Meet Artist Wim Heldens
GALIA VELEVA: INTERVIEW WITH SECOND PLACE PRIZE WINNER OF MINIARTURES 2024 – WIM HELDENS
Q: What’s the best advice that you have ever heard or received and that you would like to give starting artists?
When I was painting my first commissioner and collector in NYC, he noticed that I was struggling with his portrait, and I was embarrassed about it.
He took me out to lunch because he had to explain something very important to me,
He said,” I hate virtuosity in art, it has always the same charming effect, but when you turn around, you have already forgotten about it. The fact that you struggle makes you a far more interesting artist to me, you are challenged and will not give up. I am convinced that in the end you will get this portrait done the right way”
Making a mistake in an artistic process does not mean that you are failing, it means you are learning and growing.
Q: What’s the worst advice that you have ever heard or received?
The worst advice people give an artist, and I think this is standard, is when they tell you to adjust your work to what they think the “market’ desires (in that moment probably).
I believe an artist has a vocation, we all have a specific talent from which we feel a very specific direction in creating…..and that is what me MUST do!
Selling your soul to the devil …..well, there is a problem in the long run:…………he will come collect.
Q: What’s the first thing you do in the morning and the last one you do before going to bed?
First thing in the morning is strong coffee….last thing before I go to sleep, I talk to my son.
Q: What do you enjoy the most about creating?
What I enjoy most is when I feel in the middle of my “flow”, inside my own bubble, and the rest of the world fades away.
Q: What’s according to you the best artwork you’ve ever seen? Did you find it or did it find you?
That is hard to answer, because there are so many.
What is in my mind now ( it maybe something else tomorrow) is “The Taking of Christ” from Caravaggio, this painting is in a museum in Dublin.
It is an unbelievably clever painted scene….in this painting everything works together to tell the story…….I always felt this was an extremely strong painting.
Q: How often do you get amazed as an artist and as a person?
I am amazed every day multiple times……I am what they call “high sensitive”……my experiences are very intense.
Q: Who has (had) a positive influence on you as an artist?
Other artist have always been a very good influence for me. When I was a teenager there was an artist, who encouraged me, told me I had talent, that really set me on a path. Most of my artists friends inspire me and give me reason to continue painting.
Probably the most influence these days comes for my colleague and friend Enrique Collar…….
Q: What’s your relationship with ‘MiniARTures’ (miniatures actually, but hey if we can create a new word, we go for it :))?
I was asked to participate, my painting got selected and won second prize, really exciting. And the opening was a wonderful gathering from artists from everywhere.
Q: What’s the best change that you have embraced in your career (or life)?
My childhood was what they cynically call, “An artist’ goldmine”… the most important change in my life, and I know this may sound vague an new age-y but it is so true, I finally learned to love myself. It makes me see the world from a completely different perspective.
The Blue Boxershorts / oil on canvas / 125 x 70 cm / 2023
Q: What are you grateful for nowadays?
Personal balance, believe in myself, making money………and most of all knowing that my son is out of Uganda and safe in NL.
Do you have a favorite quote that you’d like to share with us and the FiKVA fans?
Two favorite quotes that really express how I think and feel:
Edward Hopper:” If you could say it in words, there would be no more reason to paint”
Mae West: “People who are easily shocked,….should be shocked more often”………..(I LOVE that one!!!!)
Amsterdam 1275 / oil on canvas / 45 x 45 cm / 2024
Q: Where has your courage brought you as an artist? This question is inspired by Brené Brown’s quote:
“Creativity is a paradoxical pursuit: The craft of making requires vulnerability and a certain kind of tenderness or openness to the world around us. At the same time, putting our work out in the world today can take a shit ton of courage and tenacity. This is a space to shine a light on the folks who are straddling these tensions and making us all a little better with their art. “
It has gotten me to where I am now, and I am very happy about that. ….But it has also, and still does, brought me a lot of negative criticism, irritation and even anger form people.
I paint something that many people do not want to see because my work may confront people with their own inner racism, bigotry or narrow-mindedness.
www.wimheldens.com
