Figure No. 1 Painting

I was born in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1972. I've been living in Sweden for several years, returned to Mostar, where I live and work now. The focus of my work has always been figure, namely female body. I paint the body which exists in our senses, imagination and dreams. It is a mirror of our spiritual being. It seems unreal and unnatural, but it's a result of human condition reflecting fears, desires, despair or frailty. Among others I was strongly influenced by the writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty - "The eye and mind", Paul Valéry's - "Réflexions sur le corps" and by the work of Marcel Proust in general. Some of my work is based on the photography by Man Ray. The photography which I sometimes use as a starting point sets a balance between the fantastic, imaginary and the real; and it is just in this relation that the imaginary becomes even more striking. Proust's description of body as a darkroom full of negatives is very important in my work. These canvases can be described as projection screens which reflect developed fantastic, imaginary negatives of my body's memories. They explain one of the ways my paintings find their way on to the canvas. The space of the body and the surrounding space interact and sometimes the line between is blurry and erased. Colors create bodies that are glossy and seem made of glass, a vessel of fluid color, electric and powerful, voluminous and aggressive, sometimes flat and quiet. Each of these figures tends to grasp into the space beyond the canvas surface, but some speak more loudly of their condition by its position, color and the energy of brush strokes. The others are grounded in its space and the flat surface of their existence. Drawing plays important role in my work. It accentuates parts of the figures, eyes or hands. I use it to define the gaze of my imaginary figures that stare at the world outside the surface of the canvas.