Artist Statement
When I paint, I am taken into a different place that is boundless, without limits and constraints. Paint, brush, canvas or wood mix to reveal what may have been overlooked and left unnoticed. I paint to leave an imprint, a record of my time here. I blend the poetic word with the mute witness of paint. It records my struggle to keep death away and yet I notice how faithfully it si
ts next to me, as if to say, I have not seen this before. All of my paintings are self-portraits. They are inscapes brought out to the surface. The colours are an archive of memory to be deciphered by others. My art resides in the tension between the eternal and the temporal. It explores the human need for security and the inevitability of an impermanence I have difficulty accepting. I paint to capture moments of time that reveal frailty and vitality, joy and sorrow, decline and glory. Born in the village of Rakitno in Bosnia-Hercegovina, I have lived and studied in Vienna, Paris, Munich and Zagreb. My academic background is in philosophy having studied at Brock University, the University of Ottawa and Dominican University where I earned my Ph.D. My influences include Bacon, Balthus, and Tom Thomson.
