MY ART LIFE continued 3

For years since that discovery I kept improving my way of expressing myself in art. My parents wondered what was to become of me. They advised me to do something significant, but art remained the only form of language that I wanted to express myself in. My parents refused to encourage me. “My father was against it. He wanted me to become a lawyer. When I refused, he cut off the money flow” (Casimiri, Amigoe, 2001).
I don’t really remember a lot about this unpleasant period. I turned to nature and made many landscapes. I spent all the money I had on art materials and I started to visit independent exhibitions, among which one with work by Paul Guiragossian (Jerusalem, 1926-1993). I hadn’t decided to attend Art school yet, but was deeply impressed with Guiragossian’s work. The umbrellas and sunshades that Guiragossian painted are still present in my own work today. I never regarded these, or other similarities between them as a mere coincidence.
“It’s no coincidence that two individuals from the same country and same culture have a lot in common in the way that they paint. The way of living, the atmosphere drives you into similar lines and colours. That’s why I still say: it comes with the style not with the subject.”

In my teenage years I devoured books about philosophy (Schopenhauer), literature and art (Gibran, Gauguin). Because of the historical connection between France and Lebanon, I also read a lot about Paul Cézanne for whom I had a predilection. I started to reproduce the landscapes of Cézanne. But, because I had a feeling I could do it differently, more sophisticated, and more exceptional, I did it in my own way.