Interview with Jan Astner
O-A: What is art to you? Is creating an urge, necessity or maybe an incontournable, essential way of life?
Jan Astner: It’s a journey. A very private, personal, yet in a sense public, open process of getting to know myself and the world that surrounds me. It’s studying everything in a very private but at the same time in any individual way.
O-A: What wouldn’t you do without art? What did you discover, achieve with it?
Jan Astner: I am fascinated by film. I dream to be a director. The film combines fine arts, music and anecdotes. As works, movies are more open, more comprehensive, inclusive than paintings. But it is true that abstract art allows for a very broad interpretation, which is often narrowed down in film. I know I sound a little bit confusing, am I?
.
O-A: If a person, artist or not, influenced you, what kind of question would you ask him/her?
Jan Astner: About his or her approach to our world, to our life. Because this is for me what art is about.
O-A: Who or what inspired you artistically; a person, artist, event, experience…
Jan Astner: Nature. What we can see in nature, both as the final effects and the process of development and change itself is purely surprising, amazing!
.
O-A: How do you search for inspiration and themes for your work?
Jan Astner: By observing the world and my surroundings. I come across matters and topics that are important or intriguing to me. Reflecting on their essence, I am looking for a form to study and to present them. This is how my paintings are created. How a series of them is created.
O-A: How has your art changed over time? Why?
Jan Astner: Each new series of images is a new challenge, a new area to explore. A new joy, a change. I am changing, evolving by studying selected topics.
O-A: Are you a synesthete? Have synesthetes ever commented on your paintings? How?
Jan Astner: No, but I dealt with synesthetic metaphors. I worked with musicians, people sensitive, susceptible to taste and smell. We carried out shows and studied the behavior and impressions of people taking part in them.
.
O-A: What names do you give your artworks?
Jan Astner: I call the whole series and then give numbers to individual paintings. it allows me to track the changes that are taking place in me, the development of ideas and artistic solutions.
O-A: What do you usually talk about with your collectors?
Jan Astner: Well, I would rather listen to what they have to say about my works!
.
Interview with Jan Astner
