In comes John (Seminary Road Artists) at ArtistiicAbandon, who can do precisely that. When I first came across his shop, I was amazed at the depth of his oil paintings and spent quite a long time looking through his listings. I love that through all the resell items and mass produced chaos on Etsy I can find an artist with such incredible talent. Each painting is just as breathtaking as the last, there is no way I could choose a favorite as they are all incredibly beautiful and moving. With well placed strokes and an abstract eye, John's creations are thought-provoking and insanely covetous.
1. How do you define art?
Art is an attempt to convey an intellectual or emotional experience or feeling, through any pictorial means. This is a little pedantic. I apologize for that.
2. How would you describe your art?
My art is an expression of loneliness, solitude, and longing. That’s kind of bleak, isn’t it? To justify the bleakness, let’s say there’s a lot of beauty in those things.
3. Name three adjectives that describe your artistic point of view.
Isolated, apart, and sentimental. Sentimental is surely a dangerous word to use. It might be better to use a word like melancholy, but I know that deep down inside I am indeed sentimental about life, about love.
1. Tidal Volume
2. Candle Light
4. Who has most personally influenced and inspired you as an artist?
I hope it’s all right to say I don’t know of anyone who’s much influenced me or my development as an artist.
5. Has your artistic sensibility changed since you first began?
Not really.
6. What inspires your art?
Talking about inspiration is a problem for me. Rarely do I feel inspired. Each day I get out my paint and brushes and try to make something out of the blank canvas in front of me. Painting has always seemed to me more struggle than inspiration.
1. Light Up
2. Cloudburst
7. Do you have a favorite artist from another field?
Not really. I’ve never been very good at being a fan or follower.
8. Who is your favorite competitor from your field?
As far as creation goes, we’re all equals (provided we’re all working hard at it). If I seem to have dodged your question here, perhaps it’s because I wouldn’t really know where I’d put myself in my field.
9. Do you have any occupation hazards or mishaps?
I can’t think of any. Oil paints, brushes, and canvas tend to be pretty innocuous. Sure, flake white is lead-based and cadmium paints might cause cancer if you use them improperly, but knowing your risks and how to manage them is a big part of life anyway.
10. What did you wish you would have known when starting out?
The thing is, I didn’t really know I was starting out when I was starting out, and everything that’s happened since has simply been part of learning what does and doesn’t work. Kind of like life again. One thing I knew at the beginning and that I’m happy I knew is that the only real way to get anywhere at what you do is lots of hard, hard work.
11. What is your favorite item currently for sale in your shop?
It’s so hard to have a favorite. If the painting’s in my shop, I’ve got some kind of love for it. That said, one painting I much like is The Wet Day. Another great favorite of mine is The Palais de Dance, but that sold yesterday.
12. Who is your favorite author? What was your favorite book as a child?
Right now I’m reading lots of P. G. Wodehouse. Wodehouse makes laugh out loud and want to fall in love. When I was a child? Probably an odd little hard-bound book titled Wolf Story.
13. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was a kid I never thought much about growing up. Maybe I was planning to be a kid forever.
14. Where is the farthest you have travelled? Where did you dream about visiting as a child?
I’ve never been farther west than California or farther east than Hungary. As a child I must’ve been happy where I was because I never dreamed of being anywhere else.
15. Which musician or musical group inspires you the most? What was your favorite childhood song?
I listen to Beethoven, his late string quartets, when the painting’s not going well and I need something to shut out the silence.
16. Where can people find you and your art online?
Right here: www.etsy.com/shop/
I love the use of colours, beautiful tones. My favourite is the last one!
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