Maia Martin: painting by instinct
The ghostlike figures and floating symbols of a disciplined artist
Detail from: Miri Sub Soare
(eng: Newlyweds Under the Sun.)
Maia Martin recalls first beginning to explore the world of art at a very young age, when her mother, a painter herself, used to provide her four daughters with white sheets of pressed paper and some pencils, to see if they had any talent. Maia indeed took that gesture seriously, but her path in becoming an artist had many pitfalls. She recalls another time when her art teacher asked the class to imagine how prehistoric man created things. “I covered my eyes in order to create an atmosphere similar to a cave and suddenly I had a different perspective. I was painting guided by instincts as I had to forget all I had accomplished before. In the end, I liked the painting, though I cheated a bit adding some small improvements.”
Being handed responsibility early in life, and being taught to think for herself, has been a blessing in disguise. “The child’s nursery inside my mind is a mix of the full-figured Rubens nudes I admired in my mothers books on art; the endless conversations of doves I met on my way to the shop, and the faces of many people I’ve met,” she says.
Maia Martin says she studied hard and overcame ill health to get into art school. She always wanted to be a painter, though she loved books too. “I always loved to read. My love for knowledge helped me also as a visual artist, because some people don’t have the patience, as they want to experience things by themselves, but I think there is a lot to learn from the great masters.” Her attraction to words is clear as she has added her own texts to many of her paintings.
“Art is becoming more and more abstract today,” she says. A short story or poem can perfectly compliment a work of art. Together they kind of build a stronger universe, a more solid world.”
And looking at her paintings I realised her statements were not just some nice quotes from a book on aesthetics: her ghostlike figures hover as if in a dance and some of her symbols appear floating on a score page as the words became sounds, the sounds became ideas, the ideas became fuller and richer, with feelings and colour. Her characters move in search of something; or they just move because this was the purpose they were created for.
She works in television now, in a technical role, and paints in her spare time. She is an artist that loves discipline. At 28, she says she is finding her way. She wants to paint, the rest is circumstantial.
Andreea Şarcani, 16.08.2006
Sursa: http://www.vivid.ro
Being handed responsibility early in life, and being taught to think for herself, has been a blessing in disguise. “The child’s nursery inside my mind is a mix of the full-figured Rubens nudes I admired in my mothers books on art; the endless conversations of doves I met on my way to the shop, and the faces of many people I’ve met,” she says.
Maia Martin says she studied hard and overcame ill health to get into art school. She always wanted to be a painter, though she loved books too. “I always loved to read. My love for knowledge helped me also as a visual artist, because some people don’t have the patience, as they want to experience things by themselves, but I think there is a lot to learn from the great masters.” Her attraction to words is clear as she has added her own texts to many of her paintings.
“Art is becoming more and more abstract today,” she says. A short story or poem can perfectly compliment a work of art. Together they kind of build a stronger universe, a more solid world.”
And looking at her paintings I realised her statements were not just some nice quotes from a book on aesthetics: her ghostlike figures hover as if in a dance and some of her symbols appear floating on a score page as the words became sounds, the sounds became ideas, the ideas became fuller and richer, with feelings and colour. Her characters move in search of something; or they just move because this was the purpose they were created for.
She works in television now, in a technical role, and paints in her spare time. She is an artist that loves discipline. At 28, she says she is finding her way. She wants to paint, the rest is circumstantial.
Andreea Şarcani, 16.08.2006
Sursa: http://www.vivid.ro