curators corner: artist spotlight
Stefan Filarsk
After a 20 year career in advertising as an Art/Creative Director. I new it was time to focus on making Art. The Crushed Can Series and The Dude Raw Series are a good example of how I like to express myself. These colourful and dynamic Artworks put trash in a new perspective. In our man made environment loads of fantastic accidentally occurring stuff is going on that is really worth looking at. This inspires me as a artist and I often use this as a base for my work. Although I went to a classic Art Academy the way I work and the techniques I use are mixed. Photography, painting and computer techniques are part of my working process.
-What are the primary concepts and focus of your art and How do these ideas relate to your medium, and creative process itself?
Visual storytelling is a basic concept, and the stories vary a lot. Sometimes it is socially critical and sometimes it is just a colorful, expressive, and graphic way to explain an idea. I also created a character named ‘The Dude’ who plays a role in a lot of my work, they idea behind this is that he wants to be your friend and hang around your place forever. The Dude came to life as a reaction to al the artists who use characters made by others, like the Disney figures and Loney tunes, etc. etc. I like to use graffiti or trash (like crushed cans) that is worn, torn, and found by me in this man-made environment as a base for my work. I am a art director and designer with over 27 years of experience in the international advertising seen, so that shines through everything I create, I use text and grahpic shapes and loads of color, painted on canvas, digital or a combination of both, to get the result I want. The process is almost always layered because this brings the works to life as the previous layers shine through here and there. I love inperfec- tion and things that coincidentally happen on the canvas. Sometimes I start with a concept but the result is something totally different.
-Which artists are you inspired and influenced by?
Street art, Cobra, The Old Dutch Masters, expressionism, pop-art, abstract, surrealism, modernism, Neo-expressionism, game art, graphic design, packaging design, fashion design, environmental design, font design, modern DJ’s, Science fiction and many more. I am not so much inspired by specific people but more in a broader sense because of my broad interests. This is an ongoing process. When i create listening to classical music, the outcome is different from when I listen to mellow house.
Which of your works stands out as a highlight, a favorite, or a significant point in your creative growth and development? and why?
I have learned a wise lesson from my first employer. When I was a junior art director, he told me: ‘you are as good as your latest work’! Critically responding to somthing I made. So my next piece must be as good as the last one but preferabely a little better (from my point of view, of course).
What memorable reactions have you had to your work?
Clients who returned for a second or third work, and the pictures they send me when my art hangs on their walls. Once, my work was exhibited in a hotel, and I was sitting in the lobby drinking coffee when a guest stood in front of one of my paintings and took a picture of it.
What advice would you give to your younger or older self?
Make what you need and want to make, not what others would like you to make, and don’t wait; do!
What is your artist message, what do you wish to communicate to the viewer?
Although I make art without what a viewer might think in mind, the most important thing is making the viewer happy. To give him or her a little moment of joy every time they see the work.
What is your dream project?
To be honest everytime i have a new concept in my mind, that is what i dream of creating. And there is a project what is in the conceptual fase, which has to do with interacting with the viewer, that I would like to start presenting to possible investors.
