Victor Saleri:

little rags

Q: Hi, Victor! I saw your site. Why did you call it "Little Rags"?
A: Because I speak about and show examples of little paintings painted above rags not on traditional canvas, I mean old and dirty rags used to clean brushes.

Q: How did you come up with this idea?
A: I had a kind of inspiration before throwing away some little cotton rags particularly interesting for colours and texture.  But it's not simply that, I have been always interested about the theory of chaos and the concept of entropy.  One of my preferred books, for instance, is "Entropy and Art" by R. Arnheim.

Q: But how do you see images or figures out of paint stains in your rags?
A: Not always I'm able to find some figures in the stains. It's like a reaction between myself and chaos.  After I have observed many times a rag, something starts to move in my mind.  It could represent a figure, a stair, an animal or nothing at all.

Of course, the memory of my previous figurative paintings help me, but I don't apply mechanically my previous images on the rag: it doesn't work!  Sometimes I have to wait a full month before being able to give a visual meaning to the rag.

"Emotion recollected in tranquillity" wrote Coleridge.  Well, is something similar even though I'm not a romantic.

Q: Do you paint also traditonal canvases in larger format?
A: Yes, most of my production is oil on canvas, about 20x28 inches of size. The "Little Rags" is only a part of my production.  I showed it in my site because I thought that those little paintings were interesting not only for themselves but for what they implied: a critical issue about some art that can originate from chaos.  Unfortunately the title can be misleading because somebody may think about something without any value that you discard.

Q: Do you plan to continue your production of "Little Rags"?
A: I hope to continue and to develop the same concepts in other directions too. Right now I'm working on something different but with the same philosophical approach.

Q: What would you say very briefly to a potential visitor of your site?
A: Welcome to my site and don't forget to visit my galleries to understand better the meaning of my work.

Tell me what you see Victor Selleri? Some stare at art for long minutes sometimes hours, to adore, to appreciate or to understand. We all probably see art in a "different kind of light" but most of the time we can all agree to call it art. We can call a painting art, a sculpture art, written thoughts art and so on. The work you see pictured here by Victor Selleri we can call art. He is a painter and as with most painters uses rags, which come in handy for quick brush clean ups and wipes. The work you see here is one of Victor's "paint rags".

Victor Saleri
Your Email Comments Welcome
Please Visit Little Rags

*****