Timka Szoke

The truth is, I’ve always loved to draw. The sight of the works of art has always amazed me, always leading to a specific world of a new dimension. For me, It told about legends and tales, regardless of what theme I saw. My art love has inherited from my parents, so it has been surrounded me by this world as a small child.

My work in most cases is already preformed in my mind. I always have a lot of ideas for the next image. Occasionally, a random theme is taken from a small thing, really about any little thing. When the face of a person that I first saw in my life, inspires to a special character that suddenly comes into my mind. This is how the details of the picture are in the minds of my imagination. I’ve always been a visual type, I can easily figure out a picture of “everything” that inspires me. In that case, I understand why they told me many times that I was “enchanted personality”. After all, a spell is any idea that surfacing in the human being. This gives the freedom.

When someone asks me how to choose the subjects/themes for my pictures, actually I would say that most of the time the topic choose me. Every day, there is so much stimulus hits the man that many times it is incomprehensible. As the world changes, with these tools evolve, everything is modernized, the power of modern technology is facing us everywhere. This has been the most popular since the spread of the Internet, and millions of information flows per day. Personally, who is the one who most welcomes, what interests it. If that is not enough for certain topics, then it is even more complex. The most impressive information source is life itself. For me, it is a real endless philosophization to think of the miracles of life, especially of nature. For me, this is “all”. I could not say much better inspiration because everything is in it, which can be the cradle of newer and newer themes. The lifeblood of mankind, his eternal muse. But this is so complex that I do not detail it right now. Many times, for example, when I look at a nature film about rainforests or about any continent, it is almost tears me in my eyes it is the wonderful beauty created by evolution, the life. The process of evolution is the most exalted art itself. Life’s perfect slow work, just like we people. I love how we are different and this makes us interesting as any other republic of wildlife from insects to mammals. It could truly be said for eternity, how wonderful each and every little detail is, all the elements that are related to each other and create the whole process. There is simply beauty in everything, it can not be said to be the most beautiful in it, because it is beautiful with everything. If, however, suddenly I should only highlight some of my favorite inspirational elements, one would be birds with their plumage and colors; the other for me is the inspiration for the butterflies, simply glitteringly beautiful. But all this is true of reptiles, wild fauna, simply everything.

The other source of inspiration is the various traditions and cultures of mankind. I find it wonderful to be different and complex. In my favorite folk cultures, my great favorites are the magically unique world of various worlds and folk tales. To me, all such stories, narratives, superstitions, legends, are a unique world that is incomparable, because each tale’s story / story creates a unique world. As a child, they were always fascinated as they are now. That’s why I paint portraits, because the face tells me everything about that person. His character, his individuality, his feelings reflected in his eyes tell me more than any other body language or word. This is especially true of face mimics, the most sincere human traits, I just love to capture this selfforgiving or dramatic moment. Be it the smile, laugh, grimace, whether it is a sad, moody or sobbing face.

My great source of inspiration is comics, movies, and even retro kid games. The world of comics is extremely colorful and captivating, the reader can identify with the characters while accompanying the adventures on the pages. A figure becomes so lovable that they become a real ideal. I like to grab these characters, use them for some images that add a separate world to the composition, which it represents on its own.

My favorite tool is the pencil. This is my base, so I can make with this a sketch a plan, a work. I like the pencil’s texture, the tone and how well it can be combined with other materials. The watercolor pencil, graphite, simple color pencil - all of them are enchanting on the paper, lend quite lively and softer colors at once, and I simply love to tone it with this tool. One of the most rewarding devices I use for me. Perhaps this is best for me. It will always be my favorite. The other material I like is acrylic. I can best combine this with pencil. The two tools very well. Acrylic highlights the pencil surfaces. It is often a great advantage to quickly dry because I can achieve the details of that image more quickly. For illustrations I use these materials almost always. I like to highlight graphite images with pastel crayons. But, of course, the subject of the images brings me the choice of device. I prefer oil paints for pictures with a different tone, but this varies. The theme gives me what material to work with.

I love the work of many artists. I like figurative art depiction, works of real artists in the realist style. Among Hungarian painters Mihály Munkácsy, Miklós Barabás, Károly Lotz, Pál Szinyei Merse, Bertalan Székely, Viktor Madarász and Gyula Benczúr would be my favorites. Their pictures were completely captured by my childhood. Dynamic, dramatic and idyllic moods are emitted at the same time with their light sophistication with the style of the era. It is simply never enough to discover the wonderful works of these artists. My favorite Hungarian graphic artist is definitely Károly Reich, because his drawings are light, characteristical, extremely unique and beautiful. They create a special beauty, a harmonious world that captures the viewer. Be a feminine nude, or a lovely animal figurative representation made for children’s books.

With regard to art history, Renaissance, Baroque, Expressionism, Symbolism, Art Nouveau, Pop Art and Pop- Surrealism are the closest to me. My job is the latter - popsurrealism.

From contemporary artists, Takashi Murakami, Yuko Shimizu, Audrey Kawasaki, Mark Ryden, Hikari Shimoda, James Bullough, Enki Bilal, Tanino Liberatore and Nicola Verlato are most impressive. I love their work, creating a magical atmosphere of their works, which act as an experience for people, they are brilliant artists.

However, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli were always the greatest masters for me.

But I can not say that I would like to compare at a single artist or even more artists. Of course, the style and the work of the artists I’ve listed have had a great impact on me. They gave me great impetus to begin with, I continue to develop and honestly adore them, but I strive to create and continue my own style. I’m constantly experimenting with themes and materials, there will always be a lot of them. It always depends on what inspirational factor will capture you exactly, which encourages new work. So, I just want to have a look at my own world of every single work, which is a individual but yet varied one. I think this is the most important thing for every artist.

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