DAMIJAN FRIC

Visual arts are a language. A language, different from verbal communication, yet just on par with it and in some sense even superior to it. (Or imagine: „Visual art transforms an eye into an ear“.)

Therefore it seems to be a conflict to verbally speak about visual art. It is as absurd as to try to explain a joke. Each time I am supposed to verbally reflect on my works, I am at a huge loss. I do so only when exceptions arise – as in now, for example.....

- Good! I will be using a trick. I will not write about my artwork but about my personal path to art.

So, I believe that in each (true) artist there is somewhat of an autist, from the start. A character that more or less deviated from the norms of life. As a child, I was already somehow different than others.

Very early on in my life, as a son of Slovenian emigrants (Slovenia – Germany), was I put into an emotional spin dryer. From this experience I crept up a bean stalk on an tree of societies' norms. I tried to reach for the sweetest fruits dangling on top. Then, I realized, that the creeping and the climbing really wasn't something I had fun doing.

I rather lagged behind.... and when I realized that the tree of the prevailing norm didn't fit me, I decided to plant my own tree next to it.

Was it the external circumstances that made me choose the unconventional life of an artist?

Now, I am still part of society but I am peeking at it from the side. And in those nights with a full moon, I am looking at it down from heaven....

I believe it is an imprint, a birth, to hope for salvation in the world of art.

As a member of the „mainstream“ I would practically be dead. Buried alive. A horrible feeling! –

Therefore there is only one last resort for me: arts! And because the „World of Art“ is just as non-existent as the „Blue Flower“ from Novalis, art is a permanent new invention of one's own life; art is the path through one's own life.

Through the language of my artworks I am trying to process my own life. I am conveying my life to others and drawing conclusions, while empathizing my passion and hoping for a few open ears (and eyes) in this world.

Those people who can take pleasure in my artworks belong to the society in which I want to live.

So what do I do when I produce a painting? I live!

Damijan Fric, Slovenia / Germany

http://www.damijan-fric.de