What is the most fun about being an artist?
Inner freedom and openness of mind that that allows you to transcend the mundane aspects of existence. The cosmic giggle that reverberates from the core of inner self is just as much fun for me as it is meaningful.
…and the less fun?
Being exposed to the judgment of the contemporary culture value system can be brutally alienating. For me it was always all or nothing kind of a game and the ups and downs can be extreme, hard to plan a steady future. The toxic effects of conformity and consumerism make it harder for true art to be seen and recognized. Also when the money does come sometimes it brings with it the ugly side of people involved.
Describe your creative process.
I try to be sensitive to my intuition and follow the signs it gives me. Then I follow the feeling and try to distort the image repetitively until I end up with an image that satisfies this longing for peace and calm, even though it might be abstract or indiscernible to anyone else. .
Why did you chose aluminum as a media instead of canvas?
I like the smooth richness of color I get from sublimating on raw aluminum where the white color is void, it gives the feeling of sleek rigidity without being heavy or cumbersome. Image sublimated on aluminum transcends from a hi-def, hi-res digital image into a solid field of color, any kind of pixelation and highly measured boundary is eliminated.
Could you expand on your sublimation process?
The word itself signifies something changing form. Image is baked onto a sheet of aluminum using high heat and pressure and the paint or pigment went from liquid to gas to solid.
On what is your art iconography based? Which art subjects do you like working on the most?
I would say it's based on nostalgia for some kind of beauty that is abstract and fantastic to a different degree. Softening the hard lines of subject's identity whether it's a person or an animal or a car r just raindrops on the window can reveal a certain depth where a feeling or even a story can come through.
Who are your favorite artists?
Dali, Robert Williams, Kandinsky ...
You are also an automotive artist. What is it about cars that inspires you most?
Cars are the expression of the frantic explosion of the industrial, technical and cultural evolution in the 20th century. As sculptures they are the symbols of our times, they affect our lives to a different degree through the compromise of function and esthetics. I grew up on the coast of northern Yugoslavia which is now Croatia, listening to the sounds of the engines of Italian exotics winding up and down my street.
You were the first artist to be featured on the Jay Leno Show. How is Jay in person?
Jay has a kind of emotional intelligence that's very rare in people. He can "read" a person and lead a conversation with absolute ease. He is obviously happy to spend his weekends in his garage and his garage crew are the happiest and luckiest bunch of guys you will find anywhere, that says a lot.
Which profession rather than yours would you like to attempt?
It would be a fairly even struggle between a pirate and an architect, which makes for a zero sum game. Writing and directing is next to art as my main interest.
You are also a screenwriter. How did you learn how to write?
As an actor I met a screenwriter on a movie set and we decided to write something together. I learned the basics and just kept going.
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