Troy Lovegates “Other”

Still unknown to us, he came by Subaquatica to offer some linoleum prints he had done. Since them we have been following his truly amazing and definitely personal work from the distance and through the Internet. Troy Lovegates, aka Other (www.flickr.com/photos/other) is the guest artist this month and this is his interview.

First of all when, where, how and why you started to do work in the streets?

I statred painting on the streets in around 89 or 88 more to find the other people that were doing stuff in Toronto than anything. I didn’t understand how the tags and Graffiti just showed up at night without anyone seeing it. I wondered who it was so I started myself to find out.

You do that kind of work “outside” and I know you do linoleum prints and you do studio work from what I’ve seen in your flickr page. Do you feel that it’s all part of a same discourse or do you keep different approaches in concept and style when doing these different activities?

Work outside is how I found out about art. A lot of the time I find indoors work a bit pretentious and limited to an audience that is already interested in art hidden behind some walls out of reach. When I was younger I felt really shy and nervous to walk into a gallery. It was like this quiet precious place that spoke a language that I couldn’t understand relating to art or anything for that matter, that intellectual art garbage talk, explaining everything so it doesn’t make sense to anyone who doesn’t have a degree in art theory. My work indoors is practice for the real work outdoors. It pays me to wreck stuff outside.

I also know that you travel a lot. How would you say your art is different now as opposed as if you would have stayed in Canada and not travel around?

Yes I travel too much… I don’t know at this point if my travels have any real good changes on my art. It makes me feel more cut off and lost from a feeling of home which has been a big theme in my latest works. I guess that is good but I have stopped travelling as much and am trying to focus on my surroundings, where I grew up in and the strange land of Canada. This is where I suck more energy out of than anyplace else.

You are going to live in Australia for a while. How’s that?

I actually cancelled the trip. Who cancels a trip to Australia for free? I dont know why… but I did it.

Because of your travelling you seem to be very active collaborating with artists from other countries. What do you think you share with other artists from that same “scene”?

Well I find when I travel to all these different countries I paint more on the streets of the cities and this is not something I am so accustomed to. I am mainly a painter of the North American rail system so i feel a bit like it is doing something different and new to me.

Also, you are one of the few artists that I know with a style not quite typical Graffiti active in painting freight trains. I know there are many Graffiti writers doing that too but do you find pieces by other artists? Is there still a Hobo waxes and chalk tagging scene? How did you get into painting freight trains in the first place?

The North American freight system is clogged with art now, from Mexico and America and Canada. A lot of the monikers and hobo/train worker art (a culture that has been around since the 1800’s of leaving your name behind as you roam and illegaly hop trains around america) has no more room to flourish besides the corners of boxcars and on other trains that spray paint peoples don’t like to hit. I got introduced to painting trains about 15 years ago in Toronto by another friend who liked how they travelled 1000s of miles around North America.

Your use of color gives is of a “happy” type of feel to your work. Do you deliberately try to portray a happy, optimistic view of things with your work?

Well it is very colorful but I think the people in my work are missing something. They are usually sullen and reaching. Oddly I do not work with color much on trains. I would like to but it is so hard to see in those yards.

In your work there’s a predominance of overblown heads attached to small bodies. What’s with you and heads and faces?

I guess I just always stare at people. I’m always getting in trouble for staring too much. I like expressions. I don’t really pay attention to the body just stare at the faces of people walking by on the streets.

There’s a question that intrigues me from all artists in general and wanted to ask you about: How much of your personal visual universe comes from your childhood? Is the kid inside of you a big percentage of who you are as an artist?

When I think of the voice inside of me… my internal voice it sounds the same to me now as when I was young so I guess it is 100 percent of who I am now.

Not being an artist, every time I find an artist whose work I enjoy, I’m always intrigued on the creative process. In your case is it fast and wild and not rational at all or is it meticulous and slow, do you dismiss a lot of the stuff you do?… I don’t know, tell me a little bit about it.

Well the trains are pretty fast there is not much time… it is dark and sometimes they are moving and people in the yard and all of that comes to play on how the painting might come out… it could be rainy it could be full of mosquitos… my painting inside is like binges. I dont do anything all day I check my email and walk around and talk to people and then I feel it and work intensely for a few hours and then break out of it and do something else. It takes a long time to get a painting done. It is very mind numbing for me, not like the freedom of painting outside.

What have you been working on recently?

Same old same old.

And any interesting project coming up that you can tell us about?

Well, I received a big grant from the Canadian government to make a very small hand made pressing of one hundred books… a very time consuming project… that and painting trains.

Some project you would love to do but didn’t have the chance or nobody has asked you to do yet?

