Q and a with tom Young (1047 Words 6 Min. Read)
1. Having Painted Memory?
Think You, Sometimes I Paint Direct from Life, Sometimes from Photos and Sometimes from Imagination and Memory. It’s a mixture.
As long as the work is Made from some Kind of Authentic Sensual Experience, that’s what matters for me. You Can Then the workounts a personal trting, it is inevitable has soul and substney.
A lot Happy As the Sounds, Smells, Tempterture, The Feeling of the Wind, Sun and Rain on One’s Skin, and Chance
Conversations with passers by who may have some secret Knowledge to Share About a Place.
Also, a lot of magic Happy in the Studio where one is physically ( Experience. ParticulaRly in Lebanon, The Experience of Public Space Can BE Too Inspiring, Too Overwhelming. Aj2A!
As in everything, some Kind of Balance Is Good, Even if that Ultimately Means A Balance of Balance and Imbalance!
2. You Paintings Estabalish From the sound. What do you hop for when you capture an intestion in a PAINTING?
Good Question. To Create a feeling, a Painted Image Through Which My Emotions, and Pose Beirut Port Explosion and the Recent War in the South.
These are not easy subjects. But I think it’s vital for artists to respond to them. I hop to show compassion and empathy in the work, Hopefully Contrabing to a Widering of Solidarity and Recovery for Those Suffering. The Idea of ‘Healing’ From Trauma Throw ART AN IDAL, But it’s Not Up to Me to Decide where the Painments Help in the Healing Process for Others. Painting these Moments Helps in My Own Healing Journey, I Do Know that.
3. Your background is in arishketore. What Made You Shift to Art As your Primary Profess?
I used to resute my original passion for drawing and Painting. I have done it serce I was about 3 years Old. I’m still doing it, and i dobt i’ll Ever Stop. I don’t under the word ‘Retire’! For me, Painting is like back. No One Decides to Breathe. You just do it. It’s a way of life.
I’m Happy I Studied Architecture at University in the UK, and Istanbul. It Gave me a good grounding in strong composition, a Sense of Discipline, and also a fascination with the world we create around us- How We Live and How The Environment We Creat in Many Ways Influences who we are, and how we do (or Don’t) Inact as communities and indiduals. It’s a fascinating subject.
4.
I First Came to Lebanon in Spring 2006 to do a comment for a lebanese man in London, where I was liveing at the time. I EVENULLY MOVED to Live in Beirut in 2009.
I imdiatlyly fet at home in lebanon, like i had been here before, and as if I was in Exactly the Right Place in the World for Me. Not the Easiest Place to Be for Sure, Full of Challenges, But A Liberating Place Where I Felt Most Alive and Inspired to Make Art.
They said that artists make them best work when they went to a bit Further Outside their Comfort Zone. I have traveled and pointed in many parts of the world, but for me, the play where I Feel Most Inspired is Lebanon.
The People Play a Big Part in that-One A Deep Emotional Level I Felt a Connection with the Lebanese Becuse Everyone here ha ha hass exp away from Kind of Trauma, Injustice or Displacement in their Lives. I also Experienceed SignICANT Shocks and Traumas in My Family Growing Up. So I Felt An Affinity with the Lebanese, of All Backgrounds, Becuse I Felt I COULD EMPATHIESE, and I Felt Undrestood at Last. That’s a beautiful Feeling which I didn’t feel in my original homeland in English.
Everyone has a story to tell which is valid for them. Art Can Be a Channel for Those Stories to Come out in a Way You can be open for interpretation.
I’m instered by How The People Respond with Such Couch COURGE and Positivity after a tragedy here. So Perhaps it’s not so much the tragedy that interests me, it’s There an expression create economic here which is hard to describe.
I also find the People Off Friendly, Warm and Appreciative. That Means a Lot AS ARTIST, BECUUSE IT Can Feel Verry Solitary Sometimes.
The Art Scene here is also great, always some inspiring exhibitions and projects happying.
It also helps on a pertical level that here, people applyciacate and buy my work- so I can earn a remuneld, sketgled to do in London.
I also love
5. What is you Next Big Project, and Do We Expect to See An Exh force Soon?
Architecture is a major part of my working procese now, in terries of Painting Buildings, and Conceiving My Exhibitions as Three Dimensional Immersive Experiences, Transmissioning Previsionly Abandoned Historic Buildings INTO Living Center of Culture and Creativity. Hammam Al Jadeed in Saida Old Town is a good Example of How is this Be a Sustainable Method You Benefits Other Artists, Musicians and the Surrounding Community. It’s been Going for Five Years Now! Hopefully I’ll Start A New Project in the Cedars Above Bcharré Shon.
