Interview with Mihai Dascălu
O-A: What is art to you? Is creating an urge, necessity or maybe an incontournable, essential way of life?
Mihai Dascălu: Art is a way of putting my flowing thoughts, visual universe and energy into a still perspective, a way of giving access the outside world to my inner self. I feel art is an urge more often than not and act on it as it is an integral part of my life.
O-A: What wouldn’t you do without art? What did you discover, achieve with it?
Mihai Dascălu: I discover and reconfirm to myself that if I can dream it, I can make it. And let those initial seeds within my thoughts grow. I know I wouldn’t stop creating because creation is my way of growth, movement, protection, as well as detachement from the mundane.
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O-A: If a person, artist or not, influenced you, what kind of question would you ask him/her?
Mihai Dascălu: I would ask them what is their process from scratch thoght to final work, how do they translate mental image into matter. What is form to them and how do they perceive it.
O-A: Who or what inspired you artistically; a person, artist, event, experience…
Mihai Dascălu: I believe I am influenced mostly by mid-20th century geometric abstraction which I love. The legacy of Andrei Cadere, Sydney Ball, Geta Bratesu, Athony Caro, Frank Stella, to name just a few, is what keeps influencing me visually.
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O-A: What is a vivid memory of a remark concerning your art that got stuck with you?
Mihai Dascălu: „Tell me what am I looking at?” I am intrigued by the fact that some viewers are not feeling my art as obvious and they ask questions. I enjoy having different visual languages and representations to my viewers’.
O-A: What was the most interesting statement you heard about your work?
Mihai Dascălu: „I would like to touch it, it feels so threedimensional”. The feeling they have when viewing my works in photos is much different from the feeling they have while interacting my my art in person. „I felt your work’s presence in the room when you left, it’s like you where still there.”
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O-A: How do you search for inspiration and themes for your work?
Mihai Dascălu: I mostly look for materials that could help me get as close as possible to what shapes I imagine so basically I resarch „ways” to produce my art. The themes (the „whats”) are in my head, the „ways” are what I have to work through.
O-A: What names do you give your artworks?
Mihai Dascălu: I don’t particularly look for names in the first place but mostly try to label them whithin a series with a common feeling or visual sense. I number them. While I interact with the viewers I am happily surprised they perceive them different and usually pick the most strickingly different representation to mine… and attach it to the work.
Interview with Mihai Dascălu
