PORTAITS

Artist statement:

To be and To seem

We have a tendency to believe that exterior appearance is related to the inner feeling. The face is the mirror of the soul, is the warning that comes from this circumstance. The amount of information we can obtain by the mere observation of a face for some seconds can be rich and of an extraordinary variety and subtlety. We have more facial muscles than any other animal on Earth: twenty-two on each side and more than ten thousand facial expressions. In every language of the world we could find a phrase that will express that feeling.

"To be" and "to seem" becomes a constant dialogue present in contemporary portraits. A portrait tries to name with paint not only a subject but an identity. Names and physical peculiarities are not enough to refer truthfully to a concrete human being. To look alike is no more an evidence or stops comparing to identity. Similarity now depends on a mental construction. It is constructed by an amalgam of what you see and what you sense. That results in double work for the painter. Just one portrait is not enough. A portrait, therefore, should be constructed by many portraits inside itself, in a way that all those truths which a subjects is, will be implicit in its sole representation.

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