Roxana Florina Popa, a young journalist in search of creative beauty, has put together, along several years, a series of less-than-conventional interviews with very different personalities from the vast world of arts and design, carefully chosen according not only to her educated taste (as she is a graduate of L´Institut Superieur de Marketing du Luxe – Paris), but also to precise ideas about the contemporary act of creation. After publishing them on her own site, customers4fashion.worldpress.com, she proceeded to a selection of only twelve dialogues (as “dialogue” is a more proper term of these intricate interviews, where her questions search merely for opening doors to new perspectives than be always given precise information through clear answers) and decided to traditionally publish them in a book, BEAUTY, ELEGANCE, CREATIVITY, in 2016.

Her choice might seem very eclectic, as she opts for artists and designers from all over the world (Monaco, Paris, Bucharest, Civitella D´Agliano, Berlin, London, Mexico, Milan, New York, Los Angeles), from painters to photographers, from creatives of luxury design to high-pitch noses of niche perfumes. But it is not. Surprisingly compact in terms of values and beliefs, significance and merit of the interlocutors, the book features true artists of their field, with no attention given to the celebrity, but to greatness and consistency and purposefulness.

The structure of the book is clear, supporting also its role as a reference, beyond the pure pleasure of the reading. Each interview is accompanied by relevant photography, as visuals are a significant part of the book´s message, and three key words or short casts are carefully chosen for each artist, easing the quick search by the readers and their comprehension of each one´s personal approach of the act of creation. From “irruption on canvas”, “symbolic realism” and “beyond style”, used to depict the painter and sculptor Christian Lucian Hamsea, to “act photography”, “aesthetics” and “naturalness” for the photographer Vanessa von Zitzewitz, these introductory, symbolic locutions are strong indicators of what to expect.

Some of the featured creators are voluble, some are sometimes abstruse, but the author is always prepared with extra-questions or explanatory context, as to leave no one perplexed.

The book is an honest “search and find”, gratifying lecture, bypassing the superficial and the shallow and offering instead a valuable key to the perennial values of creation.

ROXANA FLORINA POPA, “BEAUTY. ELEGANCE. CREATIVITY. 12 INTERVIEWS ON THE ACT OF CREATION”, LIMES Publishing House, 2016 – featuring interviews with Vanessa von Zitzewitz, Michael Lassel, Ploi Umavijani, Marie Nouvelle, Christian Lucian Hamsea, Jürgen Dahlmanns, Eleonore Halluite-Andrews, Bodo Sperlein, Nick Cope, Tino Schaedler.

Testimonial by Cristina Simion, Ph.D., International Curator

Nürenberg, Germany 2019

For sale on Amazon, Books Apple, Smashwords, Kobo and Galeria Neogalateca