On the techniques I use

After experimenting with all sorts of traditional techniques, from oils, acrylics, watercolors etc., I have developed my own preferred “cuisine”. I use the technique that appeals to me at a particular moment. I most often use paper, in various forms from sheets to woven strips to paper maché, with pigments, ashes, plant fibers and resins or other binders such as beeswax on paper, wood or canvas or a combination of the 3.

I generally make my own paints from pigments and resins. Sometimes they are water-based and sometimes they are traditional encaustic paints, which are a blend of pigments, Dammar resin and beeswax applied to a surface using heat.

I apply many layers to enrich the surface to make it even more solid for the encaustic layers in the end, and to begin my conversation with the canvas. The materials themselves also condition the painting, teaching my hands what to do with them.

Just as in cooking I can feel hunger for a color or decide to add a little flavor with some text texture. Not just any text will do. I must find the one that is needed for the particular painting. It can be from a book that I am currently reading (as happened for the Aztec Pyramid Series) or there might be a need for a specific poem from one of my favorite poets...  It's a way of incarnating the poem into the painting.

And then of course to create a harmonious whole I often refer to the golden rule in its infinite variations. Because for me art has a very important function. To be beneficial and to help its environment.

What is Painting?

Perhaps a way of leaving traces where we have been, to know more where we are going. But because we are on a path, and everything we do has its importance, it’s important for me to carefully choose the materials I use. Painting is not just a question of an image, which is perceived by the eye and analyzed by the mind. There are more subtle interactions. The whole body is capable of perception. This explains why we feel attraction for something or someone. Or why in some environments we can experience uneasiness or on the contrary well-being and comfort. Because the material world is composed of vibration, the very structure, composition, and surface of the work influence how we interact with it. I do not produce works that make social statements. I prefer to create works that will give something to the perceiver. Be it an idea or sense of calm or simply a good feeling. Like Beuys, I feel that art has a mission of healing, and that is what we are here for.