I never start a work if I don’t believe in it. It may sound more drastic in this regard, but good things only come to me if I put all my soul and imagination into them.
Over time I have been asked many times if I make paintings to order and I can’t deny that I accepted several times at the beginning and during the periods of trying to find a coherent artistic expression. However, at the end of the works I was left with the feeling of an artistic uprooting, that the direction is the one I have to establish, not to follow someone else’s instructions. What I analyzed after, was that it lacked exactly the emotion of a natural development of creation (conception, technique and color calibration, message), in other words exactly the things I believe in the most. And that’s because the one who had commissioned a work from me became the artisan of his own vision, omitting that the artist is the one who should make his mark on a work of art.
The way a painter / graphic artist performs when he starts working has inimitable peculiarities and the intrusion of a second vision about “what it should look like” only stops the aspect of its uniqueness. I then felt a sense of artistic guilt and from then on I chose to paint only within the limits of what instinct tells me to do. Your own decisions, your own satisfactions or mistakes. I’ve been taking on the role of an independent visual artist for years, so nothing seems more natural to me than taking care of my creative freedom.
I wish you all inspiration and peace of mind!
Maria Marcu 