Mariska Karto is a photo & digital artist from Holland. Her artworks have the ability to redefine the border between reality and dream, between light and dark; Mariska drives the spectator in a dimension permeated by a surrealistic atmosphere. The creation of a fresco photo hyper collage could take a year or more; during this period individual photographs will be photographed seperately which eventually form a complete visual in final stage. Because each seperate photo have its own story, every photo needs its own preparation in which the fresco story and atmospheric visual must be clear. This requires a lot of time and inspiration, as inspiration can not be programmed on command, it takes a lot of patience.
Mariska, where do you get your inspiration?
Everything that touches me, can inspire me. I try to stay close to myself.
Which is the reletioship and influence beetween your cultural backgorund (country, studies, etc.) and your artworks?
I do have a simple answer for this question. It’s who I am. Suriname, asian and dutch blood runs through my veins. My great-grandmother is from Friesland, an authentic and old province in the Netherlands. She was called “the White Lady“, because her skin was very light and even her hair was almost white, she was the daughter of a plantation farmer. My great-grandmother fell in love with a free slave, my great-grandfather. They have experienced many problems because of their mixed and colonial relationship, but eventually their love for each other and their determination has celebrated victory of life. Together they had 11 children.
Recently I found out that much of my family-identity, my great-grandmother and the love of my great-grandparents has being brought back to life in my art. I realized, the white woman did not end up in my work just like that.
It just happens that I create modern-renaissance art, inspired by a time period in which just a few coloured people appear in works of art of that time. In the year 2018 I am someone just like so many others with a mixed background, most of them caused by historical events in the past. So of course it is normal for me to create diversity in my work.
What are you much focused in?
I think it is important that there’s soul in my work, created with digital tools and techniques, in the end it is the creator/the human factor which ensures that there is soul and magic to experience. Computers can’t do this. It is the soul that will coordinate the work and ensures that it is shaped.
Have you encountered any difficulties when you first started your art/freelance career?
Over a period of time, the life of an artist became romanticized a lot. I guess it is hard work for everyone, in each period of life that you enter. Some people have children next to their artist job or are head providers in the family. Certain choices will have to be made, sometimes you give more, sometimes you take more. I had a pretty quick start in my career, but sometimes too fast is not good. You have to learn quickly, respond quickly to situations, make decisions without having any basic experiences. I have learned that there are no standard solutions, everything should be taken care of to an individual situation.
Over these years, what is the most important thing you have learnt from your profession?
The creative power can be very explosive. As an artist you can be completely drowned into the process. Everything is on sharp, your body, your senses, your observations. Your energy is running extremely at full speed, that can be exhausting but rewarding. There is no user guide, each artist will have to invent for themselves how to handle this.
Do you think that a creative job is just creativity or it’s discipline too?
In a creative job you’re going to have to learn how to work with discipline when you feel that ‘the big rush‘ is comming. Artists only create good if they feel that they are in a certain kind of fire, the radars are spinning in their soul and the work gets navigated into the direction where they want it to go, a harmonic combination between libertinage and discipline.
“In a creative job
you’re going to have to learn
how to work with discipline
when you feel that
‘the big rush‘ is comming“
Are you currently work on new projects?
Yes, I am working on a new fresco photohypercollage. I hope to finish this fresco in 2018. Also I am working on some new stuff, can’t tell much about it, because it is still in its experimental phase.
Artist Website > mariska-karto.com
Instagram > @mariskakarto
Twitter > @mariska_karto
Facebook > facebook.com/mariska.karto.photography