We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sebastian Sandu. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sebastian below.

Sebastian , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Living in Romania, for many years I worked in advertising. It was a creative job, but it felt like I was lying to myself and the public due to the profile of the job. So when my creative spirit got burned out, I decided to be true to my audience and most important to myself.

But when I arrived in the US I still wasn’t sure what I needed to do in order to bring some excitement to my broken spirit. So I tried a lot of things: I designed and built many pieces of furniture, lamps, clocks, home decorations; I worked on several restoration projects for historic buildings; in the same time I was getting back to my first love: painting, drawing and for many years I explored multiple subject matters like landscapes, portraits, abstracts, figurative. And I still didn’t feel complete.

It wasn’t until I started to include some sort of message in my work, when I noticed much more interest from people, more conversations generated based on my work, more invitations from museums and galleries and most satisfying of all, the multiple awards coming in.
Growing up in a former communist country where nobody is in any way superior to others, I didn’t know what mistreatment based on skin color means. For sure you were integrated in society no matter what and everybody was equally considered. Moving to the US and being constantly exposed to inequality and racial injustice I felt suffocated, so I started to put my feelings and thoughts on canvas. That is how, influenced by great writers and producers in the US, my artwork shifted somehow to social and identity issues, as I’m often thinking: as artists we have a powerful voice and we can use it for something meaningful.

It shouldn’t have to happen to you for something to matter to you.

”ONE” is an ongoing series of portraits, created as a reaction to the mistreatment, discrimination and inequality I am witnessing everyday based on visual differences, skin tones, or ethnic background.
These portraits are intended to illustrate that we are all interconnected, we are similar beings sharing the same feelings, emotions and needs. We all have different ethnic backgrounds and empathy sees no color or gender.

My plan was not to think outside the box, in terms of portraiture, but to make the box diverse and inclusive. It’s a privilege to not be able to see the systemic racism, it’s a privilege to intellectualize the black struggle, it’s a privilege to be passive and do nothing. As a white male living in a white privileged country, sometimes I forget or question my identity, and this state of confusion and dissociation is what I try to incorporate in my work. I’m creating this series of portraits with the hope that it will encourage empathy, unity and a non-binary view of race. By celebrating diversity, I’m showing previously unseen details of our society, which suggest that we can function as one, perfectly healthy organism, regardless of appearance, visual differences, gender identity, race or beliefs.

It was only after I moved to the United States that I saw the purpose and felt a sense of meaning in my work.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have been always creative and attracted by visual experiences… My parents told me that I was drawing their portraits at an early age and my first public piece was probably a subliminal message to them that I needed to exceed my boundaries, to get out of my comfort zone: a mountain goat jumping over evergreens

They decided I should enrich my education by sending me to an art primary school. Four years in an art high school were followed by six years of college, and I graduated at the National Art and Design University, in Bucharest.

I paint because that’s the way I communicate with people and I paint what I feel. We don’t usually have the same mood every day, all the time. Sometimes people are happy, sometimes they are dreaming, maybe confused or even insecure.
I experience the same emotions artistically, and my intention is to make them visible, using different visual forms. Sometimes I want to get down to a minimal, basic understanding of things… and the goal is to transmit the very essence of that thought, through abstract painting. But I am also analytical and I need figures to observe first, to better express what I’m feeling. Who I am as an artist, is not an answer to a “what would you like to be, when you grow up” kind of question. I have a “lexicon” available and just cannot use the same “ten words” all the time. A famous Dutch painter said: “As an artist, you have to fight and survive the wilderness to find your creative freedom. Creativity is very fragile” – Karel Appel
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In one sentence: my art is the essence of multiple experiences, mirrored by my own terms.

Being a full-time artist now, re-designing my own path after many years in visual communication and marketing, I fell in love with the idea of helping people in need through the power of art. That is why I am often involved in benefits and artistic events, designed to help people in general.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Maya Angelou said: “If you’re going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that cannot be erased.”

Now, I’m not one to pressure anybody to do anything… But from my own experience, only when I found a purpose was when I really felt accomplished. If that purpose turns out to be helpful for society, that should be even more fulfilling.

Many of my non-creative friends, and even my family, were asking me: How can you quit a well paid job, give up your home, leave your friends and family behind, and move to another country to start over at the age of 35? I didn’t know why either. All I knew was that I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t fulfilled. It was hard for several years, but now I have a purpose. Now I have a goal that is not related to how much money I make.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Louise Burgeois said: “An artist can show things that other people are terrified of expressing”

That is an amazing insight for both artists and society in general. The responsibility of an artist is to reflect the times. And we can only do that by relating to our constantly changing society.

Art is not only sunsets, flowers and female nudes. These sell for sure, but for the ecosystem to thrive, artists need a greater purpose than just how well a painting fits the sofa. And there will always be that category of artists that knows how to find inspiration and reflect the times they live in.

It’s a matter of perspective and how we prefer to look at art. For both artists and society, equally.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sebastian_sandu_art
• Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/sebastian.sandu.988

Image Credits
Sebastian Sandu