Barro.Donker.Artist "The conflict of creating art lies in the conflict of all human matters"

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Project 2015-2016

‘The conflict of creating art lies

in the conflict of all human matters’

“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

7 YEARS IN THAILAND. No not Mister Pitt in 5 stars in between shootings. Just for real a story of

surviving, thinking, accepting, painting, struggling, practicing meditation, reading, observing, kicked out of rooms and moving from place to place without direction.

The only direction I followed and always will is the direction of my brush trying to find peace with all the ups and downs as time slipped away as sand through my hand. Knowing without doubt that I am the

most privileged person on earth. 9th August 2014

a Confused- and Curious Mind has its

Confused- and Curious Life

Study for Project 2015/ 2016 ‘The conflict of creating art lies in the conflict of all human matters‘ Medium: Paper, Chinese inkt, Pencil and Oil. Technique: Mix media, printing, drawing and painting Size: 27 cm x 27 cm, in development for 3 m x 3 m Date: Okt/Nov 2014

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“The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy”

― Friedrich Nietzsche A confused- and curious mind has it’s confused- and curious life. I have always been interested in philosophy and psychology. Learning is about making mistakes and analyzing failures of thoughts and actions made by myself and others. One can only know themselves through others. By free will, forced by doing the wrong things and making bad decisions, I have been “privileged” to live in many different societies. At the end, for me, it’s interesting to see through all the same patterns and phenomena of human behavior in all societies. This is the reason that two decades ago I extended my interests into art and Buddhism. And eight years ago a took it to the next level by distance myself even further from Western society. Experiencing and therefore knowing that “The best weapon against my enemy drugs is my other enemy; Art”

“In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

Project 2015/ 2016 ‘The conflict of creating art lies in the conflict of all human matters‘ Seeking to draw up a code of conduct which would define what it means to be a true follower of my thoughts. Always searching to find a way, or just no way, within multiple choices of rational- and emotional decisions, based on comparison and duality. Because everything is related to everything. Knowing that every action has it’s reaction, founded on knowledge, experience and perception. This creates a personal truth and someone’s own reality. Therefore I interpret truth as fake. The absolute- or real truth is something else. It’s a pathless land, and cannot be approached by any way whatsoever. Not by any religion, any philosophy, any political system, any culture, any emotion, nor by any law of aesthetics etc.

Family Barbecue

Study for Project 2015/ 2016 ‘The conflict of creating art lies in the conflict of all human matters‘ Medium: Paper, Chinese inkt, Pencil and Oil. Technique: Mix media, printing,drawing and painting Size: 27 cm x 27 cm, in development for 3 m x 3 m

Date: Okt/Nov 2014

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“It is the truth of the mind, truth of its activities from moment to moment. If we are aware of this moment-to-moment truth, of this whole process of time, this awareness releases consciousness or that energy to be. As long as the mind uses consciousness as the self-activity, time comes into being with all its miseries, with all its conflicts, with all its mischief’s, its purposive deceptions; and it is only when the mind, understanding this total process, ceases, that love will be. You may call it love or give it some other names; what name you give is of no consequence”. - J.Krishnamurti Art as well has nothing to do with absolute truth or reality, it’s about creating an illusion. Accompanied by an inner conflict about witch side of the coin to choose. What is the fashion of the day or going the opposite of that fashion? Influenced by our inner aesthetics and the judgment of the external world. And this is where all the conflict starts. This is what I try to express, not only in a symbolic way, but also in a technical- and expressive way. Something I feel I never really achieved so far. Above all it’s me working on my art, reflecting the world, trying to make a bridge through my mind on to the canvas. Not in Abstract Expressionism, as one should expect, where practically (if I may be so bold) no rules exist, but in a Figurative Expression, tied to certain boundaries. But this is who I am. It’s a total and never ending conflict in all matters. ‘The conflict of creating art lies in the conflict of all human matters’. My intentions and ultimate goal are to paint with intuition, care and carelessness! Finally searching for an expression, which leaves the viewer’s wondering what it means. In other words, art creates friction and intellectual stimulation. Besides this I hope to achieve, through my work, that people step above their own brain computer (rusted solid perceptions) and go into a deeper level of observation and awareness. That there is no past, no future. And being more in the moment to be without any perception and judgment.

Bathhouse Study for Project 2015/ 2016 ‘The conflict of creating art lies in the conflict of all human matters ‘ Medium: Paper, Chinese inkt, Pencil and Oil. Technique: Mix media, printing,drawing and painting Size: 27 cm x 27 cm, in development for 3 m x 3 m Date: Okt/Nov 2014

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“One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star”

