Devis Grebu

I received a good musical education during my childhood and teenage years, including piano studies, and I mention this for a good reason: like many of the people who have judged and written about my art, I feel that music has always had a deep influence on my own paintings and my own search for harmonies and rhythms. I am still in love and involved with music in general.

Art critics have very often found a "surrealistic" style in many of my best visual ideas because of the way I use these metaphors to convey my philosophy. Despite the fact that I hate being "imprisoned" within any of the well known artistic trends, I am ready and happy to accept this, but only as a part of a much more complex process of creativity. Besides, I am ferociously against any gratuitous or senseless combination of disparate or contrasting elements used only for the purpose of looking "bizarre" or unusual. Unfortunately, this method is very fashionable in the world of illustrators and painters. The great principles of producing fantastic or incongruous imagery by means of overly subtle and unnatural juxtapositions in the name of the absolute power of "dream" are vulgarized and in very serious danger of extinction. (D.G.)