When did you realize that art is your path?
I grew up surrounded by the arts, immersed in the creation of people’s minds: books, theatre, images. Embracing all these vivid worlds around me, I was treasuring my inner world among them. From a very young age, all I wanted to do was to make art and I cannot think of a time when I wasn’t preoccupied with the creative act, even if just conceptually.
Due to the pressure of making a living that comes with moving to a new country in my early 20s, my art career didn’t have the smooth trajectory I wished for. Fortunately, I was able to find a way to maintain my art practice during those times.
How do you balance your various projects since you are a writer, a curator, an artist? Tell us a bit more about The Purposeful Mayonnaise…
I guess the old cliché “variety is the spice of life” stands true.
The Purposeful Mayonnaise is my brainchild and it came into this world in April of this year (2021). It was founded by me and my best friend, also an artist. It is a literary and art hybrid platform-journal that aims to provide artists and writers with a home for their work, a space to connect, and opportunities to increase their visibility.
The journal is published on the 15th of the even-numbered months (June, August, etc), and our content is submission-based. We also have a weekly feature section – The Bagel Hole – which updates every Friday. So far, we have showcased works from more than one hundred creatives from around the world.
What are you trying to communicate with your art?
My work is about memories: it explores the fragile and evanescent nature of memories, as well as the flow of time through the constantly changing landscape of memories. It revolves around the ideas of reminiscing, memory retrieval and memory preservation.
My aim is to turn memories into shapes and bursts of colour in an attempt to save fleeting moments.
You use different media. Could you tell us about the process of creation? How long does it take to move from an idea to a piece of art? Which media do you prefer?
My process is not set in stone. I go with the flow and try to let at least a few of the ideas bombarding me come to life. Most of them do not make it into actual works. My mind tends to jump from one thing to another and I find it tough to choose what to focus on. Because of this, I ended up surrounded by many unfinished or barely started pieces that have accumulated over the years.
In my works, the choice of materials is intentional and very carefully planned out, as it plays an active role in the memory depiction. I have always liked the hands-on manipulation of materials. In addition to painting, collages and fabric art I also worked with film photography. At the moment, I am drawn mostly to acrylics (there is something about the rubbery texture and rich color intensity that fascinates me), fountain pen inks, and chalk pastels.
To what extent does the pandemic influence your depiction of art? Does it generate new inspiration?
Online exposure and collaborations have bloomed during this pandemic, and that was great to see. I am one of those people who treasures solitude. During the pandemic the pressure of going out and socializing was gone, so I could dive deeper than ever into my thoughts and my practice. With galleries being closed, there was no incentive of producing finished works, that’s true, but this period of time provided me with the solitude and quietness I needed to become more honest with myself in terms of my creative projects.
How do you feel about being involved in an online residency program? How important is it to stay connected with the international art community?
This online residency program is a great initiative and I am grateful to be a part of it.
Earlier this year I had the opportunity to participate in a couple of online collaboration-at-a-distance projects. Even though these were very short-term collaborations, they made me realize how much I enjoy working with artists from various backgrounds and cultures. Since then I started looking for projects that would spread over a longer period of time and would involve a diverse group of people.
What are your thoughts about the theme ‘artist on standby’? Tell us a bit more about your project…
I think this theme is very relevant to how artists’ lives have been unfolding over the past year and a half. On a personal level, I’m tempted to think that coming across the theme of “artist on standby” was serendipity at its best. I have in my studio a blank canvas I’ve been holding on for a long while and ended up naming canvas on standby.
My initial plan for this canvas was to explore the theme of framed convergence, with a starting point in the convergence theory (psychology). Convergence theory is a conceptual analysis of collective behaviour and assumes that mobs, social movements, and other forms of mass action occur when individuals with similar needs, values, goals, or personalities come together. After giving it more thought, I think this topic aligns really well with the concept of standby during this pandemic and the theme of this online residency.
What do you want to achieve before things return to normal?
I am going to keep taking advantage of these times when everything is still slowed down to work on projects.
Any future plans/projects?
I have two ongoing bodies of work that I’m working on in parallel, titled Folded Memories and Etched [In My Mind’s Eye]. I am also looking forward to galleries opening in my area. In March 2021 I launched a series of collages – Overlap – and I can’t wait to have it exhibited in a physical space. Due to the pandemic-related closures, the launch took place online and in a 3D viewing room.