Carline: Your Web site took a lot of work and you did it all yourself. How did you manage this? Has the site been worthwhile for you? 

Hertz: Kreyol.com was my main connection to the Haitian Community for years. I first set it up as a way that someone who had known me as a child would find me.  When my mother died I lost all contact with any real blood relatives, aunts, uncles, all disappeared without a word.  I stayed with my godmother who took me in after the accident. A few years back a cousin who lives Haiti saw my website and art sent me an email to tell me he was family and that my father was alive. The internet makes the world a whole lot smaller. Closing down my websites made me feel that a very important part of my life just died.  I will focus now on just painting and writing.

Carline: What are the greatest risks you take in your painting? Or do you think the activity of painting is a risk in itself?

Hertz: The only risk to a painter is when he paints the truth about himself.

Carline: How would you describe your style, artistically speaking?

Hertz: I'm not sure, an impressionist maybe but I change my style as soon as I can fit a label to it. I just want to paint. I paint women mostly, maybe because I admire them, maybe because my mother was a strong Haitian Woman.  I often enjoy using oil pastels on blackboard. I do some acrylics on canvas but I often return to my oil pastels; that’s the only thing I would call my style. I enjoy oil pastels due to the touch and closeness of using fingers to paint and blend colors.

Carline: Creatively, what completely turns you off?

Hertz: Limitations. People limit themselves in many ways.  Religious people limit themselves; deny themselves, but being religious is not enough they have to choose a religion. So even if they are Christian they must belong to a certain sect. You narrow yourself down, like being placed in a box, within a box, within a box, within a box, in an even smaller box that labels who you are.  Limitations kill a creative person.  It is the slowest death to a spiritual person.  But your spirit is always free as an artist.  I'm Haitian, I was born in Port-au-Prince I guess that makes me a Haitian Artist, but should I limit myself to only that? That's why I admire someone like Wyclef Jean.  Started as a Rapper, but grew into a true artist, a musician never limiting who he would work with or what his songs spoke about.  His Konpa albums do not sell as much but it does not limit him from sharing them with the world.  So you'll find someone in Sweden or Germany enjoying Wyclef's style of Konpa.  I don't know the man personally but I admire that. As for myself I learn about Japanese Art and Culture when I want to go beyond my boundaries.  Limitations do not serve a creative person; it’s a slow death when you become a slave to your own set of limits.  A spirit should be as free as God created it to be.

 
Carline: How would you describe yourself? 

Hertz: I'm a fighter.  I'm a fool.  I'm a sinner. I'm an artist, just one of those crazy people who still hold on to hope when there is nothing left for a sane man to hold onto. I've seen a lot of ugly things in this world, sometimes I get tired, get depressed. 

Carline: What do you hope people think of when they view your work? 

Hertz: I try not to place my hopes on the viewer's thinking...  I don't really allow myself to think about if people will like or value my art or not. What I am hoping for is to share enough about my life, so if the painting is about a journey the viewer is able to see themselves and their own journeys in the painting.  A connection that is beyond just thinking of lines, shapes, and composition but something more that only humans can understand.  We are the only creatures that can communicate through Art.  Not every painting is going to touch someone, but as a painter you must understand your gift... A good painting chooses who to communicate with, who to touch, who to evoke an emotion in, who to trigger a memory in.  This is not marketing this is Art.  So no matter what my hopes, only a few may understand what I was trying to say without asking me.  
  

Carline: If you could go anywhere in the world to paint or teach, where would you go?

Hertz: Japan. No other reason but the culture has a very long history and it is different from where I come from and I want to explore something new.
  
Carline: What's the hardest part of being an artist? 

Hertz: Business part of the Art World is the hardest for me.  Like anything else that can make you famous it can eat you alive.  People expect you to be a businessman, people expect you to make them money. People expect so much, and it’s very hard not to disappoint someone.  

Carline: how have you handled the business aspect of it?

