Viktoria Gaw
Birthplace: Houma, Louisiana
Connection is what I look for.
Subject~ eyes~ alma~ hand~ brush~ paint~ canvas. I
look to express something in that particular person,
bridge, flower, that perhaps no one has noticed
before.
I used to paint entirely from my imagination. Dali
and Escher fascinated me. I’d see the picture first
on the canvas and then fill it in like a painting by
number. Currently, I am moved by painters like
Vuillard, VanGogh, Lautrec, Manet. Someday I hope to
bring the reality of what I’m doing now into the
fantasy I once created.
Once, I stopped painting. For 20 years pictures
swirled in my mind and then one day I picked up a
brush and painted a friend cooking in my kitchen.
Things that move but keep coming back and hitting
similar lights and poses, like musicians, public
speakers, trees swaying in the wind, the metro
train, are some of my favorite subjects.
I was born in Houma, Louisiana, just southeast of
New Orleans. I grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and
Red Bank, New Jersey. I lived in Santiago, Chile
during the dictatorship and was able to actively
participate in their change to a democracy.
Fascinating. Chile es la otra mitad de mî corazon.
Chile is my second home. Los Angeles has the other
half of my heart. I’ve been here collectively for 20
years. I love painting Los Angeles.
When I paint, I like to clear my mind so that I may
be a conductor of an energy that is hopefully new
and fresh. I look, constantly look, at what’s right
in front of me, at what I am painting. Sometimes I
wish I didn’t have to look at the canvas. Just
paint. |
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