Today, we'd like to introduce you to Mihai Cotiga from Bucharest, Romania. Mihai shares his experiences of choosing a path less trodden, highlighting the significance of pursuing passion over convention. 'I feel that if you are a creative person you should use that creativity, if you do not, you will feel dead inside,' he remarks, emphasizing the importance of staying true to one's creative instincts. His narrative offers insights into the blend of innate talent and disciplined skill-building, along with his strategies for maintaining motivation and inspiration in his art practice. Join us as we delve into Mihai's thoughts on the role of artists in society, the nuanced interplay of destiny and choice in his art, and his aspirations for the future.
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Share your thoughts on pursuing a creative career, despite potential risks, versus more conventional career paths.
I think the best part of pursuing a creative career is the freedom and making fulfilling work that you are compelled to do. I feel that if you are a creative person you should use that creativity, if you do not, you will feel dead inside. So even if the potential risks are high versus working a normal job, I would recommend to any creative person to pursue their passion and follow their inclination. With a lot of hard work, dedication and a lot of patience you can persevere through this. I know it is quite easy to say this and there will come a lot of tough times as an artist, a lot of doubts, maybe you won’t see any progress, maybe people won’t believe in what you are doing or even wanting to quit because of how hard it is, but all you need to remember is that these challenges are faced by all of us, it is normal and as the storm passes these pass with time as well.
Discuss your strategies for staying motivated and continually finding inspiration in your artistic practice.
I often find that people assume artists have it easy, doing what they love. However, the reality is different – not every day is ideal for creating art. It's perfectly normal not to be in the perfect mood for artistic pursuits consistently. Personally, when I lack motivation, I explore interesting things that pique my curiosity. In Walter Isaacson’s book on Leonardo da Vinci, it's highlighted that even a master like Leonardo didn't always paint; he followed other curiosities and occasionally perfected existing works.
If I'm not feeling creative, I might change my environment or journal about my lack of motivation. Often, the difficulty lies in the perceived complexity of the task at hand. Finding an entry point, like starting with the background in a painting, can make it more manageable. Cultivating discipline and maintaining a structured schedule also provide freedom in the studio.
I believe it's easier to continually find inspiration than to stay motivated. Various exercises, such as creating the first thing that comes to mind, going for a walk, or engaging in boring activities, can stimulate creativity. "The Creative Act" by Rick Rubin is a book I recommend for those seeking inspiration.
Delve into the concept of destiny vs. choice in finding one's passion in art. Do you believe that your passion for art was predestined, or was it a choice you consciously made? Can you share experiences that led you to this belief?
I think that the destiny vs. choice concept is a very difficult one to answer. I am not really one to believe in destiny, but at the same time, most of the time creating seems like you are called to do something and feels like is not really your choice. That being said, your subconscious drives a lot of your behavior without you knowing what is your active choice.
Your brain creates a mental map of all your experiences, visual, kinetic, olfactory and so on, these contribute to things you may be stimulated to do, in my case painting old people in various scenarios with vivid colors. So I think your subconscious helps you make a conclusion of and what you express in the world. We can not be fully aware of everything around us and in our brain all at once as it would be too much to tolerate.
For me saying it’s destiny is sort of a easy way out. I know I chose to paint because I found it interesting and gave me that feeling of flow, which I believe it’s important in every endeavor. I decided this is what I’m going to do because I want to see what I am able to create with paint and see how far can I go in my exploration. I believe with time neurobiology and psychology would be able to give a better answer. In the meantime I think the answer is not black or white, but both black and white.
Contemplate the role and responsibilities of an artist in society today. How do you perceive the role of an artist in today's society? What responsibilities, if any, do you believe artists have towards their communities or the broader public?
I think the role of artists is to look further into the future and to try to make the world a more beautiful place. I often think about the role of art and of the artist, they may serve different purposes and arrive at the same outcome. Art has always been strongly connected to the latest technology and looked into the future, to name a few examples sci-fi books anticipating a lot of things that today are viewed as normal, Da Vinci’s anatomical drawing advancing the knowledge about human anatomy, Dali’s “Persistence of memory” anticipating the exploration of the unconscious in psychology and many others such as the Italian Futurist movement.
