Meet Henryk Fantazos | artist painter and engraver

We had the good fortune of connecting with Henryk Fantazos and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Henryk, what makes you happy? Why?
My discipline, painting is inexpressibly difficult. To create an artwork that satisfies the highest demands of quality I work for years, correcting, improving, and refining each painting.It is fascinating.It makes me happy each day.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Externally I encountered two main difficulties impeding my career. The crooked system where art galleries take 50% of your earnings and, even more pernicious – the regime of modern art controlling the direction of the aesthetics.In short: if your art is not some grim joke- your work will be barred from recognition. To it, I would add two internal difficulties: learning your craftsmanship and persevering as the “starving artist”. Regarding my art, there is one unbroken continuity there: each piece of my art contains imaginary elements. When I was 4 years old I drew three chimney sweeps in a rowboat and everything that followed had the inspiration of unending visions coming to my mind.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
The cities in my part of my State are ugly,dangerous after dark, cardboard boxes of consumerism.I would take my friend to the Dismal Swamp or Merchand Mill Pond to see something unique and wonderful.I would take my friend to the ocean’s edge.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
First- who does not deserve any gratitude from me, and that would be my professors at the Fine Arts Academy. They could not draw or paint and seemed to be happy that the real painting was dead. The lasting revelation came to me when I saw at museums that for the last 10 thousand years a marvelous cortege of painters created just exactly the very kind of art I would want to make. Therefore, after 12 years of formal miseducation, I consider myself an auto-didact.

Website: henrykfantazos.us, fantazos.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/henrykmichaelfantazos/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urq0-_6YkaM and other videos

Other: https://www.ebay.com/str/artofhenrykfantazos

Image Credits
the artist “Okra Smugglers” “Cat-Fish tableau” “Strangers in My Garden” “Circus Ecclesia” “Nenufarium” “Travels with Tuba” “Armored Strollers”-etching all oils on wood panels or canvas