Hesitation is the worst of all crimes, especially in art. The feelings which reside inside each of us demand our attention. Sometimes allowing them to find comfort happens when we least expect it… on a canvas, in a photo, or with pen and ink. Be faithful to yourself.
“The Path” Photo by Patricia Gagic.
WAS THERE A PIVOTAL MOMENT WHEN YOU DECIDED TO FOLLOW YOUR PATH AS AN ARTIST?
I have always felt my future awakened self was always here. Painting and photography was the language I first understood quickly. The push towards the art path was nudged by several people…. meeting my mentor Dragan Dragic in Savoillan, France, in 1999 was the epic moment when I knew this was my forever life path.
CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK FOR US?
There is a delicious struggle I engage in daily as I am drawn into what is “in-between” the phenomena, moments, and ideas which arise and yet practice in the actual doings of the world to make visible what is found in those spaces. It is my adventure to capture more truth as an artist and be less of an ego, and the Ultimate Reality might be touched in the in-between spaces as both Truth and Egoless. As an artist, I look to find clues on how to enter these spaces increasingly consistently. In the work of Paul Emile Bourduas, I found rhythm and seduction at the root of his process and all the in-between spaces functioning as necessary places of risk to touch those rhythms, to animate the temptations effervescently. The moments of this realization create a rich ocean of plankton, food for the conceptual work. The essence of my work is in dissecting and inhaling the genius of Zao Wou Ki.
Patricia Gagic – Star Of The Week.
WHAT DOES YOUR WORK AIM TO SAY?
I continue to learn how incredibly liberating it is to affirm and elevate emotion as the intent of a painting or photograph. Fearlessly approaching the image as a sovereign manifestation requires my stand as one “getting to know” life, bringing forth clues for others, and trusting the process. This is the under-painting of the journey I have been humbly given to fulfill.
HOW DO YOU THINK YOUR WORK FITS WITHIN SOCIETY IN OUR PRESENT TIMES?
We boldly experience each day in between the moments. The calmness and abiding reveal themselves in the paintings of a society in constant flux and turmoil. We were turning the chaos into a realized modern statement deserving of our attention.
1 WHEN LOOKING BACK, WHAT ARTWORKS COME TO MINDA THAT MOST RELATE TO YOUR LIFE STORY?
I love all the work of Zao Wou Ki and Cecily Brown. There would not be one piece I would describe as my life story. We are conscious energy tapping into all aspects of the light and dark.
“Avalon’s Dream” Acrylic On Canvas by Patricia Gagic.
WHO ARE YOUR BIGGEST INFLUENCES?
One of the influences on my artistic life and practice is the Transcendental Realist artist Adi Da Samraj. He speaks about the function of art in a way that perfectly gives voice to my intention. He writes, “True Art heals, True Art restores equanimity. Art must regenerate the sense of well-being. That is its true purpose.” This regeneration of well-being is an overarching purpose in my method and is the context of an intellectual consideration around image-making. I experience that well-being resides as an already present condition in the esoteric domain rather than the exoteric world of things and strategies designed to make us feel better, safe, or at ease. I stand on the magical horizon where the rules of nature and the mystical unknown find their way together from mind to hand to canvas to create conditions for well-being to be re-animated in the viewer’s experience. Additionally, the “Small Worlds” of Wassily Kandinsky (1922) further inspired my attraction to the complexity/simplicity paradox as the mathematics in his work harmonized aspects of my feeling with understanding and brought a joyful knowing and sense of something beyond the images themselves.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS?
Motivated by the delicate balancing of elements of the past, choices made in the present, and a powerful intention to change the future, each thought, and intuition becomes master to the emergence of form and method in my art making. Complexity is a keyframe. The infinity of iterations of a form is a fascination intellectually and in terms of my method. It drives how I engage with materials in the search for what is luminous to the eye and transcendent in meaning to the heart. My art is intended to point to what is greater than the conventional and logic-based point of view.
WHAT VISUAL REFERENCES DO YOU DRAW UPON IN YOUR WORK?
My long-time mentor and dear friend, Master Artist Dragan Dragic (who I was blessed to meet and study in France since 1999), has profoundly influenced me through his conception of the extraordinary depth he reveals in the palette of Matisse.
“Whirling Dervish” Acrylic On Canvas by Patricia Gagic.
Dragan surrendered himself to these secrets in a lifelong journey of revelation and dedication, bringing me to cause to examine and view his work with an appreciation of and engagement with the paradox of complexity coupled with simplicity. The outcome engendered confidence in portraying simplicity as the ultimate expression of sophistication. Dragan encouraged me to see the beauty of abstraction lies in the various underlying hypostases combining or being in dynamic relationships in such a way as to become conscious of the viewer as a living process.
ANY UPCOMING PROJECTS?
The Karmic Art Academy will soon launch the Karmic Art Experience.
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