独立映像：你好约瑟夫，最近如何？你曾经是一名医生，你怎样看待全世界正面对的这场新冠疫情？
约瑟夫·鲁布斯：我们生活的这颗美丽星球面临着越来越多灾害的威胁，比如气候变化、环境问题，还有其他类型的自然灾害，而今年年初还爆发了新冠疫情。严格的保护措施让感染和死亡人数出现下降。
本月（六月）的前些天，感染新冠的人数再次增长，因为保护措施放松了。我很担忧这场疫情的结果和对人类的影响。从一开始，整个世界都遭受了巨大的不幸和不确定性的打击，成千上万人已经死亡。对我们自己的生命、家庭生活以及全人类的悲伤和恐惧，让我们所有人不知所措。我没有创造新图像的喜悦和灵感。我本来要参加的展览和纽约的艺博会取消了。我当了40年的内科糖尿病医生，为糖尿病患者提供建议和治疗，目前的流行病使我感到悲伤，因为我们无法控制这种严重的传染病，但我希望科学家能够找到疫苗。

独立映像：在你看来，对绘画的热爱与医生职业之间有关联吗？什么时候意识到自己应该画画，成为艺术家？是在卢布尔雅那的阿瑟斯视觉艺术学院学习的时候吗？
约瑟夫·鲁布斯：我对素描和油画的兴趣，在还是孩子的时候就有了，那时我无忧无虑地生活在田园乡间，被美丽的大自然和家畜包围着。那时我就开始画画，在一所绘画学校里表现优异。我在许多书里看到艺术大师的油画复制品，非常喜欢，从那时起我就想成为画家，但命运把我指向了医学。我从萨格勒布医学院毕业，专业方向是内科和糖尿病学。我在医疗康复特殊医院担任医生，是糖尿病中心的主任。就我所知，有很多的医生热爱绘画和音乐，将其作为高强度工作之后的放松，释放压力的一种方式。我在工作室画画的时候，感到心情平静、满足。

独立映像：我们注意到，你之前主要是画风景画，2008年之后，你的风格变得抽象起来。风景画和抽象画都是油画，但也有很大的区别。现在你画抽象画的时候是什么感受？
约瑟夫·鲁布斯：从1972年起我就住在离克罗地亚首都萨格勒布大约30公里的克拉皮纳-扎戈列。这里的自然风光享有盛名，山间树木丛生，葡萄园与小木屋掩映其间，山谷间溪水潺潺，春天的草地遍是花朵。温泉也是这里的一大特色，库姆罗维茨小镇还是南斯拉夫前总统铁托的出生地，许多来克罗地亚旅游的人都会来参观。
秀美的自然风光给了我许多灵感，我一次又一次地用粉彩笔和布面油画来绘制它们。我是萨格勒布好几个绘画协会的会员，我参加了很多协会组织的群展，我也有许多个人展览。在忙碌的医疗工作和家庭责任之外，我把业余时间交给了色彩。
2007年退休之后，我进入卢布尔雅那的阿瑟斯视觉艺术学院学习绘画。我以《杰克逊·波洛克的绘画》为题撰写了毕业论文，于2012年毕业。受到波洛克抽象表现主义行动绘画的影响，我从2008年开始以这样的方式作画。波洛克在绘画时，把画布铺在地板上，用喷洒、滴落、泼溅的方式画画。这让我对色彩运用感到很自由，但依然以一种可控的方式来完成想象中的图像。我逐渐调整作画的方式，并逐渐转向了几何抽象。当然，我对几何抽象的艺术家也很熟悉，比如康定斯基、马列维奇、蒙德里安、斯特拉等等。我尝试建立起自己的风格，通过准确绘制几何形状和线条来完成构图，组合颜色和阴影，同时营造幻觉。

独立映像：一些抽象画家把绘画当作情感表达，或者冥想的地方？那你呢？是什么吸引着你一直画下去？
约瑟夫·鲁布斯：我的工作室满是画布、作品和笔刷，还是一间拥有众多绘画、艺术书籍的图书馆，每当我走入其中，这样的环境让我感觉好极了。烦恼和压力消失了，创作新绘画的想象力和野心变得旺盛起来。画画的时候我总爱听着音乐，会让我更有灵感。花费2天到3天完成一张作品，如果根据我的标准，判定它是成功的，我会非常开心，但是策展人和观看者的意见对我而言也是相当重要的。

独立映像：我们总是非常乐意知道你的新创作。有什么新的想法或作品和我们分享吗？
约瑟夫·鲁布斯: 最近几年，我画了100多幅抽象表现主义和几何抽象风格的绘画。其中一部分被私人收藏。有时候我对几何抽象的作品没有什么新想法，就去画几天风景画，再回来画抽象画。最近我有许多新的想法，接下来几个月会付诸于画布，能有机会在你们的展览和绘画活动上展示它们，我会很高兴。

