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Painting Portraits : A Series of Interviews
Her name is Yasmine jeitanY. She was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil and currently lives in Beirut, Lebanon where she graduated in Fine Arts from the Lebanese University before completing her Masters in Fine Arts at the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA).
This artist describes her passion as "an extreme appreciation for all new media art such as printmaking, installation, art video, motion graphics and photography" and whose "everyday work is based on graphic art".
It is when she left for London to attend the Chelsea College of Art and the Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design in the Fall of 2006 that she got the opportunity to explore animation, textile painting, etching and motion graphics for television.
This versatile artist has enjoyed wide exposure all around Lebanon with exhibitions at the Rachid Karami International Fair, Ehden's Symposium of Paintings and Sculpture, Ehdeniyat's Collective Exposition, the UNESCO, the Cultural French Center's Collective Modern 256 Exhibition and more recently at the Salon d'Automne XXX held by the Sursock Museum.
The word has been defined and redefined so many times. It was and remains abused. Used in vain some of the times. Used for vanity most of the times. What does the word means to you?
The Artist is a person who has the ability to join between two different ideas or more into an exceptional concept and turn it to a different perspective and that of course in a highly professional process, where he is leading by inspiration. That’s how all-new ideas are developed.
How do you see yourself within your own definition of an "Artist"?
Through my years of cultivation I had the ability to think independently and creatively and that is what induces my wide imagination. That is how I define myself after years of practicing and pursuing in that field.
You are Lebanese. That identity does not come without its own load of history. How did Lebanon shape you as an artist and as a human being?
Living in a country like Lebanon, helped me to adopt the surreal concept because I wanted to join between the beautiful and the useful (le beau et l’utile). This was to improve more than a figurative technique, but a moral of the current life in Lebanon. Since my childhood, Lebanon has gone through the most weird and shocking events. So the subjects of my works were like a mark of what is happening socially, politically and environmentally.
What is the best part of being an artist?
Having an independent thinking and a free spirit, identify my personality, and being an Artist helped me to induce more this independence and the ability to face my environment. So nothing was able to hinder my confidence and self-esteem.
Labels can be often confining and sometimes misleading. A person's work evolves as that person grows. And you are probably far from where you started. But for the sake of argument, how do you define your work within the known frames of "styles"?
Style is a word that I hate the most because in my opinion if the Artist is labeled within a definite style, he will fall down in repetition and that is what will kill his progress, hinder his creativity, and his work will become repetitive and meaningless.
So tell us a little about your work. What inspires you? How do you translate this inspiration into visuals, colors, and shapes?
My photos are the point of departure of most of my artwork. Taking photos is one of my favorite hobbies and the photos are related to how much I care about life and how much I like to keep prints of my past too. My Photos are instances of my space not to be forgotten, they are winks of the past time either of good or bad moments. Because in my opinion, our past, whether important or not, happy or miserable, is what we are today. Today always holds in its treasure a memory of a spiritual and material past. And photos are visual and material memories that could not eliminate our most delicate and spiritual moments.
As I said before, I have adopted surrealism by joining more than one idea or image to create the work. I started to be figurative after my first academic years. And after a while, the work changed by destruction of the figurative with the abstraction. We can see the destruction of the photo by the color and the line, which have a creative value of the space and atmosphere. It’s a destruction of the real figure to build or create a utopian abstract world. The line and the color are produced by the pure feelings of survival, of resurrection after the destruction.
The line gives me the ability to describe my interior life and my feelings in a rhythmical and symbolic aspect, and especially the rising vertical line that has the expression of determination and willpower. The willpower to hope a better and respectful world for all the Lebanese of all kinds, because we are different with just one identity.
The Color is the matter of a sparkling obscurity, an obscurity where light filters tenderly in between to fill the emptiness of the paintings; where the black that is not really a color, plays an important part in the paintings. Black doesn’t just gives colors the opportunity to shine through but also depth and value. And the reason I work with contrast is to propose a sublime and luminous set up of beings and things around me.
What artists have influenced you and why?
The Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, and because beyond the suspense in all his films he had a message to say.
When things get tough and you seem to be stuck somewhere outside of inspiration, how do you cope? How do you keep yourself motivated?
I have no problem in taking someone else ideas and point of view. Everything around me, whether are simple people or common things, always hold me with a moral or new idea.
As a well-rounded person, art is not the only interest to you of course. What else is important to you? What are your concerns as a citizen of the world, not only as an artist?
Knowing that War is still in our everyday life after all the progress of science and human being is my nightmare. And what I really hope is a better future for Lebanon, because my dreams are part of this future.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I have an immense installation project in mind that I hope could be done by ten years from now. The purpose of the installation is about human and war but it still requires large sponsoring before it can be completed.
If you were a color?
White
Shape?
The vertical line
Texture or fabric?
Glass
Song or music composition?
Avec le temps (Leo Ferre)
Film?
House Of The Flying Daggers
Book or literary piece?
Sand And Foam by Khalil Gibran
Famous character (real or fictional)?
