One painting style?
I’m often asked about the intended meaning of my works or about where I feel my style of painting fits in modern art movements. I can’t answer these questions truthfully because I don’t tend to analyze my creations from that position. I paint in a variety of styles depending on how I feel. Sometimes my thoughts feel like German Expressionism, sometimes they are pure Toulouse-Lautrec.
I’m told that it’s better to paint in one style, because it makes one’s artwork more recognizable to the public. I don’t think I can possibly paint in one style since I don’t feel the same all the time, nor do I believe that I should constrain and mutilate images that come to me so naturally. My paintings come to me ‘pre-packaged’ in a certain style and I try to transfer them onto my canvases the way I see them in my mind to the best of my abilities. I’ve been taught that an artist should always think about composition, colors, etc. when working on a painting. I stubbornly remain unorthodox since I don’t do that either. Instead I prefer to trust my mind to figure all the details without over-thinking them.
In college I was taught that it’s a common practice for artists to do preliminary sketches, but I was never able to see any fun in that. I like discovering where a blank canvas can lead me. For me it’s the most exciting part of being an artist. Each painting is a journey. Some people go into the wild to find themselves; I go ‘into the white’ to do the same, a white surface covered with gesso. Each painting brings me closer to understanding life. I’m still exploring life, which means that I’ll keep on exploring art.