Artist Interview: Josip Rubes

Independent & Image Art Space: HiJosip. How are you these days? You were a doctor and how do you think the pandemic that we are in front of all around the world?
Josip Rubes: We live on this beautiful planet that is increasingly in danger from many disasters such as climate change and environmental and other types of natural disasters, and this year started with a COVID-19 pandemic. With strict protection measures, the number of infected and dead has been reduced.
Past few days of this month (June), the number of people infected with the COVID -19 has increased again because the measures of protection against it have been weaved, so I am now worried about the outcome and influence of this pandemic on humanity on our planet Earth. From the very beginning of this pandemic, the whole world has been hit by a great misfortune and uncertainty about its outcome because hundreds of thousands of people have already died. We were all overwhelmed by grief and fear for our own lives, the lives of our families, and all of humanity. I ran out of joy and inspiration to create new images. The art exhibitions I was supposed to attend as well as the painting fairs (New York)were canceled. For 40 years I worked as an internist-diabetologist with a lot of love and desire to help diabetics by giving them advice and therapy, so now this pandemic has made me sad because we are unable to control this serious infectious disease but I hope scientists will find a vaccine.

Independent & Image Art Space: Do you think your love for painting has any connection with your profession as a doctor? When did you realize you should paint as an artist? Was it when you attended the Arthous College of Visual Arts in Ljubljana?

Josip Rubes: My interest in drawing and painting appeared when I was a child who lived carefree in an idyllic village surrounded by beautiful nature and domestic animals. Already then I was doing my first drawings and I stood out at drawing at school. I admired the reproductions of paintings made by famous artists that I found in various books and even then I wanted to be a painter but my life path took me to medicine. I graduated from the Medical Faculty in Zagreb. I specialized in internal medicine and diabetes. As a doctor, I worked at the Special Hospital for Medical Rehabilitation and was the head of the Diabetes Center. It is well-known that many doctors paint and do music. In that way, they find relaxation and reduce stress after a hard and demanding day at work with patients. I also found peace and satisfaction in painting in my studio.
Independent & Image Art Space: We noticed that you used to do landscape paintings. Then after 2008, your paintings have turned to be abstract. They are all oil paintings, but they do have big differences. How do you feel when you paint abstract works now?
Josip Rubes: Since 1972, I have lived in Hrvatsko Zagorje, which is 30 km from Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. This region is known for its natural beauty with hills full of forests, vineyards with wooden houses, valleys with streams, and meadows full of flowers in spring. This region is also known for its thermal water springs and there is also the town of Kumrovec where Tito, the president of the former Yugoslavia, was born, so many tourists from various countries visit Tito’s birthplace when they come to Croatia.
The beautiful landscapes had a very inspiring effect on me and I intensively painted them in the technique of dry pastel and oil on canvas. I was a member of several painting societies in Zagreb and exhibited at many group exhibitions as their member but I also organized dozens of solo exhibitions. Despite the demanding and arduous medical call and family obligations, I hung out with colors in my free time.
After retiring in 2007, I enrolled in painting studies at the Arthouse College of Visual Arts in Ljubljana (Slovenia). I graduated in 2012 and the topic of my dissertation was “Jackson Pollock’s Painting”. Inspired by J. Pollock’s abstract expressionism with a special technique (action painting), I started painting in2008 in the same way. Pollock painted by placing the canvas on the floor and then spray, drip, and spill paint on it. This way of painting gave me complete freedom in applying colors that were still in a way controlled to achieve the imagined image. I gradually modified this way of painting so I gradually found myself in geometric abstraction. Of course, I was familiar with the geometric abstraction of famous painters who were the first to paint geometry such as Kandinsky, Malevich, Mondrian, Stella, and others. I tried to develop my own recognizable style that requires the precision of painting certain geometric shapes and lines in creating a composition, combining and shading of colors while creating the impression of illusion.

Independent & Image Art Space: Someabstract painters regard their action of painting as a way to express emotions, or as a place to do meditation. What about you? What attracts you to keep painting?
Josip Rubes: When I enter my studio full of canvases, paints, and brushes all around and where is a library with many books on painting and famous paintings, it is my environment in which I feel best, my possible frustrations and stressful situations disappear, my imagination and ambition for creating new images wake up. I always listen to music during painting that inspires me even more to create. When I finish the painting on which I spent 2 to 3 days, I am very pleased if the painting is succeeded according to my criteria, but the opinion of the curator and the viewer is also important to me.

Independent & Image Art Space: We are always glad to know about your new creations. Do you have any new ideas or new works that you would like to share with us?
Josip Rubes: In the last few years, I have painted over 100 abstract style paintings in the form of abstract expressionism and geometric abstraction. Some of these paintings make part of private collections. Sometimes I run out of ideas for new geometric paintings and then I paint realistic landscapes for a few days and then I paint abstract again. I have a lot of new ideas that I will transfer to the canvas in the coming months and it will be my pleasure to present them at exhibitions as well as at one of your painting events.