In a way art expresses its period of time through many specific elements, gives us an opportunity for reflection or provocation and an aesthetic experience and many more. My role as the artist is to express myself in a sincere way incorporating my values, existing culture, history and furthering it while creating a beautiful experience. I wish to make people’s lives more beautiful with each piece and give them an enriching experience. There will be always incorporated in the artists’ work a message, but the reading of that depends more on the audience.
Where both art and artist meet is on the impact they have on the world, shaping it in a different way, inspiring others and making people change their lives, homes, thoughts or just by a strong emotion evoked in a creation. I believe the least artists can do for their community is to try to make them more beautiful and inspire the people closest to them.
Discuss the importance of messaging in your art and the audience’s understanding of it. How crucial is it for your audience to grasp the message behind your artwork? Do you create with a specific message in mind, and how do you gauge its reception?
The message is always important, but I think the reception of it can be subconscious as well. As an artist you can control what you paint and how in a relatively large part, but how your work is received depends on how the audience sees it and their own experience. If you really want the audience to receive a certain message than you’d be better of writing that message on a large canvas and even then people might read something totally different than what you intended.
For me it is not crucial for the audience to grasp the message behind my work, as I am not always sure what the message is, I do have an idea, even a specific idea, but I am not sure it is the same thing as a specific message. I realized many years ago that people would see always something different. When I was young I used to get angry because people would see faces in my abstract paintings or because they “didn’t understand” what I wanted to do with that painting. My approach is that you make an object and send it into the world and whatever happens, happens. You have quite little control over the perception of others and that’s a beautiful and freeing feeling. It leaves you to create whatever feels right to you without being too attached to it.
I made a painting a few years ago, a large self portrait, the message or so I thought was about solving your anxieties by exposure. In the painting, I depicted myself with my feet and hands up in the air on my back, among some grey clouds, in a mountain landscape, I thought I made a painting about how I was falling from a very tall place. I did not know how to name the painting so I showed the painting to many people and asked what they see in the painting. Someone told me I was floating through air, I thought that was fantastic, for both my anxiety of falling and my painting. So I named the painting “Falling or Floating”. This is how our very different life experiences translate into very different perspectives on things.
I am suspicious about artists who know precisely what they are doing, creating is a process of exploration, you reach a point and make a work by trying a lot of things. It is a continuous process and that’s what’s fun about it. If you already know what you are about to make it feels more like propaganda for me than Art.
Share your sources of inspiration. What are your primary sources of inspiration? Do these come from personal experiences, observations, history, nature, or other artists? Can you give specific examples of how these inspirations have manifested in your work?
My sources of inspiration are extremely vast. I may take something from a book, something from an old master painting, maybe I see an interesting striped sweater on the internet and think that’s a great object to use in a painting. I keep of a sort of compendium of all my inspiration on Pinterest. Also I try to write daily, keep notes on the books I listen to or read and keep notes on the art lectures I listen to. I think my inspiration is fed by my extreme curiosity. I tend to jump from one thing to another as I find interesting a lot of things, like portrait painting along history, mountain landscapes, very colorful clothes, glitches, geometry, minimalist painting, lonely trees, book covers and so on. I found that the more you explore your interests even though they may be varied you may find quite a unique and personal path that you can continue to follow for the rest of your life.
Many years of exploration and writing led me to believe that following your curiosities along with enjoying life’s experiences develop your art in a profound way. Even when you are not seeing it, if you trust this continual process at some point you will be able to look back and be grateful to yourself that you followed your interests and made great work. This comes from a mind of a serial over-thinker and always doubting and I found these to be very helpful in the process of creating.
