Interview for Artifex.ru, by Anastasia Teplitskaya
31.10.2015
Artifex: Tell us a bit about his very first paintings.
When i started painting, I began to portrait some of my rugby teammates, and on that case I was looking for the "strong" aspect in the "woman" and the contradiction or social prejudice that women shouldn't be muscular and angular, but weak and have smooth curves - society said... So I tackled some gender issues first. Plus I have a profound interest in anatomy, so my first paintings were made by contouring muscles and joints with single brush strokes...
After that I had a need to reevaluate myself and in a matter of self therapy I started paying attention to the people that surrounded me, that I admire certain details and strengths on them or that i wish I had.
I really liked the "Hide" and "Untitled", actually these works brought me to write you on the first place. They are so tense (in a good way). Who is that woman and why you’ve used this model not just once? Also, who are usually the people on your canvas?
That's interesting that you give importance to the subject. Most of the people give importance to what's the emotion that is being represented. I only paint people that i know; in painting that makes a difference, I'm not just painting a body or a subject, I'm painting a person that is close to me. I know how they move how their body reacts to my directions - or lack of them, where all the wrinkles and weird coloration goes on their skin.. The woman on these paintings is my best friend, which I admire very much, and besides her very good handle of self expressions and complete consciousness of how her body moves and looks to the exterior, she knows me, and knows what I'm looking for in preparing a painting. That makes using her as a model an easy task.
Would it be right to say that the people are your main inspiration?
Yes and no. Yes, I do work with people that i admire and their own emotional carriage that they bring to the photoshoots, but I always consider my work as a self representation. In a way that painting is my way of dealing with my own self troubles, and define my own emotions by using others as bearers and examples.
I’m sure that sometimes you face the moments of frustration or causeless sadness. How do you manage to get back into «normal»?
I don't. Frustration or sadness comes and goes, but it’s one of the main reasons that I paint and I discovered that it's a coping mechanism - or - a way to make me think and re-think about my own emotions. Most of the time I feel the "need" to pass through a difficult period (not self inflicted!), process the whole situation to finally get a closure. This "closure" is the beginning process to a new series of paintings. It's when i start thinking about ways to use someone else's body to emulate one or more emotions on my paintings. So for me, there is no "getting back to normal" I think normal might be overrated. All I can say is that my closures are my lucid moments: that’s when I know exactly what I want and what i will need to accomplish the final result.
I also was very impressed by the series of «MLNCHL». That was something I’ve never seen before. Something very new, very fresh. How did this idea come into your mind?
I have a few thoughts, but it would be really interesting to have your point on these paintings. What is the main idea?
The idea was to treat or represent the various ways of melancholy. So in the series of MLNCHL it's not movement that I wanted to represent, its 2 our 3 different ways of representing the same emotional state. This was the first step. The second, is the lack of the color black. In preparation for these paintings, I made a photoshoot with one of the girls on my rugby team in a full black studio, with a single light projector, and the results were very dramatic, in a way of Theater/stage dramatic, and dramatic as in feelings of sadness and loneliness. I wanted to accomplish the emotional recognition (by the viewer) without that kind of "help" making the "body" the self-proclaimer of the emotion and not the surroundings, so I decided to remove the “dark” from the picture and that's why the painting is broken, or has that feeling of "not finished".
31.10.2015
Artifex: Tell us a bit about his very first paintings.
When i started painting, I began to portrait some of my rugby teammates, and on that case I was looking for the "strong" aspect in the "woman" and the contradiction or social prejudice that women shouldn't be muscular and angular, but weak and have smooth curves - society said... So I tackled some gender issues first. Plus I have a profound interest in anatomy, so my first paintings were made by contouring muscles and joints with single brush strokes...
After that I had a need to reevaluate myself and in a matter of self therapy I started paying attention to the people that surrounded me, that I admire certain details and strengths on them or that i wish I had.
I really liked the "Hide" and "Untitled", actually these works brought me to write you on the first place. They are so tense (in a good way). Who is that woman and why you’ve used this model not just once? Also, who are usually the people on your canvas?
That's interesting that you give importance to the subject. Most of the people give importance to what's the emotion that is being represented. I only paint people that i know; in painting that makes a difference, I'm not just painting a body or a subject, I'm painting a person that is close to me. I know how they move how their body reacts to my directions - or lack of them, where all the wrinkles and weird coloration goes on their skin.. The woman on these paintings is my best friend, which I admire very much, and besides her very good handle of self expressions and complete consciousness of how her body moves and looks to the exterior, she knows me, and knows what I'm looking for in preparing a painting. That makes using her as a model an easy task.
