do what is right. And then, do it again, and again. I wonder, right now, are we there yet?🌱 This painting is something like a prayer that moves from the chaos at the door to the endless courageous effort born of great compassion that saves this world. It’s a lot. But, what else? I’d love to make this art piece on monumental scale someday. Would you walk in? Where would you start? Thank you for being here. Love, Carmen #carmenoemigdworsky #carmenkodart #contemporarywatercolor #artspeaks #newcontemporary A vertically oriented watercolor painting on paper by Carmen K. Oemig Dworsky, PhD in a palette of deep red, blue-grey, and olive green against warm white. The composition is dense and layered, holding multiple symbolic spaces. At the left and center, a large curved arch — rendered in blue-grey horizontal striations suggestive of timelines, forming a conch-like head-covering for a Buddha figure depicted lower right — shelters the heart of the painting. A red beaded mala traces the archway, beneath which a grey wash reveals a dharma room of meditating figures above expressive dark strokes evocative of vegetation and brambles. The mala counts its way through the composition, some beads pulsing with vital signs — heartbeats moving outward from the practice space into the red energy field beyond, where concentric wave forms in deep red interpenetrate with pools of blue — ten thousand years of trying. To the left, a flower rendered in loose orange and red linework bows on a curved stem, its head unraveling. At center, two transparent glass vessels hold three upright red flowers, stems visible through the glass. One flower exhausted, three erect. Near the lower right, almost invisible, a threaded needle extends from the mala’s end and stitches into the looser, darker, unresolved marks at the bottom of the painting — a tending to the disarray at the dharma room door. by @paintforpeacephd
70
3 months ago
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Chronic, 2026 | 24 × 18 in / 61 × 46 cm 🤞🏼••• hold the dots and scroll for details🫀 Chronic is roughly a year of slowly transmuting and layering the various experiences of being in time inside a b0dy that is both fragile and resilient — even as it may not feel so. Sometimes Chronic was under my bed for weeks at a time and others, weeks on the wall, and hours lying in bed next to her painting. Chronic went through many variations and material transformations to land here. And she may change again, but for now, my alone-time with Chronic has shifted. She is complete and ready to be witnessed. I welcome any questions or experiences that hit when you see her. What is your first reaction? Your second? Materials: acrylic, India ink, watercolor, embedded human hair, and collaged sandpaper on paper. #painting #ContemporaryArt #figuration #carmenoemigdworsky #artofinstagram Description A mixed media painting on paper of a figure seated in a wooden chair (constructed of collaged lavender sandpaper) with an open slatted back. The figure’s chest is open, ribs painted expressively in white over deep red and black. The belly is full and luminous, pale yellow-white. The figure’s arms rest on the chair’s armrests and end at the forearms with no visible hands. The face is layered and worn similar to a weathered bust, with visible texture suggesting erosion or age, and warm brown eyes with small highlights. Human hair is embedded in the surface of the painting. The background is cerulean blue with tonal variation suggesting shadow. The lower body is clothed in dark pants. The figure faces the viewer directly against the blue ground.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Original mixed media painting by Carmen Oemig Dworsky on paper of a figure seated in a wooden chair (constructed of collaged lavender sandpaper) with an open slatted back. The figure’s chest is open, ribs painted expressively in white over deep red and black. The belly is full and luminous, pale yellow-white. The figure’s arms rest on the chair’s armrests and end at the forearms with no visible hands. The face is layered and worn similar to a weathered bust, with visible texture suggesting erosion or age, and warm brown eyes with small highlights. Human hair is embedded in the surface of the painting. The background is cerulean blue with tonal variation suggesting shadow. The lower body is clothed in dark pants. The figure faces the viewer directly against the blue ground.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ by @paintforpeacephd
73
2 months ago
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Nostalgia (2024; pre-revision) There’s a bittersweet ache in the way memory shapes us. This piece is my attempt to capture the pull of longing—the beauty and pain of holding onto what’s already gone or can never be. In this version, muted reds and yellows intertwine with soft, blurred edges, evoking fleeting warmth. Layers of translucent washes form a veil, perspective is distorted…hints at things just out of reach. Perhaps like memories that fade and fracture with time. Also, for me, this piece holds echoes of my motherhood, the ways I sometimes don armor over my softness to protect and advocate for kids who are used as expendable political tools. This armor and fight are not always easy to remove even when it’s my tenderness that I want to wrap around them and infuse into our collective memory. Revisions have changed this painting but this version felt raw, vulnerable, and honest. I see both the imperfections and the truths it held, and I wonder if you might see them too? I’m finding I appreciate this space here— before the story is all told and tidied. Do I get to make this stylistic choice? I think I do! #ContemporaryArt #EmotionalArt #AbstractPainting #protecttransyouth #ArtCollectors #GalleryArtists #EmergingArtists #VulnerabilityInArt #TransformativeArt #motherhoodinart #artislife #carmenoemigdworsky Materials: Watercolor, gouache, ink on 9x14in coldpress paper Nostalgia (pre-revision) 2024 by Carmen KOD. This painting includes a bank of windows back right, a door in the back left appearing to add light to the space. A woman is in the foreground with a bit of a protective angular 1-line design for arms of shirt, and similarly angular blue hair. By contrast, Her face and torso are made of rounded forms. She stands at a kitchen counter sink filled with bubbles washing a coffee mug that has just enough letters showing to see it was a hand made gift from a child that says, “I love you, mommy” the sink is situated at a window which is only slightly visible at the bottom of the page. We view her as if we are watching from a bit above and beyond her somehow. That is we are watching her from outside of the front window washing a cup. by @paintforpeacephd
29
2 years ago
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Untitled (Holding Pattern), 2025 watercolor on paper Alt Text: Watercolor painting on paper showing elongated vertical green forms descending toward clustered stone-like shapes, with a soft blue wash across the lower left and an orange, hand-like form entering from the upper right against a pale background. #watercoloronpaper #contemporaryart #abstractpainting #psychologicalart #carmenkodart #carmenoemigdworsky Untitled (Holding Pattern), 2025 watercolor on paper Watercolor painting on paper showing elongated vertical green forms descending toward clustered stone-like shapes, with a soft blue wash across the lower left and an orange, hand-like form entering from the upper right against a pale background by @paintforpeacephd
44
7 months ago
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High Tide, 2024. Watercolor and acrylic on paper. Description: Abstract figurative painting of a prone and birthing figure lying in a position that clearly requires work as the upper part of the body is unsupported. The laborer lies beneath a large fetal shape emerging from its lower half. Inside the fetal head shape is a moon and the junction of the two figures crests in a wave. There is a faint window behind the prone figure’s upper half. There is a touch of crimson soaked in to the “floorboards” of the painted frame. The remaining slides show the painting in a frame above a styled console table. #watercolor #acrylic #psychologicalart #birthing #contemporartyartist #artgallery #narrativeart #caregiverartists #carmenoemigdworsky Abstract painting of a prone figure lying in a position that clearly requires work as the upper part is unsupported. The laborer lies beneath a large fetal shape emerging from its lower half. Inside the fetal head shape is a moon and the junction of the two figures crests in a wave. There is a faint window behind the prone figure’s upper half. There is a touch of crimson soaked in to the “floorboards” of the painted frame. Muted tones and allusions to connection through umbilical cord, grasping hand, wave, demonstrate the depth and tenderness in the unseen work by @paintforpeacephd
10
2 years ago
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