Artist Knowledge provided by Serge Verwest

[Verwest]

Interview:
Thank you again for doing this I know that the language barrier is not easy to overcome and I really appreciate you wanting to participate!
First, would you mind telling me about when you when and where you were born?
I was born on the November 27 1952, from an artist family of 4 generations painters and received an education in artistic happening.
So although you came from a family of painters did you go to art school?
After elementary school I had to make a choice. I studied Drawing and photoengraving from 1969 up until 1973. In 1974 I registered to the Royal Academy in Ghent which I had to leave later that year and went to work with the telephone company due to financial needs.

So what happened after the Royal Academy?
First, you must understand my background. I grew up in a very Christian rustic municipality, as a child of liberal parents I faced the antagonisms of our society, where the church ruled and my father gave me a free education. This was always done in the context of a peace movement which was propagated especially in the cold war period when the threat of nuclear weapons was real.
V-Growing up, other boys my age drowned themselves in football, cycle racing and went to the church on Sunday. I instead watched real horror on TV, taking place in the Belgian Congo and the Algerian fighting. During the time of the assassination of Kennedy and Nikita Chroesjtsjov (who tried to smack capitalism with its shoe through the table) a cold war began between the communist Eastern Bloc and the America’s discrimination worsened.
The so called “golden sixties” to you were the years in which I saw repression. “The small- holder which came to an end of its era.” The era in which for everything a technical solution could be found, where people went for the first time to the moon was also an era where colonialism took an end and the whole world cried for freedom. FREEDOM, the magical word of the late sixties. Flower Power, the hippie movement, the communes, the Provo and the enraged Mina's
In the 70’s….by then it was the time of the Vietnam war, I was a conscience-objector and believed strongly in “Make Love Not War” and “Give peace a Chance”. In 1979, I started a second-hand business. During this time a lot of art pieces were bought and sold.
In the 80’s… my participation in the “Peace Monument of our Fathers” with other artists who stood against nuclear weapons was a small creative contribution. During this time period a number of stores were built for hobby and old-timer clubs. Always with self made objects.
After the death my parents I registered again to the Academy for Fine Arts at Ghent, to for fill my forgotten passion. Since than I spent every free moment at my art. I am very interested in experimental art and I don’t stick to canvas.

So after all you have seen and been through what has art become to you?

Art is more than the sum of exhibitions and performances. It is a requirement of Human Rights for deeper emotions to give daylight and see them with his fellow man in that special way to share, with or without words. Images with sound, color or black & white. However, never just black and white. There must always have with it a gray scale, which gives color to the inner emotional that which distinguishes humans.


What is your favorite quote?
"At bottom every man knows well enough that he is a unique being, only once on this earth. And by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time." F. Nietzsche

So what have all these years taught you about art?
Art can help you to open your own source/self. This source is a treasure of fantasy, hidden creativity and energy. Art challenges you to be yourself, helps you to become separated from your rusted patterns and helps you to reload you’re self easily. Art is inner deepening. Art enlightens your soul!

In my experimental art, I look for answers on the surrounding culture. I start my search there where others stop, beyond the framework, with lines, colors and forms, from collages to three-dimensional objects. I examine the paths of the expression, reflect that what are no words for it … In this context the art work becomes experimental instruments, no finished museum pieces. I explore consciously the borders of creativity, sometimes playful, and I weave in my dream time thinking of the Australian Aboriginals, the oldest culture on our planet which uses rituals and music to recall creativity.
An artist, is a little bit of a type of wizard don’t you think? It started already at that blue hand print, somewhere in a prehistoric cave ..... I examine, evolve, transform and question… I do pursue restlessly the light of the inspiration!

What do you find the most to be most useful in creating your art?
A very useful instrument is a sketchbook. This is the factory where you notice your dreams and where the art pieces are born. Also, for me also the internet is an inexhaustible source of inspiration.

[Slone Fries]

You have lived through quite a lot of world change! It is very inspirational to see all that you have gone through to end up where you are today. I myself, like realism painting. I love the details but also the brush strokes. I wan't for someone to feel as if were almost a picture but also some of my signature brush strokes that make it a work of Art and not just a transfer of an image to oil. I have many questions I would love to ask but will start with just a few. Of course, the most basic question is:What advice would you give a young artist (30) starting out to try to do this as a job? Do you think it is better to follow the art trends or to do the art that comes nauturally from you?
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!
Sloane

[Verwest]

I think you should stick to your own. That's why the spiritual faze and the sketchbook are so important. If you follow trends you should feel good about it. And remember trends are so different in the world. Whats good in the US will per definition not been accepted in Europe or Asia.
I visit a lot of art exhibitions and when i see a new technique I shall use it, but always with my ideas and in combination with other. What I see there are the seeds which start to grow their own life in my brain.

[Cyndy Carstens]

Dear Serge,
I wish I could sit down with you for a few hours to talk about your work, the world, spirituality - everything. Your work is interesting and challenging to the spirit. We are almost the same age, and yet being brought up in the US, our worlds were so very different. Today my work has evolved into works of hope - personal and global. After 20 years of mural painting and commission work, I now paint what is in my heart. I am much poorer financially, but richer (and happier) in my soul. Thank you so very much for participating in this forum and group. I am looking forward to seeing more of your incredible pieces and exploring through your work a different point of view.
Peace to you.
Cyndy Carstens

[Verwest]

The important thing is to feel richer. It is the duty of an artist to en light the hart of people around us and therefore you have to paint with your hart. If you feel good about what you made people will feel it and feel good to. Wasn't that the message behind the hanging hart by Jeff Koons. Thank you for appreciating my work . Me to I wish I could sit down with you and about this things, but.... the distance. You never know.
Serge

[Leisa Luis-Grill]

What is the last "self-portrait" made of? It looks like it's on a refrigerator. Are those magnets??"

[Verwest]

Could you be more specific ( maybe link) which self portrait you mean, I made so many lately.
Serge

[Coleen Ryan-Rivera]

Thank you for sharing your vast experience . lIke Cyndy I would love to sit down with you and discuss the world , art, spirtuality .Art feels magical and so very very spiritual. It almost like existing on another plane while still be on this one. Love every moment of it.
Coleen

[Verwest]

Thank you for appreciating my work and philosophy. The answer I gave on Cindy's comment is the same I give tou you. You never know.
Greets Serge

[Brian Statom]

I have known you for quit some time, Serge and you have been a source of encouragement and inspiration for me, a younger artist. A much younger artist. One thing I have been meaning to ask is "What is the inspiration behind the eye glass sculptures and where do you get all the glasses?"

[Verwest]

Yes we know each other for quit some time now and the inspiration is reciprocal. The portrait exchange we did was an exceptional thing to do and a great experience. I loved it.
The thing behind the glasses is that glasses are special. No one put some glasses on his or her face without choosing between many models and designs. When you want to make a portrait of somebody the eyes are very important to work on because there lies the character of the person. Maybe you had the experience that when you met people after 10 or 15 years you didn't see, you recognize them looking in the eyes. Every pair of used glasses had a face behind. As the sizes are different they try to make us look in the same way what's normal.
But what is normal? All things we are looking at are different because we look at them with our own mind. All those glasses saw many pictures. Trough all those lenses you can look to the pictures I put behind in a different way. It is important in life to look things in a different way or angel, to make sure that we take the right decisions.
The glasses I bought on a flee market. They come from elderly peoples homes and hospitals. They were sold to reinvest in the homes.
Greets
Serge