Carnaval Crudo Verde.
Oil on Canvas, 90 H x 58 W cm / 35.4 H x 22.8 W in.
Created by Ofir Hirsh under the Maduro identity in 2010.

My maturity as an artist is not about my skill level, the beauty of my work, or its sophistication. It is more about me being in peace with my work; knowing what I do and why I do it, expressing my visions to my own satisfaction, whether its internal, external, abstract or real.
In the beginning of 2010, my reaction to a series of events that followed my solo exhibition in Santo Domingo, made me realize that I have reached maturity as an artist.
The leading Dominican newspaper published a very nice article about me and my art, and the Dominican T.V. dedicated an entire program to me. Suddenly everybody knew who I am and what I do. I was still just a painter, not a rock star, and I managed the little dose of fame quite elegantly. I had good answers to all the questions. I thanked and appreciated the compliments, and wasn’t really offended by the negative feedback. I was satisfied with my work and felt very confident and mature as an artist. In order to express my maturity and satisfaction, I named myself Maduro, Spanish for mature, and indeed, looking back on that series of paintings today, I see in those works the level of maturity that I felt back then. To me, maturity is not an end goal, or the peak I aim to reach in my career. It is just another hill I climb on my mountainous journey. Although it’s nice to breath the air of the heights, I never stay there for too long. My journey goes on and I keep walking my way. Being constantly mature bores me. At some point I feel the need to walk down the valley again, looking for innocent, almost ignorant, point of view. So overall, I would say that my level of maturity as an artist is volatile rather than a constant high. I believe that the more I create, the more confident I feel about creating whatever comes out of my hands. Insisting on having the freedom to create ugly, childish, or experimental works of art is a great gift I give myself, and in my view, that freedom is the road to maturity.

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