Carline: Hertz, thank you very much for taking the time to talk to Prodg.  Where did it all begin? What was the first thing you sold? When did you know you could make painting your career?

Hertz: There is no beginning for me, and there is no career. Sure I can answer the question as asked but it would not be honest to who I am.  I don't feel like this is a career, often I have to sell something to survive.  But I never chose art as a career.  I was interviewed before for a PBS documentary and the producer asked me in private would I still be an artist if I did not live with Sickle Cell Anemia.  I've never been asked that before... but the answer was simple. No, I would never become a painter without those elements driving me.  Pain ever since I was born. My mother left Haiti when I was very young maybe when I was a year old.  I remembered so much about Haiti, the colors mostly. I was sick a lot but I never remembered the pain, just the color.  My mother died when I was 14 years old in a car accident.  I was in the car and saw it all I don't remember the pain but I remember the colors.  All these elements made me a painter, I love color.  Life is not in black and white, it is full of color.  I painted a series of oil pastels about living with Sickle Cell in 1997 which have been published in medical books in the US, Italy, UK, and other parts of Europe.  I've spoken about Sickle Cell for organizations around the country as an advocate for those who struggle to live through this pain.  My art has come along for the ride, I have sold work in Beverly Hills and met lots of celebrities, and people in the Sickle Cell Community are very supportive of my work.  I can't remember what the first painting I sold was; I've given so many away to friends.

Carline: What inspires you to paint and how do you keep motivated?

Hertz: Hope. Hope is something that's not easy to understand. But when you have nothing... hope is like the knowledge that the sun will rise every morning... you have faith, you have hope and that’s enough to go on living.

Carline: Is there any symbolic meaning or messages in your paintings, or are they mostly about paint and creating a painting? 

Hertz: I often go years without painting or drawing a thing because I feel I have nothing to say, nothing to share. I cannot create a painting just to become a product. When hungry I've tried but food does not taste the same to a man who has sold his soul.  Many people are able to connect to the business and marketing sides of Art but I find I can only take it so far before I have something that blocks my mind from doing it.  I can't paint just to paint it has to say something although most times the true meaning remains a secret that I only share with the canvas and those who are tired of being blind.

Carline: Who and in what capacity have other artists influenced you?

Hertz: Jean-Michel Basquiat the most famous black painter.  Besides the fact that his father was Haitian, I think in reading about him I can understand what it felt like to have no one understand you or what drives you. I admire many other artists but Basquiat has created works that I still try to understand. 

Carline: Could you talk about your latest series of paintings and what you are trying to achieve with them?

Hertz: I'm painting things that are more abstract than usual now... not because I want to become an abstract artist but because my vision is not what it used to be due to my battle with Sickle Cell Anemia.  I think I will borrow a lot from the simple lines found in some forms of Japanese Art.

Carline: I was thinking how hard it is to find the right words for describing what it is that happens on the canvas. It’s a space where something begins to appear. What is it to you?

Hertz: A canvas to me is simple... it is life.  As long as you live and have breathed, it should always tell a story about your life, your Pain, your Hopes, your Dreams, your Loves, your Heart, your Lovers, your Disappointments, your Fears. You paint to speak about your life; you paint to speak about the world. You paint so that the world may look at your painting and see itself through your eyes.  Maybe you can touch someone, maybe you can put color where there is only darkness, and maybe you can place hope where there is none.  Without life a canvas is meaningless.

Carline: Is painting a complex activity? 

Hertz: No, I don't have all the answers but the act itself is not so complex if you do not set limitations.  Sometimes I just clear my mind and close my eyes and I paint not physically but inside. I have created works in my head that no one will ever see.

Carline: Can you describe the process you go through when creating a piece from start to finish? 

Hertz: Sometimes it comes from a dream, or something I have seen, and at times it is just an idea.  My ultimate goal is to always create something beautiful and colorful.  My experiences in life take over... and I paint never knowing what the end results will be, sometimes the work is never finished until a few weeks down the line when I have something else to add to make it complete.

Carline: Your poetry, and your painting, do you do it full time?

Hertz: It is as full time as I consider what other things I do with my life.  I'm mostly fighting to live everyday. When I have something to share and have no paint I write words, they may not always rhyme but they share what is in my heart at the time. Sometimes there is nothing to say. I don't force myself to paint or to write out of some false sense of obligation.  It’s not work.

Carline: We know that you have left Haiti since the age of 10, have you ever gone back?

Hertz: Only once back in 1986 to meet my father for the first time.  I miss Haiti but I am in no hurry to return since I have no family waiting for me back home.  At least not family that would not take a lot of work finding and exploring painful lost connections with.

Carline: Is your family mostly in the USA or do they reside in Haiti?

Hertz: My Mother died in 1988 and my Father still lives in Haiti, I have not seen him since 1986.  This Journey to be in the US many Haitian-Americans knows of... the sacrifices of losing the ties to family and roots.  I could not even name my grandfather if someone asked me.  While we run from Haiti to have a better life, we sacrifice a great deal as Haitians who have lost our connections to family, no longer aware from which people we came from and why we left.

Carline: Where are you located nowadays? 

Hertz: I live in Bridgeport, Connecticut, I always find myself returning here no matter where I try to move.  I live in a loft building full of artist, with a gallery on the first floor. My loft space here is my studio and my home and rent is cheap due to an Art organization who builds communities like these.  I would love to have a place like this in Florida but it would cost a small fortune.

Carline: Are you involved in the Haitian community and in what way?

Hertz: I'm always proud to be Haitian.  I spend endless hours designing and maintaining Kreyol.Com for many years now.  I have exhibitions in large Haitian communities when I can.  I have done a few group shows with other Haitian Artists.  I am often asked to show my work at Universities who have a Haitian Student Organization but I have yet to because of the cost.  Most people view my websites and think I must be a rich and successful painter so I am often asked to give more than I have.  The truth is I struggle everyday, because of my health problems I don't have much to offer but the message in my Art.

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