Franklin’s Fear

Shirley: Yuri, I'm really enjoying checking out all your art, and I'd like to ask you some questions about this one in particular: Franklin's Fear. Can you tell me how you came up with the idea for this painting?

Yuri: Right, this one came up with a few sketches I did on just a very tiny piece of paper, and roughly an idea of what I wanted to do. I want to play with the sky a lot, the color, especially playing with contrast color which are vibrant color. They actually can really catch your attention.

Shirley: And ... cause I love the contrast between these blue mountains and this really yellow sky. It's fantastic. I mean, where do you get the idea to make blue mountains?

Yuri: I don't know, you just go with the feeling. You paint with feelings, OK, and sometimes you put a dot of color on there. It looks nice, and you really go with it, and it just goes there by themself, so it's beautiful really.

Shirley: And this kind of building at the front is really interesting with these four towers. Is that from your memory?

Yuri: Right, this one is from an album from Pink Floyd because when I paint I constantly listen to music. Pink Floyd is one of my favorite groups, so I had the idea to put something real in this surrealistic painting, and I thought of the building themself.

Shirley: Does this building exist?

Yuri: Yeah, it's in London. I actually saw it once from the train. I loved it. I almost jumped out the window.

Shirley: So then the title, "Franklin's Fear", how did you come up with that title?

Yuri: It just struck me that Franklin was famous as a scientist, and he also work on this advice to protect the houses (from lighting). That's where the name is from.

Shirley: Which scientist?

Yuri: Benjamin Franklin.

Shirley: And this one to me looks like a lake or something in the background.

Yuri: Yes, it is, yeah. I like the reflection on the mountains on the lake.

Shirley: And what did you paint on?

Yuri: Actually, it was wood. A piece of wood.

Shirley: Why did you paint on wood and not canvas?

Yuri: It's nice, the texture of the wood itself and also the shape is irregular. You can really work out something weird from it. It's nice.