‘Art And Consumerism’ - graduation project Painting 2008; 130×100cm, oil on printed canvas.

I actually can’t believe it’s finally over: I’m not a student anymore. I graduated today, meaning that I’m one step closer towards being a grown-up. I graduated Painting at the Art University of Timisoara, Romania, so I can actually call myself an artist from now on. My project was entitled ‘Art And Consumerism‘ and showed the process of creating a palpable, 3D, consumable object - ‘the handbag‘ - using the same painted canvas which symbolizes the ‘art work‘. My written project contained references to collaborations between contemporary artist and luxury fashion brands such as: Richard Prince and Takashi Murakami for Louis Vuitton, James Jean for Prada, Richard Phillips for Jimmy Choo, Jeff Koons for Stella McCartney, and many more influences that art had/has all-around the fashion world.

The second painting represents the human touch, somebody who tried to tear the canvas apart to create something literally useful, not just eye pleasing. Also, the symbols of handbags which can be seen painted on the first canvas, appear to have almost fallen off the canvas in the second piece of the project. It’s those symbols which help the actual transformation from a symbolic ‘art piece’ to a palpable, consumable, useful product: ‘the handbag’.

At the opening of the graduate exhibition with my handbag-art-piece installation in the back.

Top photos: two of my best friends who helped organizing the exhibit: Smaranda and Isabela; bottom: my classmates - I am so curious how many of them will work as actual painters for a living in 10 years from now. I guess I’ll have to wait a while for that.

I am quite lucky to have very supportive parents and I needed a few years to really understand how important they were and still are for me. They came just for the exhibition opening and to see me, so I couldn’t not post them. Pretty funny that there is also a Romanian flag in the back (the gallery is actually in an army building).

Precious moments don’t happen everyday; I am just appreciating and sharing.

My last exam as an art student is scheduled on the 3 rd July. I can’t wait for it to be over, so I can finally take a small summer break, visit my parents, work on new patterns and have (even if for little time) no worries in this world. You know, I crave for such a moment when you genuinely enjoy life. Anyway, about the art show, the opening will take place at 6 p.m. and it’s open to the public. Most of our projects will be on display, mine too, of course. Still have to post about my grad project, but I wrote it in Romanian and now it’s taking a bit to translate it back into English.

It’s weird how fast 3 years of University went by. I feel like it was just yesterday when I finished high-school and got ready for ‘the new beginning’ that was supposed to be studying painting at the Art University in Timisoara. Does that mean I’ll get to have a new beginning this summer too? Weird. Life. Life is weird sometimes.

Carta e Costura.

Donna Karan pre-fall 2008. Vests and furs: looks a lot like the paintings, no? [credit:TFS, wikipedia]

“Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a Dutch painter. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history. His contributions to art came in a period that historians call the Dutch Golden Age”. Well, it looks like his style is quite ‘it’ right now. Dutch painting seems to inspire fashion a lot lately, so when I saw all these head-pieces I instantly thought of Rembrandt’s self-portraits. Painting and Art History seems to be the greatest source of inspiration, for whatever creative field one is working in. Love!

Russian L’Officiel magazine.

My painting for the composition exam entitled “Transparencies and Opacity in a Week”.

It may be this romantic fashion spread from L’Officiel Russia magazine (how amazingly amazing is the styling and all those clothes?) or the up-and-coming spring/summer season, but I started to like pastel colors. So much that I even used pastel colors and colored grays in my exam paintings st school: cotton candy colors, baby blue, girlie pink and purple, but mostly I love creme colors and buttery yellows. Pastel colors are the new black! Susie over at Style Bubble seems to agree (click here to read her post on pastels and enjoy the Tim Walker editorial in Vogue Italia Jan 2008). While she even wears them pastels, I stick to expressing my love through paintings. I created these two art works this week, as I’m in my last year of studying painting at the Art University in Timisoara, Romania in Ms. Dana Acea’s class.

My painting for the study of color exam entitled “The Atelier”.

My “Plastic Bags Installation” semester paintings.

During the semester, we had to paint this “plastic bags” installation, in a very expressionist way. See how I painted the plastic bags only in warm colors? This is my unconscious craving for spring and sun, I tell ya! Click to read the full post and enjoy some details from the “Transparencies and Opacity in a Week” painting.  

Usually I have most of my meals in front of my laptop, browsing through the fashion spot, daily blogs, enjoying the latest couture collections and latest editorials as much (or maybe more) than the food I eat. Just kidding! Anyway, when I saw this fashion spread for Air France Madame with the back of paintings on the background I thought of the spring/summer Dolce&Gabbana ads: the action happens also in a painting atelier/workspace. However something seemed off: the sets are way too clean and perfectly put together for a usual painting workspace. Usually, in most ateliers, there’s a mess. Color everywhere, canvases, brushes, furniture and so on! So, I thought that next day I’ll photograph the space where we work-paint-create at school (The Art University in Timisoara, Romania), just so you see the difference between fashion and reality (”Oh, there’s a difference between fashion and reality? You don’t say!”).

There’s not much space here, is there? Also, I wore some of my clothes from my latest collection (spring/summer 2008) today at school: the gray shirt-dress and the pink plaid cropped jacket. Fortunately, I didn’t stain them with oil colors!

We are currently having exams at our atelier/paining classes. Imagine my astonishment when I heard the them/subject for your last exam at the study of color: “Room 204; Our Workspace - Interior“. I mean, I just thought of “the painters workspace” and then we get to interpret it any way we want for the exam: that’s pretty awesome, no?

This is the picture of the atelier (top) from which I started my composition (bottom). Color-wise, I chose to go with the warm-cold and complementary contrasts (orange-blue; purple-yellow). This painting is not finished, as we have another day of exam tomorrow.

Oh, and we have to clean up the atelier once we finish our exams for this semester. That is way harder than painting, trust me!