Gheorghe Virtosu - Collection 2016 - Part 3

Gheorghe Virtosu

" My beginnings in painting was like a swarm of thoughts and feelings: admiration, anger, and revolt… It was like a primordial explosion which helped me realize that everything can be expressed in colors and words. And then I felt like a shooting -star, or a meteorite freely wandering through the universe, with a chance to explore it forever.

I need to confess now. It is something I never revealed to anyone in any other interviews so far. My creative “craziness” originates in my childhood when sometimes, I felt offended by one of my friends or by an adult. For a reason which I couldn’t explain for a long time, I chose not to take revenge on anyone. I would come home upset, get myself in a warm bath as I was trying to purge every bit of anger and pain out of my system. It wasn’t always easy to get back on track, because in a small village community like the one I grew up in, small events can seem like life-changing experiences, and I was deeply touched by many of them. In those moments, I would find refuge in drawing. As it turns out nowadays, the artwork is one of the most effective forms of therapy. (Later on, I discovered that pencil and paper are the most potent weapons humanity has).

In my drawing, I was striving to render the problem content, what had happened to me. Then, taking examples from the community (where people used fire to burn the evil as in the case of sick animals and birds), I was drawing the fire considering the flames as the supreme judge. When flames were going highest, I imagined that through their persistent swirling motions, they were advising me to throw the drawings in the fire to eliminate those painful bits and pieces of my soul. I was firmly convinced that if I had not burnt those drawings and somebody would have seen them, most certainly, it would have inflicted more pain. Moreover, I was afraid that it could have come alive with every raindrop guided by sun rays as it happens with epidemics, and we know how destructive they are.

Watching my drawings burning, the flame dance was meant to calm me down, and I was starting to forgive the one who upset me. I felt my soul relieved and conscience was getting rid of the burden. At the same time, my intuition advised me that I was doing the right thing burning away the drawings, symbolic proof of the wrong-doing inflicted on me by others. Back then, the technique worked for me just like it had worked for many others before me. (through Prometheus’ supreme sacrifice) is to be the guide of our existence.

In other words, even at that early age, I understood that the world around us is what we make of it: I could use fire as a way of exorcising my anger and upset, while others would have contemplated setting alight their enemies’ houses instead. Now, after all these years, I understand that art has the same cleansing effect.

Years went by; I grew up and was lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel the world and be exposed to different ways of life and diverse experiences. I became acquainted with injustice first hand. The seed which divinity endowed me with had sprouted and started to bear fruit. I guess the end-results of my development as a human being of the modern world have begun showing up relatively recently, and I have to thank people like you, Monica, for putting them out there through interviews like this one (smiling). The difference is that now I don’t throw my drawings in the fire anymore; instead, I offer them to the world hoping that people will be able to relate to them and the message they carry is not altered by anything. "

The works

1. Margaret Thatcher
2. Miriam The Prophetess
3. Modern Arab policy
4. Modern Pollination
5. Mozart
6. Napoleon's Adviser
7. New and old world order
8. Oscar Groening
9. Palestinian spirit
10. Pharaohs Retreat
11. Picasso in meditation
12. Pope John Paul II in prayer
13. Prince Charles in waiting
14. Ptolemy XIII
15. Putin