Garrit, by your side.
Since I have known Garrit to this day, I can say that what especially calls the attention of both his person and his work is the impressive chameleon-like aspect that he displays.
It is said of the chameleon that it is a saurian reptile of the genus chamaeleon, to which is attributed, among other qualities, the ability of changing colour according to the objects surrounding it. Applied to Garrit, I would say that the quality of changing style or concept can be attributed to him according to ideas or inspi- ration that, like real tongues of fire, constantly surround and provoke him.
His trajectory and the variety of his plastic and artistic production are truly vertiginous. A surprising fact if we appeal to his image of a slow, calm man without haste and of pondered gestures and studied expressions.
But Garrit is hungry, hungry to create, to innovate, to capture everything that boils in his head and beats in his soul; and when creativity and commitment press him hard, the great metamorphosis begins. His eyes —although not protruding from the orbits like those of the chameleon— are also oriented at will in all direc- tions and independently from each other: anyone could tell that Garrit’s eyes can move 180 degrees on the horizontal axis and 90 degrees on the vertical axis. The combination of these two factors make the vision of our artist reach almost 360 degrees.
It is as if Garrit enjoyed a double vision: one eye sees some images and the other one captures different ima- ges. These two images get to his brain independently, offering him two different images of his surroundings and their possible strands or perspectives. But first he must see them. When one of his eyes locates the best idea, his brain sends an order to the other eye for it to quickly focus on the target. When he focuses the vision with his two eyes, the captured images are overlapped, and the vision now becomes binocular and hence the final artistic or pictorial work is born.
Despite his versatile vision, something else is needed if he wants to successfully overcome all the inspiration that surrounds him in hundredths of seconds. It is not enough that each of his eyes can focus independently with a 360-degree visual field. Chameleons are famous for their ability to camouflage themselves with the environment. But Garrit is not one of those who hide or turn their backs, he faces the surroundings; he does not seek to disguise himself, but he simply wants to become the surroundings themselves.
Garrit thus becomes an open book of emotions or, if you want, a constant vibration of creative, human and emotional energy that finally allows him as an artist to side with people, cornering for a few instants the pic- torial genre based on the landscape that is usually very present in Santanyí’s plastic arts.
With By your side, Garrit declares and openly states that what really makes sense, what always remains and will never go out of date is the action or inclination that is generated by being close to people. And he sums it up with a series of categorical, basic, essential concepts: Freedom, Time, Howl, Pain (but I’m Strong), I exist, The Way, Future, Cry, Hopeful, Breathe... Because a person has the right to feel and be free. He needs time for him, and time from others to be spent with him; he needs to be able to scream with despair or joy; he needs to feel alive; he needs to know that he has a path and a future; he needs to cry and have hope; in short, he needs to breathe and have someone by his side.
Honestly, I have only two questions left to resolve regarding Garrit; the first is the same one that is formulated today with the scientific researches on the chameleon:
Could Garrit’s left eye know what his right eye is doing when both are aiming at different ideas?
And the second one concerns himself and his ability to turn into and react to the surroundings. Indeed, it is here where his secret is hidden. Because there is a Garrit we neither see nor know, only seen and known by himself. Most of the time, male chameleons change colour when they see another male, and in this case, when they look in the mirror.
But, how will Garrit look and what will he be able to become when he looks in the mirror?
Perhaps, he will not even know it until he himself peeps into it.
Bertolt Brecht said that art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.
I do not know how Garrit saw himself reflected or what he became the day he looked in the mirror to create, later, this collection of acrylics. The truth is that he sided with the person.
Now I can: I can now imagine what noise was heard after looking in the mirror. Kaboomph!!
