Redefining how art is seen and experienced ™
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Your aesthetic; while routed in fundamental art historical themes, is also very distinctive. I’m very interested in are artist with a unique vision places themselves within the art context; which other art and artists they are inspired and influenced by. Within the evolution of your artistic journey, have you found a specific affinity to certain artists, and if so, why? In reality, I always have to distance myself from what has already been done, in order to be able to carry out my own creative process, idealizing every single, intense and striking painting. However, I have an affinity with Impressionism, with its breaking of rules of paintings of its time, with its research and pictorial production without the focus on themes faithful to reality, as well as the light and the movement used in loose brushstrokes. In this context, Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin are painters who inspire me.
THE ARTIST SPEAKS: Cristina Maia Caetano
With each work, or as an artist as a whole, what do you wish to communicate to the audience, and how does this specifically effects the final work? Does this change with different works, or series, or does it remain the same with all of your creations? I wish to convey that there are other motivations and realities beyond what we live and know, just as parallel worlds coexist in harmony. I wish to convey that each one is the creator of his reality, that everything always begins in us and that the outside is only the reflecting mirror of each one. I wish to convey that it is possible for more harmony, love, peace and unity to coexist in the world. Also, that the real capacity of the human being to overcome obstacles considered impossible comes from a strong knowledge and confidence in himself. These messages are cross-cutting throughout my work, even when I perform thematic and educational paintings.
Which of your works stands out as a highlight, favorite, or significant point in your creative growth and development? And why was it most significant to you as an artist? I create each work with the same love and dedication, so for me all my paintings are unique and special and it is difficult for me to make a distinction. However, my painting "Autumnal Flowers” marked the beginning of my journey only with oil without mixed techniques, which allowed me to explore and look at the oil paint in a more intense and respectful way. On the other hand, my painting "Embrace your inner beauty" marked the definitive use of transparencies in my oil painting with a double effect highlighting as if "other windows" wanted to open it.
Artists always vary in the importance placed on communicating their own vision without question or limitation, and the emphasis and importance placed on the audience, and how it can and will relate to them. How do you feel when people interpret your artwork inversely, or is there one primary thing you hope to have the viewer experience? For me, art must be seen, lived and felt by the public, without which (for me, of course) the impact of art would have no meaning. Being the art a vehicle of communication of excellence, in the exaltation and transmission of feelings, I consider that the different interpretations of mine are salutary and an incontestable sign of life and interaction of personalities with different concepts and experiences. For me, the mere fact of the "interpretation of a work" means interest in it and that something inexplicable touches the "inside" of the person who saw it. And it is this "do not stay indifferent", as well as the arousing of feelings, which awakens a unique magic that only art in a peculiar way has, and that makes the world “toss and turn”, often unpredictably, such as a POWER that goes beyond human understanding.
The creative approach is a very personal methodology, and every artist differs when it comes to their artistic process. How do you approach creation- can you elaborate on your working process? My creative process begins inside my heart and my soul. Having the concrete idea of what I'm going to do is without doubt the first step linked to a deep introspection. After the idea arises in the silence of my being, there follows a lengthy process in the construction of the evolution thereof, requiring studies, sketches, research, field trips, always persisting in the appropriate response for the right consistency of what I intend to convey. I often feel the need to readjust and reset. The "painting" phase only happens when I know exactly what I'm going to do and how I'm going to do it. Then, during the painting realization, several steps are followed: screen preparation, idea sketch, placement of colors for steps consisting of several layers followed by intercalary drying processes and maturation of painting. All my creative process arises in isolation in my "atelier" accompanied by calm music and soft incense.
What are the principle themes and focus of your work?
The main themes and focus of my work consist of the invisibility of what is beyond human vision, in constant spiritual growth, conscious of the union of everything and everyone. For this, I turn to the figurative with analysis and preferential study of the human being, landscapes, symbologies and to nature with special focus on flowers, plants, animals and birds. Always keeping in mind the meaning of the "objects" in study allied to what I intend to convey. I transform "what I see", in what I "feel" with the eyes of my innerself. To these "ingredients" I mix the abstract with the colors and their respective messages, in a harmonious color complement. In all my work I always give a personal and unique stamp to every painting, which I intend to stand out from the visible reality, to allow the entrance of the dream, of the realization of ideas and the disclosure and construction of a better new world.
In a wider context, why do you think art is imperative for the world, and why is it important for you personally as artist? Art is always a revelation of something unattainable, higher to the mere human ego, and that touches the divine in the invisible. Art changes the vision of the present and helps build the foundations of the future. Art helps build a society and accompanies the growth of the same. Art is the indomitable, innovative and free soul of the human being. As an artist, art is for me my heartbeat that allows me to "be myself with truth". It is an inexplicable freedom of expression of my feelings and thoughts, without answering to the prejudices or fears. Just BEING…
In your evolution as an artist, (both creatively, conceptually and pragmatically), what has been the biggest frustration or obstacle? I compare the evolution as the rise of every step of every ladder of life marked by cycles that complement each other and interact between each other. Good or bad, these cycles mark and define resilience, wants, and love of art in a well-defined cry "this is what I want with all my being." For me, the little visible connection of my art to a specific current artist, allied with the joyful coloring of my work as opposed to sadness and darkness that haunts the world, have given me a deep self-knowledge and an indestructible faith.