Dean Coelho

“Everything you can imagine is real.” ~Picasso

These are words I live by. Everything in my mind’s eye is real, brought into existence through my art. My work begins much before I actually start to paint. Concepts, feelings, ideas, words, colors, and images constantly turn and merge in my mind. I play with them all—permutations and combinations of dreams. Before my colors kiss canvas, I have my image. I imagine it. I dream about it. I give it life.

While painting, my vision of what I want to create shifts, as the art itself speaks to me, nudging my strokes in a different direction. We grow together. I don't believe that the creation of art can be given timelines. The subject must be felt, make its presence known. The subject lives in me, sometimes waiting, sometimes wandering around in thought and reflection, all until the right moment. The painting is created in the depths of my core, where the line between thought and emotion blurs. The time comes when I feel the energy accumulated, when all is built up, and then I just let it all out. I allow the images in my mind, the thoughts, and the feelings to spill onto the canvas. As I go along, discovering my path through the painting, it starts to take shape, one element, one stroke, one diversion at a time, until it has a life of its own. Once that happens, the painting takes control. It wants to speak for itself. It has its own identity.

The paintings in my Egocentric Series will sing of green. They will play zestful melodies in your mind; invite you to dream of nature and the nature of life. But should you let the painting connect with your soul, you will learn another reality—one that speaks of emptiness, and loss, amidst the allure of false brilliance. This is a reflection of the nature of our times—the reflection of a void that man chases, through his obsession with ego.