Artospective: 14 Portraits by Eugen Varzic.

An Interview with Eugen Varzic.

Who and where are you from?

My name is Eugen Varzic. I come from south east Europe (based in Croatia) and I am a visual artistand painter.Beside paintings, I work on art education, my art workshops, on illustration and mosaics.

What brought you to Art?

Love for creation, and peace that it gives me.

Very early on, as a little boy, I defined myself as a painter. Basiclly, I didn’t like matemathic in school, I was a dislexic child lost in the system.The only world I understood was the one of art. In the very beginning, I painted on paper, benches, walls, but in 1999. I graduated in painting. Today I live my boyhood dream, wrapped up in this crazy time in which we live, and on which I did not count on when I was dreaming

Formal education is, by some, being pushed as an imperative, as an alibi. Going to study art, for me meant leaving the rows (yes, I was a soldier in the war) and throwing away the rifle to take the brush.

Art is the zone where I feel safe when thinking, expressing and questioning.

What is your driving force?

Creating, learning, leaving a trace. I want to do something that is rarely done in art. Something that leaves the observer outside their comfort zone when standing in front of my art, and makes them ask if what they’re experiencing is in fact possible. This is where I try to survive and create.

This idea is what keeps me going, although I must admit, it is not easy. Almost every day I ask myself numerous questions, to which there is the only one answer: creation. This everyday ritual gives me a reason to live. A ritual of constant learning, changing, choosing the toughest path, constantly asking questions, with a clear head and faith.

I think that being a painter is a job where you are the loneliest. It’s a job by which I communicate with the world, and it’s easy to get misunderstood, but at the same time, art frees me from that solitude and confusion. Some vicious circle.

I paint in the same way I breathe. I stay the same, yet am in a constant change. This is how I entered the world of art and remained alone on that path. I’m not some” based artist”, as in an artist from Poreč, or from Istria. I do not belong anywhere. At least, that’s the way I feel, and the feeling is perfect. There is no drawer in which I can be shoved.

My paintings are like painted diaries telling me when I was happy, when I was afraid, when I was painting hypnotically … when I was hungry. When I succeed,I will be happy, not only for myself, but because I will show those who believed that I would, and to those who doubted I can.

What kind of work you do and why?

At the moment I am painting a lot, but in the meantimeI work on drawings that will be usedfor a large mosaic project. While painting I am constantly changing, so in the past year I remained in the sphere of realistic painting, many call it hyper-realistic, but for me hyperrealism belongs to the past. The fact is that I have devoted my time to developing a technique that led me to radical change, and this leaves me questioning many things while I stand in front of my paintings.

When people ask me where does the inspiration for my paintingscome from, there is never one answer.Inspiration is a written word. It’s in history, religion, practically in everything. There’s inspiration in my neighbour, who may inspire me to create five new paintings. In the empty streets and deserted cities. Often at night before bed, I make sketches in my head for future ideas and paintings. The images come by themselves, sometimes they turn into dreams, and sometimes they move onto the canvas. Inspiration is in the history of art. In everything and everyone. Faces are like books. The face meets the tide of life, and before it draws back, I record it in paint. Figuration as an inspiration. Traditional painting as a starting point and as a commitment. Models are my friends, virtual and real. I love beauty and harmony with ordinary things and people.

Tell us more about your thought process.

When the slightest little thing,an empty street, the deep void in someone’s eyes, a song or scenery, maybe some wrong movement or light on someone's hands, stimulates creation I start with reflection first. I analyse what could be the meaning for the picture I'm going to paint, what's the message, which way is the way to its realization. What can be universally conveyed . In my art I like to be more emotional than intellectual. I like to be close to man, in all his virtues and disadvantages. I have high technical and emotional assignments; I hope to keep this one up to the end.

Please share with us the one modern artist whose work you find Interesting and why?

It is difficult to choose one, especially in today's times when all the shared information influences many; but I would like to point out figurative painting in the Spanish region that’s been present recently, particularly, the art scene that I personally met in Madrid. The names that stood out to me were Sebastian Velasco, Jason Butler, Eloy Morales, certainly Antonio Garcia Lopez and finally Andrew Wyeth; a painter of exceptional techniques that displayed the world around him through creating a kind of poetryfrom solitude, so close and necessary to me.