VISUAL ART WITH REAL SPIRIT – THIS ARTIST SEES MORE THAN MOST

What is your greatest achievement to date?

hm… let’s see…. my greatest achievement? I think I have many great achievements. First of all, thinking that I started to paint 7 years ago, is a great achievement where I am right now!

I mean i have over 40 national and international exhibitions and over 20 awards from which the most important are “The Palma d’Oro Monte Carlo” 2022 and the “Leone d’Oro Venice” 2023. But if I think well and look towards the past to what brought me a lot of satisfaction, I can name 3 of the most important achievements in those 7 years. One is when I made an exhibition in my home town in Romania, in one of the towers of medieval citadel where 2 years right before I was walking there and I looked around sawing a beautiful art exhibition and I thought to myself: How amazing that will be to have my own exhibition here! and 2 years after there I was with my art collection “Spiritual journey”!

Another one which gave me an amazing feeling of joy was when NASA Houston accepted through an official letter my painting “The judge” with the occasion of 50 years anniversary from mission Apollo 11, painting that now is sitting on the wall of the flights directors meeting hall.

And another important achievement was when I, together with 3 amazing artists from Moldova exhibited in one of the most prestigious galleries in Bucharest, Galateca Galerie, I was invited along with one of those artists, Cristina Balan, to two important televisions on live to talk about the exhibition.

Was my first TV live apparition and that was such an overwhelming experience! I mean WOW! even now I get those feelings looking back to all those !

Are there any artists that are inspiring you and why?

Well, you know, this is a common question from the majority of interviews, lol! So to answer though, I can say I have favorite artists but not really that are inspiring. There are some living artists that I am blown away by and those are Vladimir Volegov, a figurative Russian painter, it’s the light from his paintings that attracts me.

Jeff Bertels is fantasy-surrealistic Belgian painter. His world of creatures is absolutely fascinating and really make your mind wondering.

Gregory Proch, another surrealistic, illustrator, French painter that for me looks more like a visionary as his works transmitting the feeling of a possible distant future of our world, Indeed, a more apocalyptical one but this also could happen hundred of thousands years ago… the point is that I am fascinated by the structure of his compositions.

And from non-living artists, I prefer Salvador Dali, it seems I am attracted by surrealistic paintings … Dali’s world is unique and has a lot of philosophy in it.

Ok, so you’re saying that you are attracted more by surrealistic paintings. Are your paintings surrealistic? In which category are your paintings?

Some of my paintings are considered surrealistic as “Anima Mundi” for example but is not quite fantasy. Is vision mixed with reality. But my paintings have different styles. Some say that an artist is good to have his own style which I don’t. I create series, and each series is a theme, each painting is a story, so each series or painting demands a certain style and technique.

So for now I have multiple styles as figurative, naive, impressionism, abstract, portrait, symbolism, surrealism, conceptual, landscape, deco. Voila! 

Once was told me by an art critic that my paintings can be considered as -intelligent art.. hm…could be a new style? (she then breaks into laughter)

I know life is not easy for an artist, especially nowadays, there’s a lot of concurrence. 

Well, concurrence it is and is not …depend on what artists create. But each individual is unique and so their art. Yes, there are categories of styles, probably that’s why I try, and not because I wish to cover up all styles.

My art doesn’t fit into a strict category as I was saying, but aims only some category of people and those are art collectionars, museums, art lovers that love the message from the painting and see the painting with their soul and not only with the eyes. 

…and how do you manage it all ? do you have a manager?

I am my own manager! I am the scenarist, the creator, the director, the secretary, the accountant and the marketer. I study the theme, I buy materials, I paint, I write emails and I answer emails, I make submissions to different art competitions and art galleries, I keep my own website and different art platforms, taking care of social media, I edit videos and photos, taking care of my own exhibitions and sometimes making my own posters, making my own packages when I sell and have to send abroad, and others that I can’t recall right now. 

So, being a professional artists is a full job but sometimes well paid or not paid at all… 

Thank you very much for this interview Daciana. Do you have something to say? a message maybe to those that are reading? 

Thank you too for this, I am honored and I hope the readers will enjoy and will learn more about how things are in an artist’s world. 

The message I would like to transmit, if there are other artists among the readers is to stay original, do not copy anyone, and do not let anyone tell you what to do! Listen to your gut and your heart. Only this makes you the real you.

Daciana would like to give special thanks to two of her closes allies in the arts world and best friends Alina Ciuciu, who has been instrumental in helping her to expand her exhibits in Italy and Romania, and also last but not least, Cristina Balan, former Ambassador to Moldova who gave Daciana the opportunity to exhibit in Romania too and reach a wider audience.