Conversation with Amir Ćatić (apee) - Sarcastic reflections

The creatures in Amir's masterful graphic works present the countless ways in which the bad characteristics and troubles of the human race can occur. While he learns a lot from old masters like Rembrandt and Gustave Doré as well as from other artists not only in technical questions but also in approach, his ideas and figures are completely his own. They seem to come from his personal universe in which our flaws and defections are interpreted with a sympathetic humour. Amir recently returned to watercolours, too, and he also began to practice digital painting - although his themes remain similar, the colours add a completely different appearance to them. In this interview Amir also speaks about his experiences in art life and his ideas about his later career.

custos Your works are characterized by a refined, ironic wit which is, however, never offensive. Where do you think this trait takes its origin?

apee I would say it comes mostly from watching too many cartoons back than as a kid, and sometimes these had those adult jokes which were filtered in a way to appeal to younger audiences and still most of them I could not understand at that time. Thus I kind of took the same approach in my works where I am depicting mostly negative aspects of life in a humorous way, meaning that I try to conceal them and represent a brighter side of the subject.

custos How do you invent the topics of your works?

apee I don't really like to prepare myself for choosing one subject except if it is for a contest. Most of the time I rather start drawing and in that process I usually come up with an idea for my future work.

custos In spite of your young age both your style and etching technique seems to be rather mature and developed. Is it the result of a longer process?

apee During my art studies at high school and at the Academy I was always surrounded by people who were technically far better than me, so I always saw them as friendly competitors, which helped me improve my technical abilities a lot faster and master the techniques I am using. As for my style I am constantly trying to improve it and make it more unique mostly by looking at and researching other artworks.

custos As it seems, recently you have begun experimenting with techniques other than etching. Have you missed colours? How do you feel about the diverse possibilities of the different techniques?

apee I had been painting with watercolours long before I even knew what printmaking was, but after beginning my studies at the Academy I fell in love with the whole process of printmaking, especially when we started to make etchings. Later I began to apply more than one colour also in the etchings so it was natural for me to try to paint with colours again. When I got to practice digital painting, too, I tried to represent the same ideas and style in them which I use in my printmaking process; however, in my opinion they are still not as good as the prints.

custos You live in Sarajevo, a colourful and exciting city with a varied population and rich cultural tradition. What is it like living there?

apee It's a really small town, that's one thing I like about it, so every pub is near. As for me I don't really find any town inspirational, at least in creating my works, for that I sometimes just walk around the town and stare at different people, which I find way more inspiring than any architecture or culture.

custos You were still a little kid during the years of the Bosnian War and, in general, in the years of the breakup of Yugoslavia. How do you remember those years?

apee I don't really remember anything during the war time, me and my family went to Germany during the final two years of the war, so the only thing I remember from it was my time spent there. At that time I was pretty much a socially closed person which kind of defined my personality as it is today, but also helped me in creating my inner world which I try to depict in my works.

custos Do you have favourite artists, artworks, genres? Do you feel it important at all to get informed in the art of today, or the past times?

apee I always love to look at the works of the old masters, like Rembrandt, Rubens, Dürer, Gustave Doré and others, mostly for their technical ability. Concerning more recent artists I was mostly impressed by the works of Denis Forkas, Jon Foster, Justin Bartlett, Andy Warhol and Zdzislaw Beksinski. So I really think that it's very important to update your art knowledge by constatly studying the works of other artists, also in order to see how differently you can approach one subject. I also think that surrealistic short films from Jan Svankmajer and Roy Anderson helped me define and improve my style, so I also like to collect my inspiration from different art directions.

custos You've participated at an exhibition last autumn. What was this experience like?

apee There have even been a few more exhibitions since then and I always find it strange to see my works being exhibited on a wall surrounded by other artworks, so I mostly try to skip my works when I see them like that. As for solo exhibitions, there was - luckily - no opening ceremony so I don't know yet how that feels. At that time I also started entering contests, just to try and also to earn something for my artwork, because I wasn't very good at selling my work; I had moderate success. Some of them I entered just to try different drawing styles like the Paint Club where I've participated two times and recently 3d street art (which didn't really look well in the end).

custos Do you have plans for your future?

apee I am pretty bad at planning, especially if it's my life in question, so I kind of decided to keep my artist career at least for now more as a hobby than a real job. But I will try to promote my work more in the near future and probably try to make a living out of it...

custos What do you feel important in your life and in the world around you; what your main concerns and ideals are?

apee Well, for me it's important to distinguish myself from the everyday boring life and become an individual, doing and creating what I think the best for me, by not following the default regular way of living, and try to improve myself as a human being on a spiritual level.