Doina T Anghel

Art for art's sake

 

To me, art is a way of life, not a career.

I started to sing, paint and play instruments from an early age, in my native Transylvania. My teachers and family suggested studying first at musical school but, a few years later, in high school, I switched to the fine arts. For the rest of my life, music and fine arts intertwined in my creativity.

 

I got a solid academic formation at the National University of Arts in Bucharest - at that time a six years full time classical program, including drawing, painting, sculpture, design and art theory classes. Those were the days...

A few years after graduation, in 1976, I left the communist Romania.

 

My first solo show – paintings and ceramic sculptures - was mentioned in a prestigious magazine by a journalist I never met and who missed the most challenging part of my work. This was my first warning about the intruders the art world is full off and the responsibility of the artists to defend their art. So I decided to improve my knowledge of the art theory and I got a Master degree at the Université de Montréal.

 

Gradually, I wanted my art liberated, detached from the physical object and exhibition walls. I left my  sculptures to disintegrate in nature and I switched to the digital image.

The digital technology and the existing software and hardware have significantly expanded my possibilities to create and manipulate the visual elements. This change allowed me as well to bring together the image and the sound. I don't compose music but I bring in the musician's creations to inspire and structure my visual art.

I badly needed an alternative space to present my work without the limiting institutional and commercial constraints of a gallery, and the Internet came to my rescue. Web exposure became the permanent and exclusive media where my projects are shared with the world without any kind of mediator. The platforms I use to expose my work are Vimeo, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram.

 

"Ghost artists” as myself are minimalist communicators, manifested publicly only by their creative concepts. My art focuses on self-reference – a great lesson I learned from Wassily Kandinsky.

 

There is a price to pay for this marvellous freedom:   I don’t have a name but I exist.