I love painting massive massive walls… but I dont get much opportunity to do those.

Can you turn us into some artists or something interesting that we should know about?

I am not much of a fan of art… I rarely get super inspired by visuals… music is much more interesting.

Add comment May 10th, 2008 06:48pm Administrador

MOMO

Somebody we know that moved into New York introduced us to MOMO (www.momoshowpalace.com) and although it’s because of that we know his work I’m certain we would have come to discover him some other way. I guess it’s a small world when you are the kind of person that can’t help but being fascinated by a collage of colored papers pasted onto a wall in a street for no apparent reason and you meet the person that took the time and effort to do it.

First of all when, where, how and why you started to do work in the streets?

I was in love with Graffiti in the late 90’s, but didn’t feel it was my place or culture, until this friend of mine Mike Menace challenged me to look closer, and from then, 1998 or so, the concept has never let go of me. I was traveling back then.

You do work outside and I know you’ve done a bunch of prints and collaborated with us in the “The amazing wandering unit” project and other projects here and there but other than that I have no idea if you do any other “inside” work, aimed at art galleries or commercial work of some kind?

I have a regular job, creating giant sculpture for Jimmy Buffett (a ridiculous cultural(? of sorts) icon). That’s been my main source of income for 10 years now. My street hobby has come inside much more these last two years, working with Paper Monster, we’ve developed prints and studio work that stays indoors. I was slow at first to think of what to do indoors - its a totally different game, that deserves its own due, but now I’m brimming with ideas; things I couldn’t do on the street. If I play it cool, I’ll be in several shows this year in NY.

In your work there’s a predominance of geometric shapes but at the same time I feel somehow that has an overall organic feel to it. What’s with you and geometry? Does it make any sense what I just said about your work looking organic in a way?

I hope so. Last year I was toying with geometry more as a primitive craft/carnival means. The rise of neo rave, 80’s inspired, retro tech graphics makes me nervous. I don’t want to be associated with that exactly, it’s probably too fine a point for people to get, but that culture feels disposable to me. The forms I’m using now were always under the most realistic drawings/ paintings I’d ever felt good about, and I’ve had a long history creating realist looking things, we are just cleaning them up, using that best part naked and raw now.

Again I might be mistaken but could you elaborate on how’s your relationship with the urban (there’s obviously some of that) and the natural (that’s where I might go wrong) and how that reflects on your work?

We’re just talking about the colorful collage, which is fine because my other projects go in too many directions. I’m not exactly a hippy in the city here. But yeah, I do feel stronger ties to the country, mountain folk, the desert, untrained folk artists, small town cultural happenings. I’d prefer to avoid things like hype, gamesmanship, technology fizz, I guess that puts me back in the woods. But being in New York 5 years now, that stuff doesn’t really exist, or I’d adjust my attitude. I walk everywhere in busted shoes and get better conversation out of them, than if I obliged marketers and got with “urban” styles. Back to collage postering - I hope each piece is a bit of an experiment for intellectual delight, each one is very different, they don’t always work, I invent lots of small techniques to try and add to the canon of the craft. I feel nothing for artists that demonstrate our dominant mass media’s power; with standardized production, aping logos and celebrity. That power was already demonstrated when US culture colonized the globe.

Ok, I see what you mean but don’t you want people to have a better view of what you do making them aware of your existence? Maybe you just want each piece you do outdoors to work on its own… I don’t know.

I think I don’t know either. My great friend Joel says if we keep doing the stuff that interests us the most, it will all come together eventually.

There’s a question that intrigues me from all artists in general and wanted to ask you about: How much of your personal visual universe comes from your childhood? Is the kid inside of you a big percentage of who you are as an artist?

Great question. It would be better if I played more. I was a little adult as a child. Obsessively trying to draw well. Now I’m an old man throwing confetti & color everywhere, but it still rarely comes from playfulness (!).

Why is that? What keeps you for being more playful with your work as an artist? Do you feel that you have to be responsible as an artist and playfulnes doesn’t mix well with that?

Protestant upbringing? Hahaha. Maybe. I’ve always admired people that just enjoy life, I’m in the other group, uncomfortable, unsatisfied, itchy. HaHa. If curiosity is playfulness, I’m flush, but its also a sort of a burning.

Your use of color gives is of a “happy” type of feel to your work. Do you deliberately try to portray a happy, optimistic view of things with your work?

HaHa. I love comedy, but that’s not my point. I try to set up uncertain compositions that break with the surroundings, feel unstable, for me there’s a look of change / danger, poor balance, unfair odds. That’s great if people take away optimism, they see the story ending well, I think its undecided. And I love color. I love southern peoples intense use of it (think Caribbean), its feels festive to Northerners, but look closer and the universal darker themes are there, vivid and stuff.

