Interview with Prof. Amer Kobaslija, part I

By Abdur Rehman

Q1. Good morning. Thank you for accepting our interview request. I have a lot of questions, so I will delve right into them. Let’s begin with your background. Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself? Where are you originally from? How long have you been in the United States?

Born in Bosnia. Fled the war-ravaged country and moved to Germany in the early nineties. Subsequently, I immigrated to the States about twelve years ago.

Q2. How do you compare United States to Bosnia? Any similarities? Differences? Was it hard to settle into the United States?

A friend told me that immigration is like a silent trial that never ends and one is never completely at home neither here or there. I very much love America and see it as home, but I also know that there is a void somewhere inside that may never be filled.

Q3. As an international student here at Gettysburg, I can relate to that feeling. I would like to know what drove you to become a Professor of Art?  Was this something you envisioned of becoming as a child?

While in Art school, several of my professors inspired me.  One of them was Leslie Lerner. He helped me grow as an artist and also as a human being. Even to this day, from time to time, I find myself having internal conversations with Leslie while working in my studio. As if he is helping me find a solution to whatever formal or conceptual problem I may be encountering in a painting that I am working on at the moment. Years have passed since I graduated from college; yet, Leslie is still teaching me. If that’s something I can ever do for any of my students, then I will know that I am succeeding.

Q4. What were the major influences on you as you were growing up?

Artists whom I admire most are those who gave a lifetime pursuing a single idea, pursuing it to the point of obsession. That single-mindedness is what led them to become true masters. Total devotion to your craft matters a great deal. Something very moving about that. That is why I love Lucien Freud, Antonio Garcia Lopez, Alice Neel, Rackstraw Downes, among many others. The traditional Chinese landscape painting is timeless. So is Hiroshige.

Continued at Interview with Prof. Amer Kobaslija, part II