Hertz: I have found there are only two things I need to focus on: to survive Sickle Cell for as long as I can, and the other is to paint whatever life brings.  The first one takes most of my efforts so I have no time to think of business. Still, when I try to think of the business side of being an artist, all I see is a blank canvas before me; an empty canvas without a message, without a heart, without a soul.  I'm terrible at the business end because of that vision.  The way I view things limit me in the business side of things. In this life everything has a price even my paintings; you can chance many circumstances in your life with the right amount of money.  It would be nice if my art could become a product that was in high demand maybe my days would not have to be so painful, I think.  With money, I could afford a beautiful trophy wife, a nice house, and a good car.  But then is this the real reason God created me to be an artist? I'm not sure... but as a painter I have accomplished a lot more that I could have hoped for but its never business for me, I can't survive in that world. I have had a few business men wanting to place me in exclusive 5 year contracts; I've even agreed to paint for them until I understood what they wanted me to paint were things that would match a living room set.  In this day anything can be copied I have prints of my work sold online it helps pay the rent.  

Carline: Do you think Haitian artists have a better chance of achieving success in North America and in Europe than in Haiti?

 
Hertz: I think it all depends on what a person thinks of and defines as success.  For me I would have been more successful in Haiti.  Sharing my art with my people, but I can't take back the decisions made for me as a child cannot be changed.  I never asked to leave Haiti, never wanted to as a child. But after seeing the struggles my mother went through to get me to America, I feel I must do all I can to live up to the dreams she had for her son.  I feel I have been staying true to that dream.

Carline: I understand that you also write poetry, can you tell us a little bit about that and have you published any of your poems? 

Hertz: I have been poor for a very long time... paint and canvas are not very cheap.  So when I could not paint a feeling I learned to write about it.  I wanted to publish a book for a very long time. I had one called "Indigo..." I was supposed to have it published years ago but things got in the way of that.  Maybe in a year or so I will have it out.
Carline: As a philatelist myself, I was quite impressed by your artistic contribution in designing the Sickle cell stamps among others.  How did you get into that project? Was there a contest?
Hertz: No project or contest, I just took my Pain Series and used my own resources to publish the postage stamps myself to help raise awareness of this painful disease. http://www.zazzle.com/nazaire http://www.cafepress.com/haiti1804

Carline: Have you ever held exhibits in Haiti or in places with a large Haitian population?

Hertz: On May 10th 2003, I was part of a group show in Brooklyn, New York with many other Haitian artists. The Show was called "Echoes of Our Ancestors" I remember actor/director Danny Glover was there, he seems to love Haitian culture very much.  It was the best show I have had connecting with the community.

Carline: What is the price range for one of your piece and how would one go about obtaining such?

Hertz: Price $300 - $5,000 and up. It is very hard to get me to sell a piece.  I want to make sure that my Oil Pastels are taken care of by someone who is serious about art and not just looking for a pretty thing to hang.  Oil Pastels are not paint on canvas paintings. They are more fragile so care is needed to keep them. I open my studio space to the public here in Bridgeport, Connecticut when I can. We also have a gallery on the first floor where I often have work on display. If you are ever near the area and want to see my work in person. Contact me: nazaire@gmail.com view photos of my art at http://homepage.mac.com/naz73/Menu4.html

Carline: What advice would you give to an artist just starting out? 

Hertz: I'm not one to give advice; I would say what my mother and others told me “don't become an artist.” My mother wanted me be to become a doctor. I hope she understands why I needed to become an artist. So my advice is “don't do it”... unless you have something burning inside you that only art can heal. People will always try to discourage you from being the person you really are.  Artists are like sponges we soak up everything in the world that surrounds us, the good, and the bad.  It can make you stronger or destroy you... if you read art history; you begin to see a pattern that the ones who have mastered their art are also men who have lost parts of their sanity.  We are often alone and misunderstood.  If you choose to become an artist however it ends up, be sure that you paint who you are and not what others say you are. It is one of the most foolish yet wonderful things you could ever do with your life.

Carline: What do you want to be remembered for?

Hertz: I don't know anymore, I have always wanted to be remembered for being a great dad to my child.  But with my luck I have always fallen in love with really selfish or very broken women with too many scars to love me back.  I guess I can be best remembered for loving too hard.

Carline: Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know about you? 

Hertz: I have not given this interview the normal PR replies, I do not wish to market myself under false presumptions, and this interview came at a turning point in my life. Right now I'm closing shop on the business sides of my Art Career.  I'm slowly going blind due to Sickle Cell over the years. This year I had to give up most of my other activities like running my websites in other to focus on painting for myself.  I will not be in the public eye for a while; this will be my last interview.  My website kreyol.com had been online since 1999 and I have been working seriously as an artist since 1996. I have accomplished a lot in 10 years and I am grateful to have shared my Art with others.  From now on I will do it a little more privately.