Abstract Artist: Laurentiu Todie
Medium: Mixed Media
I’m a photographer/painter photographing what I see on my computer from both the real world and the virtual. My work is heavy on the post production side. Most of it starts as semi-poetic thought, but some as geometric visions. Pointillists and Pop artists have used dots in their work, I use pixels. I reduce the resolution of photos (usually screen shots of my own images or from the public domain) to make them hardly recognizable, I then interpolate the files to my favorite 60×40” size for output and paint on the enlarged pixels to give the work an impasto look. In doing this I create a hybrid between abstract and representational art. While I make the inspirations hardy recognizable, the style of the final output is distinctly mine. Very few photographers have recognizable styles. I add a personal touch to photography and often use sources that count on the viewer’s memory for an Aha! moment—so that’s what it is. It is important for my work to be seen both up-close for the abstract look and from afar or thumbnail, for the representational aspect. My images can be used to suggest large museum collections, currents in art or other groups of works, for different curatorial purposes, or simply for their abstract, intrinsic beauty. I answer the ubiquitous question: “What does this abstract piece represent?” with a more or less photo-realistic thumbnail.
Laurentiu Todie was born in Constanta, Romania and took painting lessons from Ionel Matasareanu and Cornel Iosif. In 1977 he escaped Romania and was accepted to emigrate to the USA in 1979. Since that time he has had many shows including a solo show at Ron Stein Gallery, Soho NY. In 2010 Laurentiu started his work called “Project Recycled Pixels” and has been creating pixel paintings ever since.