Would it be right to say that the people are your main inspiration?
Yes and no. Yes, I do work with people that i admire and their own emotional carriage that they bring to the photoshoots, but I always consider my work as a self representation. In a way that painting is my way of dealing with my own self troubles, and define my own emotions by using others as bearers and examples.
I’m sure that sometimes you face the moments of frustration or causeless sadness. How do you manage to get back into «normal»?
I don't. Frustration or sadness comes and goes, but it’s one of the main reasons that I paint and I discovered that it's a coping mechanism - or - a way to make me think and re-think about my own emotions. Most of the time I feel the "need" to pass through a difficult period (not self inflicted!), process the whole situation to finally get a closure. This "closure" is the beginning process to a new series of paintings. It's when i start thinking about ways to use someone else's body to emulate one or more emotions on my paintings. So for me, there is no "getting back to normal" I think normal might be overrated. All I can say is that my closures are my lucid moments: that’s when I know exactly what I want and what i will need to accomplish the final result.
I also was very impressed by the series of «MLNCHL». That was something I’ve never seen before. Something very new, very fresh. How did this idea come into your mind?
I have a few thoughts, but it would be really interesting to have your point on these paintings. What is the main idea?
The idea was to treat or represent the various ways of melancholy. So in the series of MLNCHL it's not movement that I wanted to represent, its 2 our 3 different ways of representing the same emotional state. This was the first step. The second, is the lack of the color black. In preparation for these paintings, I made a photoshoot with one of the girls on my rugby team in a full black studio, with a single light projector, and the results were very dramatic, in a way of Theater/stage dramatic, and dramatic as in feelings of sadness and loneliness. I wanted to accomplish the emotional recognition (by the viewer) without that kind of "help" making the "body" the self-proclaimer of the emotion and not the surroundings, so I decided to remove the “dark” from the picture and that's why the painting is broken, or has that feeling of "not finished".
Have you ever heard about Adam Lupton? I firstly saw his works just a couple of days ago. Some of his works look similar to MLNCHL. I've never heard of him, but I really like his painting! His series “WHAT’S IN STORE FOR ME IN THE DIRECTION I DON’T TAKE” i believe is the closest to my line of work.
By the way, what does MLNCHL mean?
I named the series MLNCHL because I didn't want the public to react to a title. Just look at a painting, read the title that said, for example: sadness - or - woman seated, and think: ok, this is sadness - or - yes, the woman is seated on a chair. I think that in some ways the title could destroy the relationship between a painting and a viewer. So the MLNCHL is only a weird name for viewers allowing them to see what they what to see, and name the emotion that they’re relating or have been feeling to. MLNCHL is only a name that I gave the work and it’s short for MeLaNCHoLy.
Was this the first time that you thought about communication padrons on the viewer? Why did you make this decision?
I made this decision because when I was painting the first series, some people liked one painting better than the other, and explained that “it reminded me of that time i was very down, and I can relate to this one better that that one”. I had a woman from the US saying that she had cancer (and beat it) and fell in love with one of the paintings because it triggered and emotion that she felt when she was diagnosed. When I was mounting the first solo show, a woman told me that she hated the feeling of the paintings because she had depression for some time and hated recurring to that feeling. So, I like that people bring their own experiences to what I do. It's part of the reason why I started doing portraits and accepting commissions: I wanted to create a bond between viewers and painting, and see how many different reactions I could get with a single painting.
Why do you use oil? To me, it gives your works depth and very strong link to reality. But what do you think?
I find oil more noble for the body than other material. It gives you power to build a colour in two different ways: with transparency, and flatness - characteristics that you can find all over someone’s body. Oil is great to make hundreds of skin colours, skin reflexions and depths. It’s more fluid-like so I can make brushstrokes that lasts a meter, maintaining the characteristics of the color. If i’m painting a leg (on large size paintings), or a line of hair I can do it without the color fading out or run out of the brush. And I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to oil mixing and pigment choosing. In the process of building a painting, it’s almost like a math test: “if i make a mixture with color A that has “this” much pigment, and add B, that’s more transparent, how much do i need to mix so that the result is more “flat”? I need to add color C.” It’s a challenge every time I switch models, I always need to learn new mixtures.
Do you feel satisfied when the painting is finally finished or there is always something like the voice of perfectionist that is never content?
Never. This is one thing that i learned to live with in painting. It will never be finished, or good enough. But i learn the hard way when to stop a painting. I have an OCD kind of thing that challenges me to make every single eyelash or wrinkle. But it depends on the type of painting. For commissions, like the one for the “Directors Room” at the Lisbon’s Military College, I painted the Director with his 12 medals with a magnifying glass and nail painting brush with probably 3 hairs. It took me ages to finish. And I didn’t give up any detail.
