Master student Aucke Paulusma paints every day and he never gets tired of it! A five-minute drawing or a painting of four months, one thing is certain: Paulusma would love to be able to make a living from his art someday. We spoke to him about his work process, inspiration and the dystopian collection he is currently working on.
His room already looks like one of an artist. Some paint on the couch, many, many canvases and walls filled with art, greet everyone who enters. When asked if he sells his work, he smiles: ‘I don’t have enough room to store it all here.’ However, the collection he is currently working on is not for sale, ‘I want to exhibit my art.’
It is Paulusma’s first time working on an entire collection of paintings. The dystopian series -one of the works is titled New Normal– shows a burning sky and is characterised by four different colours. A great contrast with his other works. Paulusma normally uses a lot more colour. ‘I like painting with colour. Also because of artists, I admire like Pablo Picasso or David Hockney. It is cheerful.’ The story is central, both in his new series and his other work, and the paint he uses should ‘fit the message.’ A boyish smile spreads across his face when he looks at a painting of his girlfriend: ‘I don’t have a gloomy feeling when I think of her, so I wouldn’t want to paint her like that, rather the opposite.’
Throughout his work, he references art history numerous times. His own take on the metamorphosis of Daphne took him four months and shows how much inspiration his degree offers him. However, his inspiration changes per painting, autobiographical experiences or works of other artists, it doesn’t matter, as long as there is a story to tell. What story that is? Paintings such as New Normal might seem like political declarations, ‘I see it more as visual poems, than political statements’, says Paulusma. While people can view it in a political way, you don’t have to do so. Paulusma reassures us, New Normal is also ‘meant a little bit as a joke’.
Paulusma’s art, including ‘New Normal’ was exhibited in Hotel Mokum. Ten of his works are portrayed and for sale in ‘restaurant Rotonde’ in Rotterdam. Interested in his work? Paulusma has a website and an Instagram account.