ARTIST STATEMENT (2016)

Mine has been a continue struggle for reinventing my reality, a constant resistance to the indoctrination induced by society and my time in history.  I’m always looking for ways of defying the paradigms set upon me regarding ethnicity, place of birth, gender, physical appearance, social status and age.

I have the firm believe that we are more than what our believe system allows us to grasp. From an early age we are programmed to understand our world from a certain angle and we build our reality from that solely point, without questioning it’s veracity, or effectiveness, simply assuming it as an absolute truth. I think this narrow perspective forces us to function from a numbed level of consciousness, as consumer robots, caught up in drama, petty fights, worries about the future and constant fear, unable to move forward to a better and more evolved level of existence.

This collective blindness strikes me and makes me search for a way out, a way of establishing new patterns of thought and perception. The manifestation of this internal restlessness as a physical expression has been the birth of a new life form, a world that exists in isolation from everyday boredom, a doorway that connects me to a different dimension, through painting.

I don't find any pleasure in representing things that are already in the world, human figure, portraits, landscapes,  horses, etc. The way I see it, is that if I've being given the opportunity to be creator, why don't take it and TRULY CREATE!  Create new life forms, new worlds, new textures, new feelings and perceptions. As an individual I've never felt the need to constraint myself to what is expected or accepted. In a weird way I've always being able to see in a very clear way the structure of paradigms, and have a hard time understanding how people fall so easily for them, and all that they miss when they do so.

I'm aware that by taking this approach I may create art that is uncomfortable at times and maybe not well accepted or even understand at all, but for me that is a risk worth taken. What drives me is not the aim to indulge in the creation of beautiful objects but to add something new to the world, a new perspective, to convey a message of UNTAPPED POSSIBILITY, OF HOPE that there is something  more. That what we know and understand as humans at this point in our history is so primitive compared to what is really out there. That we humans are so incredibly narcissistic and short sighted at times, that we think that our actual reality encloses in its totality the unfathomable mystery of our existence. That the true nature of the universe is expansion and mutation and it is all right, that what we hold so dear, our religions, our many structures, our governments our technology, our routines are just a moment in time and will soon be transformed into something else, and that is precisely the magic of it all. The never ending transformation of a deep intelligence in constant self expression...

Through my work, I look forward for the spectator to engage with the message in it's own unique way, there is no right or wrong. I am not giving any pre- established, predigest neural pathways in terms of familiar concepts, shapes or color codes. the interpretation is unique and personal, and is meant to create an inner tension that forces the brain to work and produce it's own meaning. to establish new patterns, and create brand new connections...  

                                                                 SHILOWSKA PRETTO