I don’t care much for openings. Does anybody ever really look at the work on display? Sometimes it seems people talk about anything but the work on view. What I have found very rewarding are the times I have given guided tours of the exhibitions I have had and got to pay attention to the comments offered as I engage the viewer in understanding where my ideas come from. The following are a few responses to some questions that came my way.
I was explaining the concepts of a painting to a person and she replied that she found my comments very interesting because she thought the painting was just about the Venice Carnevale. I realized that a lot of people may very well think my work is just about that. Even though the masked figures from the Venice Carnevale end up in my work, what goes through my head is what ends up in the painting. I live in the 21st century, not in another century. Perhaps I try to create another reality than the one we inhabit.
Great artists are not afraid to have a conversation with the past or interact with the work of other artists. They are not imitators. They are interpreters of subjects that have been dealt with before.
Someone asked me why figures in my triptych are cropped off - why you don’t see the full image. I replied that actually if you look at all my work, it is all cropped. I only did one painting way back where you see the figure full from head to toes. I don’t know exactly why I chose this trademark but I can give you an explanation. Focus your gaze on the subject. Concentrate on what matters. Don’t get lost and look at somebody’s shoes.
In each of every one of my paintings, I use only a very limited palette - two, three or four colors at the most and then I add titanium white to the mix. Sometimes I ask myself if it would kill me to add another color to the palette. Obviously, it would because I never do. By using such a limited range of colors, I get to know each color in all its nuances. And maybe it brings out the minimalist aspect of my art.
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