I am…

In my series ” I am” I paint portraits of men who state their existence in one way or another. You might wonder why I didn’t choose for women considering this theme and subject. Being a woman myself, you should think that I’m, by far, more familiar with the female existence than with the male.

 “I am” (50 cm x 50 cm)                                                                                                                          2015 No longer available

 

But, for some paintings I feel men are more suitable. It’s my perception that they have a graphic quality in their appearance that women lack. And that’s what I’m looking for, especially in this series. So, it’s more about the visual aspect of the gender than anything else.

In this series I’m trying to create strong images by the abstraction of the faces. I see and treat the painting as a composition of forms and colors. But the story behind it is always on my mind.

  “I am new” 2016                                                                                                                                      (80 cm x 80 cm)

Because, the essence is that they are. Like we all are..

 

So it started with ” I  am” ( 50 cm x 50 cm) because it was the first. It ended up on a loving wall in Sydney, Australia. Then I painted “I am new” ( 80 cm x 80 cm) for the obvious reason. The third “I am here” (100 cm x 100 cm) I made after a close encounter of the very special kind.

 ” I am here” 2017 (100 cm x 100 cm)

The story behind “I am here”.

When someone enters your life totally unexpected and makes such an unforgettable impression that you think the impact of it will be felt forever and the echo of the impact will be heard until the end of times. That’s when you feel the urge to paint a painting like “I am here”. Cause (t)his existence is claimed in your life just by being there and then as in the here and now. 

  In front of “I am what I am”                                                                                                                (100 cm x 100 cm).

The story behind “I am what I am”.

Like my dearest nephew Benjamin suggested, while I was still working on “I am here”, this fourth painting in the series “I am” is called “I am what I am”. After the song by Shirley Bassey which has been adopted as a gay anthem.

The way I looked at it, this one should also had to have all the colors of the rainbow in it. As in the rainbow flag. But, because I thought that maybe would be too bright with all those saturated colors, I chose for the darkened versions.

Which means, all the shades of the colors of the rainbow, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, with a little touch of black. That’s a lot of mixing. But, that’s something I’m used to and as always I’m very anxious to see the final result.

For, at this moment it’s still a work in progress…