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• “I feel more alive in insecurity” – an interview with Devakrishna Marco Giollo

I feel I gave a little something, a little beauty to the world

By Diana Lagalante

An interview with the artist Devakrishna Marco Giollo

What is the trend color right now?

I don’t like the idea of the trend colors, but I like warm colors that transfer emotions to a person when the individual is looking at my paintings …

Who are your favorite artists?

I like Monet, Rothko and also Klimt. Picasso as well, in a certain way, because he is the type of artist who breaks the rules and breaks out of the general scheme of things.

Who are the artists you dislike?

Edvard Munch, for instance. He does not care how the individual person reacts to his paintings. You can see all his depression and sadness pouring out of his paintings – which I think is egoistical.

So, what you are saying is that you have to take into consideration how people will react to your work?

Absolutely. This is the first rule! My work attitude is to start working when I feel “clean”, which means without any bad emotions that could be reflected in my paintings. I want to give my audience a good feeling and not scare them with my bad emotions. So, when I’m ready to work, nothing holds me back – it’s like enjoying a good, long ride.

I read on your website that you distinguish objective with subjective art, is this connected to what you just said?

This is so, my philosophy is objective art, which I connect to meditation. I want to create something: an object. Whereas 99% of art is subjective art, which has no relationship with meditation. Subjective art means you are pouring your subjectivity - your dreams, your imaginations, your fantasies - onto the canvas. It is a projection of your psychology.

The same thing happens in poetry, in music, in all dimensions of creativity – you [the subjective artist] are not concerned with the person who is going to see your painting, not concerned what will happen to him when he looks at it; that is not your concern at all. Your art is simply a kind of vomiting. It will help you, just the way vomiting helps: it takes the nausea away, it makes you cleaner, makes you feel healthier. But you have not considered what is going to happen to the person who is going to see your vomit. He will become nauseous. He may start feeling sick.

So when you are working on your paintings, you meditate!

For me painting is a meditative act not different from cleaning the dishes or my teeth, or working in my garden. When I paint, I am totally lost in the act of painting. It is a ’no-mind’ experience. What I am left with afterwards is a canvas that wants to go, wants to make someone or some place happy. When that happens I feel honoured and grateful; I feel I gave a little something, a little beauty to the world.