Carmen Neagoș Loves Numbers and Powerful Colors on a Canvas

Numbers and art are related in various ways and share a long historical relationship. Even though this liaison is sometimes looked upon with suspicion, there are people who combine the two with ease and grace. Carmen is one of those people. Find out more about her and enjoy her fascinating work below.

Please tell us more about yourself and your work.
My name is Carmen Neagoș and I have been working as a Marketing Analyst for RentCafe, one of Yardi’s brands, since August 2014. As a Marketing Analyst, I get to crunch numbers and get creative too, depending on the project at hand. I get to search for patterns and anomalies in numbers and find the story behind it all.
Who am I? I always felt that you are never just one thing, you’re never just this or that. You’re a bit of everything, always changing and becoming better (hopefully).
I love numbers, I love art, I love a good joke, I love to travel, I love the sea and the mountains, and I love powerful colors on a canvas 🙂 It took me a while, it took a lot of experimenting, but I found one lovely hobby, and that is painting.

Can you describe the time when you first realized that creating was something you absolutely had to do?
During one of the first painting courses, I was in a room filled with a calm summer afternoon light. There was music, a white canvas on the easel in front of me, colors to my right—I felt the moment was just perfect.

How do you design your paintings?
I am looking at other artists’ work, I am looking at photos and sometimes, I am just experimenting on the canvas. I’ve finally understood what an artist’s inspiration means. If you’re not in the right mood for painting, then it’s better not to do it. I discovered that if I do force myself to paint when I’m not “there”, I usually end up messing up the original idea.

Does it involve a lot of drawing?
It can involve as much drawing as you want. Some artists prefer to draw every detail on their canvas before using colors. I prefer to draw just some general lines, and decide afterwards on the details. Sometimes this is a good idea, and sometimes it’s not.

What kind of creative patterns, routines or rituals do you have?
It’s an absolute must that I love the image I paint. If I just like it, it’s not going to work, I need to love the idea of it. If I love it, I can re-start the same painting over and over again, until I think it looks perfect, just like I imagined it.

What are you trying to communicate with your art?
It’s an extraordinary method of relaxation and as selfish as it may sound, I am only painting because I like it and it makes me feel really good. The fact that my paintings talk to other people is just a great bonus.

The Beauty of Destruction

How do you feel viewers perceive your works?
While some people really complimented me for some of my paintings, others were not impressed at all by the same ones. I’m always flattered by appreciation from viewers, and it’s interesting to see how people interpret the same painting in different ways. Each and every one of us sees a painting and interprets it through his or her experiences.

What does “being creative” mean to you?
I think creativity is sometimes misunderstood as being exclusively present in the world of art. I think you can find it anywhere. Creativity can also mean having a unique idea, telling a good joke, or finding an unusual solution to a complex problem.

What’s your favorite thing you’ve ever created?
The abstract painting which I named “The beauty of destruction” is one of my favorites. It’s inspired from another painting, which bewitched me from the start. I just knew I had to paint it. It didn’t come out right from the beginning, I actually had to re-paint it three times before I felt I “got it right”.

What do you think are the qualities that define an artist?
In my view, a lot of the traits an artist must have are no different from the traits any other person must have in order to feel accomplished. You need to be curious, perseverant and have a thirst for learning. There are also some more unique aspects, such as seeing the beauty around you, so that you can capture a part of it and put it on a colorful canvas and understanding people so that you can paint their emotions.

What’s the best advice you ever had about how to be more creative?
“Carmen, you’re overthinking it. Just let your hands do their thing”.

Anything else you’d like to mention that I didn’t ask?
I just want to say that I think we all need to find a way to express ourselves. For me it’s painting but for others it may be cooking or wood crafting. Whatever it is, it helps us discover more about ourselves and how we are all creative in our own, personal, subjective way.