Working with intent | Ioana Niculescu-Aron
I do not impose. I allow myself to start instinctively. I keep my mind clear for a handful of tools and inspirations that I am in love with. I play with them in different ways and slowly find my way.
I am a woman, a mother, and an artist, but I have never identified with feminism. I would be lying to myself if I cited it as one of my concerns. I am obsessed with finding a formula that integrates painting into different environments, that makes it more prominent in our everyday. I would love to see contemporary paintings in theatre settings, at music concerts, as children’s book illustrations, in the world of cinema, etc.
No matter what topic I reflect on, I come up with hidden meanings and connections. That is who I am. A painter that doesn’t ever stop making links and associations between elements. In this case, expanding a painting's universe is a way of building subtle connections between the art fields. I am a connector of images, thoughts, and impressions within my mind. This approach contributed towards my chosen artistic route with painting, installation, and an interest in environmental art being central.
Sometimes, “installing the painting” and this act of curation pushes me temporarily further from the act of painting. It is the moment when I immediately switch the rules of the game and return to painting to charge my batteries and feel closer to myself. The strange thing is that afterwards, I do not resist the temptation of sketching an installation or thinking of a new setting.
"I am a woman, a mother, and an artist”
I am a passionate observer, that loves to be by myself and with my own thoughts. I often detach from moments of my life and live them as I would watch a movie, from the outside. This helps me to focus on the composition, in the same way that I do if I look at a painting in an art catalogue or in a museum. I select objects and combinations of colours that I like and memorise them on a list in my mind. Collecting all these fragments from my surroundings is the first step. I then analyse each one and find different contexts for them. I love watching things that are not in their place, which in my art is translated into the fact that I instinctively bring together strange combinations.
What helps me to not become trapped between the fight of a romantic painter and writer, and the analytical researcher is my purpose. Knowing where I want to go helps me make decisions. I am in competition with no one else but me. I must always find the balance between my visionary voice and my existential need to create which is only fulfilled when I paint, write, make sketches of settings, and shoot. The experience convinced me that I must listen to what my talent does first and not become distracted by activities I’m not madly in love with.
"I always reserve some time for random play ...”
Of course, the fact that I have been experimenting with so many mediums, adds a layer of complexity to who I am. Within my practice I always reserve some time for random play and push myself to make compositions that take my creativity out of my own comfort zone. I believe this enriches my practice and perspective. I do it out of caution. It is a way of making sure routine will never define my art.
In the last two years I spent a lot of time working on small projects that apparently held me back from my ambitions as a painter (working meticulously on an artist book project, a series of book objects, and working on the new E T A J magazine). I decided to focus on these, as they are great exercises in playing with compositions that include elements from different art fields (text and image). Here, I come back to what my very first ambition as an artist was (mentioned in the beginning of this text). I think it is important to also identify my actual place on the map of my intentions, so here it is: I am going through a phase of learning possibilities to mix those images and ideas that my mind is already full of. In parallel, each time one new project idea comes up I write it down and archive it carefully. They are all parts of a huge puzzle that I consistently work towards every single day. The fact that I know where I want to get to makes the slow rhythm acceptable. It is useful to stop, look back from time to time, and ask myself what brought me closer to my purpose, and how do I make it better.
by Ioana Niculescu-Aron
All images shown are the artist’s work - “Luxia”, installation, 150x150 cm, 2019-2022.