As far as I know, you graduated not so long time ago. What else do you besides the painting?
I graduated in 2012, and the following year I tried the Masters in painting at the same school to help me support my own practice, and it wasn’t what I wanted. But in the same year I got an internship offer as the director of a non profit art gallery for a national HIV association, that has a privileged gallery space in downtown Lisbon. I was responsible for curating, mounting and designing exhibitions, helping young artists, that I believed in on pursuing their own career. I put together and curated a total of 12 exhibitions. In between I helped curate and assemble other small exhibitions with friends. Other than that, I now teach painting and drawing to a group of seniors, I do yoga, I cycle and i do portrait commissions for private individuals.
Do you have any thoughts on what do you want to represent on your paintings next?
I’ll be dealing with the same subject. I have some new ideas, nothing substantial. In the meantime I have some commissions to finish.
Interview for Artifex.ru, by Anastasia Teplitskaya
31.10.2015
By the way, what does MLNCHL mean?
I named the series MLNCHL because I didn't want the public to react to a title. Just look at a painting, read the title that said, for example: sadness - or - woman seated, and think: ok, this is sadness - or - yes, the woman is seated on a chair. I think that in some ways the title could destroy the relationship between a painting and a viewer. So the MLNCHL is only a weird name for viewers allowing them to see what they what to see, and name the emotion that they’re relating or have been feeling to. MLNCHL is only a name that I gave the work and it’s short for MeLaNCHoLy.
Was this the first time that you thought about communication padrons on the viewer? Why did you make this decision?
I made this decision because when I was painting the first series, some people liked one painting better than the other, and explained that “it reminded me of that time i was very down, and I can relate to this one better that that one”. I had a woman from the US saying that she had cancer (and beat it) and fell in love with one of the paintings because it triggered and emotion that she felt when she was diagnosed. When I was mounting the first solo show, a woman told me that she hated the feeling of the paintings because she had depression for some time and hated recurring to that feeling. So, I like that people bring their own experiences to what I do. It's part of the reason why I started doing portraits and accepting commissions: I wanted to create a bond between viewers and painting, and see how many different reactions I could get with a single painting.
Why do you use oil? To me, it gives your works depth and very strong link to reality. But what do you think?
I find oil more noble for the body than other material. It gives you power to build a colour in two different ways: with transparency, and flatness - characteristics that you can find all over someone’s body. Oil is great to make hundreds of skin colours, skin reflexions and depths. It’s more fluid-like so I can make brushstrokes that lasts a meter, maintaining the characteristics of the color. If i’m painting a leg (on large size paintings), or a line of hair I can do it without the color fading out or run out of the brush. And I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to oil mixing and pigment choosing. In the process of building a painting, it’s almost like a math test: “if i make a mixture with color A that has “this” much pigment, and add B, that’s more transparent, how much do i need to mix so that the result is more “flat”? I need to add color C.” It’s a challenge every time I switch models, I always need to learn new mixtures.
Do you feel satisfied when the painting is finally finished or there is always something like the voice of perfectionist that is never content?
Never. This is one thing that i learned to live with in painting. It will never be finished, or good enough. But i learn the hard way when to stop a painting. I have an OCD kind of thing that challenges me to make every single eyelash or wrinkle. But it depends on the type of painting. For commissions, like the one for the “Directors Room” at the Lisbon’s Military College, I painted the Director with his 12 medals with a magnifying glass and nail painting brush with probably 3 hairs. It took me ages to finish. And I didn’t give up any detail.
As far as I know, you graduated not so long time ago. What else do you besides the painting?
I graduated in 2012, and the following year I tried the Masters in painting at the same school to help me support my own practice, and it wasn’t what I wanted. But in the same year I got an internship offer as the director of a non profit art gallery for a national HIV association, that has a privileged gallery space in downtown Lisbon. I was responsible for curating, mounting and designing exhibitions, helping young artists, that I believed in on pursuing their own career. I put together and curated a total of 12 exhibitions. In between I helped curate and assemble other small exhibitions with friends. Other than that, I now teach painting and drawing to a group of seniors, I do yoga, I cycle and i do portrait commissions for private individuals.
Do you have any thoughts on what do you want to represent on your paintings next?
I’ll be dealing with the same subject. I have some new ideas, nothing substantial. In the meantime I have some commissions to finish.
Interview for Artifex.ru, by Anastasia Teplitskaya
31.10.2015