Nov 22 2013.
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Art is an activity everybody certainly engaged in as children. While most left it eventually, there were those who stubbornly refused to part with it.
Loui Jover is one of those precious few who never ceased drawing because in his words, “drawing is a significant part of the very fabric of my being it has been a part of my expression since childhood, it is one of my primary functions like eating or sleeping…”
Originally from Serbia, this Hungarian artist has been living in Australia nearly all his life. At present, he creates ink drawings on (adhered together) sheets of vintage book paper. These works invite you to experience a fusion of story and imagery based on a backdrop of fragility.
Art is …?
Art (to me) is any form of honest visceral or disciplined visual and emotional expression using ones hands, body and mind to create.
Any particular style or technique or expression you prefer?
I prefer figurative drawing but, i am not averse to trying new techniques and styles when the inspiration takes me.
How can one tell between good art and bad? Is there something called bad art?
I don't think there is good or bad art, there is just preference and opinion. I don't believe in competitions they are excluding and damaging to individuals and to art as a whole. Here in Australia there is a famous art contest where each year the public get to choose their choice award and the judges choose theirs, I think only once in its hundred years history has the two met, so this tells you right away that art is indeed in the eye of the beholder.
I think boundaries can sometimes be implemented for practical purposes such as an equine art award requiring the works to be dealing with horses and so on. I think all good art can become bad and all bad can become good, let's just reflect on Vincent Van Gogh for a moment and this is shown in clarity to be so.
How has your style changed over the years?
It has changed vastly as any artists should; art is a dialogue of the 'self' as much as anything and changes as you do. People who can't change are frightening. It is a wonderful trait to be able to change one’s mind or ethos. Art that never changes is dubious and most likely living on a gravy train.
Can an artist's success be defined by the number of paintings he sells?
Depends on ones definition of success itself. Over all I think not. Time itself determines an artist’s so called success and truthfully 'success' for an artist is an individual journey if not then he best take up pop music.
Any medium you particularly favor?
I prefer ink. Black Indian and or Sumi ink. I find ink is the most visceral of mediums it is the blood of the artists expression. I like to use brush (Chinese brushes of various sizes) or ink nibs the best.
How do you feel about your own work?
I am forever searching. It’s funny sometimes the smallest thing will please me about my work yet some other larger mile stone I am just stoic about. I also find immediate pleasures in art turn sour quickly where at times the less impressive parts shine after a while. Picasso once said "never throw anything away till the next day when you can take another look at it with fresh eyes"....something like that anyhow.
If you weren’t an artist you would have been a …?
......I can't answer that I have never really considered it..? If I couldn't be an artist then I would be either some kind of musician or a puppeteer or perhaps make short films, anything else scares me; I did wash dishes in a restaurant for a while.
Why do you draw on vintage book papers?
I do draw on vintage book pages for a number of reasons which in short are as follows - I feel a context is made indirectly with the demise of the book as we know it itself. - I felt sorry for the destruction of so many fine old books because no one wanted them any longer because they were damaged. - I am a bibliophile - and finally because I was not sure what to do with all the old books I had collected because I have this unconventional love for the printed page and I also needed paper and have always felt a little fearful of plain white paper so I glued together these sheets and voila! I was on my way.
Your favorite piece from all your works?
I have not created my favourite piece yet, I am not trying to be funny, I just really think if I get to a piece I am totally happy with then I may quit for in the end its the journey I love art for not the destination. I do like the feeling of a work I have created called 'elements'.
What do you do when you’re not creating art?
Sleep, read, eat, walk, do things with my family, look at books and watch stuff. I like bad gritty nasty black comedy and mind numbingly obvious murder mysteries like Poirot or Sherlock Holmes (not the American ones with that ironman actor in them they truly are too awful....lol).
You can find more of his original works on www.Saatchionline.com and www.redbubble.com. Loui also takes private commissions from his facebook page – loui jover.
By Shazzana Hamid
0 Comments
snop dog says:
Sep 25, 2014 at 12:00 amYou're cool loui