Byzantine Christ
Ioana Datcu
oil on photo
16" x 20"
1994

As content, I view my work as an expression of my relationships with society, family and God. I often start working by looking at those physically and emotionally closest to me, the people of my family. As form, my work explores the two different languages of painting and photography. I try to make them converge through their common principles of image making. I paint with oils on black and white photos, so I call the new images photo-paintings. Photographic reality is altered by painting new light/shadow effects, enriching tones, textures, and colors. The figures in the photographs exist in the external world; but the painted space is subjective, a reflection of my inner reality. In each photo-painting objective and subjective realities coexist without rejecting each other.