Most inspiration for my work may come from other artists, I made a recent work of an old woman praying and that is inspired by Lorenzo di Credi, which was inspired by Da Vinci. I think most of them are a sort of collage of ideas, like a portrait of an old man that is painted black and white and his clothes are extremely colorful and that is because I started from a black and white photo of Einstein as a vague inspiration for the portrait and geometric stripes for the clothes. The inspiration can be from both old painting like Caspar David Friedrich (“The higher Tide”) and something more contemporary like Kenneth Noland (“Stuck in the middle”). I made two portraits of Jung because I read some of his books, I thought it would be an interesting subject to explore. Sometimes I use absolutely random things like an old man taking his zebra for a walk.
Describe how your approach to art has evolved over time. In what ways has your approach to creating art changed over the years? What have been the significant influences or learning experiences that have shaped your evolution as an artist?
Over time my approach has changed drastically, at the very beginning I was all over the place with the subjects. I transitioned into making only abstract paintings, I did that for 4-5 years. I was strongly influenced by my studies of American abstract expressionist painters, that were big and bold and at that moment I found truth in that form of expression. At some point I felt like I did not know where to go and I started to add drawings and old master paintings and text to the abstracts. Started to incorporate various elements in the paintings, so it was part collage, part abstract. Now that I think about it every period in my work seems to reflect my thinking at that moment, the people around me, my studies, my mental state and habits.
I made a transition from abstract to surreal to naturalistic in two years. That coincided with finishing my Masters in Architecture and switching to painting full time, which was an adventure on its own. As a self-thought painter it is quite difficult to manage painting full time, because you don’t really know where to start from. Now we live in an abundance of knowledge that we need to know how to select. So with time I read a lot and found all sorts of resources on sites, Youtube, listened to many artists talk and share their experience, podcasts etc.
The developing of A.I. was another large step in changing my approach. I was able to test many ideas before starting my work, and incorporate some elements faster, alongside with learning Photoshop. The most important skills that I developed over the years is how to control oil paint to express my idea in the best way I feel I could and making the drawing as good as I can so it can help me and ease my process. My most significant influences were combining the use of technology with the use of drawing and painting with physical materials, learning art history from its start to the contemporary period, continually experimenting and allowing myself to try things that I would normally not do, along with many books and art lectures.
Describe five steps you are taking to ensure your continual growth and development as an artist.
✧ Follow your curiosities.
✧ Read/listen to books or lectures.
✧ Look at other important artist’s work.
✧ Challenge yourself by doing more complex work.
✧ Be disciplined in your studio practice.
What are your long-term goals and aspirations as a professional artist?
My main long-term goals are to be consistent and make satisfying and fulfilling work. This is my main important objective that I found extremely useful to have. I feel like I need these in order to enjoy my career as an artist. I do not think it’s healthy to follow only targets like get gallery representation and a museum show or anything like this because you will feel a bit lost when you reach one or disappointed when you don’t. I believe that representation and shows should be a result of the work and be secondary objectives.
That being said I hope in the future I will get gallery representation and travel for some exhibitions 2-3 times a year. I would love a museum show in the distant future, this would be a huge accomplishment and a huge satisfaction to see a lot of works together in an important place, but I guess that could happen in many years.
On the more personal front, some objectives would be a larger studio and to make a book with my recent work, I love artist books and I can’t wait to make one myself. Other than that I wish to make some drawings in the near future and maybe sculptures. I had for a very long time the idea of making drawings, black and white and colored pencil, but I’m always concentrated on painting. I would love to make some figurative sculptures of the old people in my paintings. I think I could make them as 3d models and then paint them.
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Our conversation with Mihai Cotiga reveals his artistic journey as a continuous exploration of himself and his work. His open discussion highlights the challenges of being an artist, the significance of conveying messages through art, and the influence of external perspectives. Through his journey, Mihai embodies the adaptability and resilience required for artists in the modern world. As he looks ahead, his aspirations and plans suggest a deepening artistic exploration, leaving us with both inspiration and anticipation for the future of his promising career.