Steve Jobs
It is when she left for London to attend the Chelsea College of Art and the Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design in the Fall of 2006 that she got the opportunity to explore animation, textile painting, etching and motion graphics for television.
This versatile artist has enjoyed wide exposure all around Lebanon with exhibitions at the Rachid Karami International Fair, Ehden's Symposium of Paintings and Sculpture, Ehdeniyat's Collective Exposition, the UNESCO, the Cultural French Center's Collective Modern 256 Exhibition and more recently at the Salon d'Automne XXX held by the Sursock Museum.
The Artist
The word has been defined and redefined so many times. It was and remains abused. Used in vain some of the times. Used for vanity most of the times. What does the word means to you?
The Artist is a person who has the ability to join between two different ideas or more into an exceptional concept and turn it to a different perspective and that of course in a highly professional process, where he is leading by inspiration. That’s how all-new ideas are developed.
 |
| Installation: A Graph between London and Beirut" (2010) Salon D'Automne XXX, Sursock Museum Photo Credit: Yasmine Jeitany |
How do you see yourself within your own definition of an "Artist"?
Through my years of cultivation I had the ability to think independently and creatively and that is what induces my wide imagination. That is how I define myself after years of practicing and pursuing in that field.
You are Lebanese. That identity does not come without its own load of history. How did Lebanon shape you as an artist and as a human being?
Living in a country like Lebanon, helped me to adopt the surreal concept because I wanted to join between the beautiful and the useful (le beau et l’utile). This was to improve more than a figurative technique, but a moral of the current life in Lebanon. Since my childhood, Lebanon has gone through the most weird and shocking events. So the subjects of my works were like a mark of what is happening socially, politically and environmentally.
 |
| Le malheur palestinien (2005) Image Credit: Yasmine Jeitany |
What is the best part of being an artist?
Having an independent thinking and a free spirit, identify my personality, and being an Artist helped me to induce more this independence and the ability to face my environment. So nothing was able to hinder my confidence and self-esteem.
The Artist
Labels can be often confining and sometimes misleading. A person's work evolves as that person grows. And you are probably far from where you started. But for the sake of argument, how do you define your work within the known frames of "styles"?
Style is a word that I hate the most because in my opinion if the Artist is labeled within a definite style, he will fall down in repetition and that is what will kill his progress, hinder his creativity, and his work will become repetitive and meaningless.
My photos are the point of departure of most of my artwork. Taking photos is one of my favorite hobbies and the photos are related to how much I care about life and how much I like to keep prints of my past too. My Photos are instances of my space not to be forgotten, they are winks of the past time either of good or bad moments. Because in my opinion, our past, whether important or not, happy or miserable, is what we are today. Today always holds in its treasure a memory of a spiritual and material past. And photos are visual and material memories that could not eliminate our most delicate and spiritual moments.
 |
Devil Sun (2004)
Image Credit: Yasmine Jeitany
|
As I said before, I have adopted surrealism by joining more than one idea or image to create the work. I started to be figurative after my first academic years. And after a while, the work changed by destruction of the figurative with the abstraction. We can see the destruction of the photo by the color and the line, which have a creative value of the space and atmosphere. It’s a destruction of the real figure to build or create a utopian abstract world. The line and the color are produced by the pure feelings of survival, of resurrection after the destruction.
The line gives me the ability to describe my interior life and my feelings in a rhythmical and symbolic aspect, and especially the rising vertical line that has the expression of determination and willpower. The willpower to hope a better and respectful world for all the Lebanese of all kinds, because we are different with just one identity.
 |
The Unknown (2006)
Image Credit: Yasmine Jeitany
|
The Color is the matter of a sparkling obscurity, an obscurity where light filters tenderly in between to fill the emptiness of the paintings; where the black that is not really a color, plays an important part in the paintings. Black doesn’t just gives colors the opportunity to shine through but also depth and value. And the reason I work with contrast is to propose a sublime and luminous set up of beings and things around me.
The Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, and because beyond the suspense in all his films he had a message to say.
When things get tough and you seem to be stuck somewhere outside of inspiration, how do you cope? How do you keep yourself motivated?
I have no problem in taking someone else ideas and point of view. Everything around me, whether are simple people or common things, always hold me with a moral or new idea.
 |
Love Road (2010)
Image Credit: Yasmine Jeitany
|
The Person
As a well-rounded person, art is not the only interest to you of course. What else is important to you? What are your concerns as a citizen of the world, not only as an artist?
Knowing that War is still in our everyday life after all the progress of science and human being is my nightmare. And what I really hope is a better future for Lebanon, because my dreams are part of this future.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I have an immense installation project in mind that I hope could be done by ten years from now. The purpose of the installation is about human and war but it still requires large sponsoring before it can be completed.
In One Word...
If you were a color?
White
Shape?
The vertical line
Texture or fabric?
Glass
Song or music composition?
Avec le temps (Leo Ferre)
Film?
House Of The Flying Daggers
Book or literary piece?
Sand And Foam by Khalil Gibran
Famous character (real or fictional)?
Steve Jobs
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