― Friedrich Nietzsche

After a study period of over two decades I put my 6 absolute favorite painters Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Pablo Picasso, Diego Velázquez, Francisco Goya and Rembrandt van Rijn together which I combine with my past drawings, paintings and in combination with printing technic (mixed media). Not my “classical portraits", there will be no more of this kind. I used them as a study to understand more the behavior of paint in a technical matter. Painting in any style is not the most difficult part for a painter. It’s mainly following the written rules and knowing some tricks of the trade and training. For me, the most difficulty and at the same time the burning challenge of the whole point is to turn on a more inner sense to come closer to my instinct and intuition. Painting in every sense is the same as life itself, it’s a dual performance, complementary and a challenging conflict to figure it out (Title of the Project ‘The conflict of creating art lies in the conflict of all human matters’). As an example, I try to live within the philosophy of Buddhism and on the other side there is sometimes a great deal of tension, aggression, frustration and even ambition. I feel my hang towards expressionism becomes stronger and stronger. I experience that, in the moment of working, the step towards abstractionism goes almost automatically. But the challenge for me is, in all cases, to work and fight it anyway in a figurative direction. Francis Bacon said “there is no tension in the painting unless there is a struggle within the object". I feel this is precisely and pure the way I handle the canvas in this moment of time. To paint I learn more about life than reading, thinking or listening and to see through I try to observe with more intensity than the day before. My new approach to every white canvas will be with a great deal of risk making chaos, disorder, creating, destroying and re-creating. Than more or less luck and chance will appear in an accidental process, which finally becomes a selective process. It’s not about understanding the painting or to tell a story, the story lies in the lines, rhythms, unexpected rhythms and expression of the paint, but to feel the balance through chaos and read the poetry of the total, hoping through hard work that one day I will get what I saw with no guarantee of success.

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring”

― Marilyn Monroe

Annette Study for Project 2015/ 2016 ‘The conflict of creating art lies in the conflict of all human matters‘ Medium: Paper, Chinese inkt, Pencil and Oil. Technique: Mix media, printing,drawing and painting Size: 27 cm x 27 cm, in development for 3 m x 3 m Date: Okt/Nov 2014

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“Everyone is indeed crazy, but the craziest are the ones who don’t know they’re crazy; they just keep repeating what others tell them to.”

― Paulo Coelho, Veronika Decides to Die

The Flower Garden Study for Project 2015/ 2016 ‘The conflict of creating art lies in the conflict of all human matters ‘ Medium: Paper, Chinese inkt, Pencil and Oil. Technique: Mix media, printing,drawing and painting Size: 27 cm x 27 cm, in development for 3 m x 3 m Date: Okt/Nov 2014

Surprise Party Study for Project 2015/ 2016 ‘The conflict of creating art lies in the conflict of all human matters ‘ Medium: Paper, Chinese inkt, Pencil and Oil. Technique: Mix media, printing,drawing and painting Size: 27 cm x 27 cm, in development for 3 m x 3 m Date: Okt/Nov 2014

School Trip Study for Project 2015/ 2016 ‘The conflict of creating art lies in the conflict of all human matters ‘ Medium: Paper, Chinese inkt, Pencil and Oil. Technique: Mix media, printing,drawing and painting Size: 27 cm x 27 cm, in development for 3 m x 3 m Date: Okt/Nov 2014

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“Life is always a matter of waiting for the right moment to act”

― Paulo Coelho, Veronika Decides to Die

Unknown Study for Project 2015/ 2016 ‘The conflict of creating art lies in the conflict of all human matters ‘ Medium: Paper, Chinese inkt, Pencil and Oil. Technique: Mix media, printing,drawing and painting Size: 29 cm x 23 cm, in development for 3 m x 3 m Date: Jan 2015

Mind Waves

Study for Project 2015/ 2016 ‘The conflict of creating art lies in the conflict of all human matters ‘ Medium: Paper, Chinese inkt, Pencil and Oil. Technique: Mix media, printing,drawing and painting Size: 43 cm x 32 cm, in development for 3 m x 3 m Date: Jan 2015

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“Two of the hardest decisions in life: the patience to wait for the right moment

and the courage to accept whatever you encounter” ― Paulo Coelho, Veronika Decides to Die

INFO & CONTACT Email: [email protected]

* Facebook Page web- address: https://www.facebook.com/Barro.Donker.Artist

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“The only source of knowledge is experience” ― Albert Einstein

Some previous works

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Exhibit 2011 ‘The mind never sleeps’

The famous words ” beauty is in the eye off the beholder “. So true, it is all about perception! What have those eyes seen before? The truth doesn’t exist, the truth is man-made. Faith is a gift that I haven’t received yet. I believe in observation, acknowledgement and awareness. Nobody told me the things that I know and he things that I have seen still influence me and have a certain impact on me. I am an autodidact and have been privileged and grateful to have seen, in my travels, many off the great museums of the world. I believe that one has to follow one’s dreams, no matter where they eventually lead. And so I paint, and create paintings. What I know is that while I paint I escape from my thoughts. My commitment to myself is to maintain my freedom, partly to just paint and not to be dependent on people, possessions or even substances anymore. With the understanding and knowledge that total independence does not exist I approach my paintings and instill in them a powerful moral message. In turn I find, coincidentally, the answers I am looking for. This is the impetus which fuels my drive to be, one day, the painter I aspire to be. No matter how much we would like and try “The mind cannot be objective”. Exhibition : The Mind Never Sleeps Date : 7th January - 10th February, 2011 Place : Liam’s Gallery

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