So there’s a balance between bright and dark in your work and you leave it up to the viewer if they see more of one or the other which brings me to a question I end up asking artists when the subject comes up: How much do you want your work to be open to free interpretation and how much do you want to obtain a certain response?

Oh it’s a total give away, thats the best thing about public works. What I make goes on to live another life I can only guess at. I’ve heard wild theories and stories involving my stuff, and seen a wide spectrum of people take to it. I have to have my reasons to initiate the whole business, but its a thousand times more gratifying to see where it ends up.

There’s a generation of artists worldwide that I think that share at least a somehow similar attitude and sometimes some aesthetics coordinates and you seem to be very active collaborating with artists from other countries. Do you feel part of a scene-generation… and what do you think you share with other artists from that same “scene”?

Yeah, the Internet is fueling these scattered scenes. A friend was describing it’s that way for his particular music interest. I’ve fed almost entirely on European artists while living in the US. Now I can flatter your European readers? It’s partially aesthetics and partially a next-level confrontation: the artists doing resistance work already have better educations than us in the US generally, and then the society they’re confronting is more open, subtle, historied, and educated, so the discussion skips the trivial stuff.

Not being an artist, every time I find an artist whose work I enjoy, I’m always intrigued on the creative process. In your case is it fast and wild and not rational at all, is it meticulous and slow, do you dismiss a lot of the stuff you do?… I don’t know, tell me a little bit about it.

I get the best ideas while doing something else. The first (paper napkin) sketch is usually the best. Then I waste an enormous amount of time trying it every other way, to come back to the first, and make it look easy (hopefully).

I saw some bio text about you and I’m sorry but I have to ask: Did you actually live in a geodesic dome? How did that feel like?

It’s great, a really small space feels quite large with no corners. the furniture was built into the walls of course, nothing rectangular. This was in a small village in New Mexico.

What have you been working on recently?

An illustration for a Faile collaborative book due out soon. Been learning to skate a quarter pipe. I’m cutting collage paper right now. I should be in London by the time anybody reads this trying some wacky experiments there. I created an installation at Monkey Town: an art bar in Williamsburg: a fun collaboration with Milton Carter. And I’m still futzing with silkscreen posters as experiments. Each one is different based on this computer thing “The MOMO Maker” (www.momoshowpalace.com/momomaker.html). It’s like the “best of MOMO” for collage. It was mostly for a laugh, but I can’t seem to reach the bottom, so it keeps growing and getting bigger as a project.

Yes, I meant to ask you about that. Do you feel randomness fits well in your discourse?

Maybe as a search tool; watching the MOMO Maker: there’s crap, then there’s one design I would not have thought of. I initaly got into collage because you can cut-out & toss your ingredients freely around, looking for their potential.

And any interesting project coming up that you can tell us about?

I’m focused on two main projects for this year, but need to stay quiet about them. And I just heard: in May I might collaborate with Mellisa Brown, we’re going to destroy each other’s artwork for a month; every other day; she goes, I go, she goes, I go, in a public curated space. I think New York could be fun this summer.

Some project you would love to do but didn’t have the chance or nobody has asked you to do yet?

Ha! Yeah! I want to do for Jamaica what Dewitt Peters did for Haiti. I want to do a very long expanded version of my time-based video project “In New Collage Orleans” for New York. It’d be called “In New Collage York”. I’d like to interview Daniel Burren. I want to make a Graffiti video for Stephin Merritt. I’d like to publish zines more often.

Can you turn us into some artists or something interesting that we should know about?

I never knew anything about Norman McLaren until Nano put me onto him yesterday. I’m really amazed, 3 minutes of his work might sum up all of mine, and 70 years before I began. Same goes for Daniel Burren. He was bombing 100’s of posters globally for good conceptual reasons begining in 1968. Jonkanoo is [another(!)] amazing creol culture & history: Caribbean carnival. A recent show of Zaha Hadid’s prepartory art works blew me away.

Add comment March 31st, 2008 10:51pm Administrador

Remed

Since Remed opened the exhibition calendar with his buddy 3ttman he’s been restlessly travelling around the globe and proving an amazing evolution as an artist and indeniable coherence of his work. In this interview with him he shows an attitude and view of himself as an artist free of prejudices that for some reason is not too common and that we love as much as his work.

First of all when, where, how and why you started to consider yourself an artist?

Well, I think I’ve dreamed about being an artist since I was quite young but I never thought it was possible until I met the father of one of my friends who was an artist in Roubaix. When I discovered his atelier and the treasures that it contained, I began to feel it was possible to be the artist I am nowadays. I really want to thank my man Boulaone and his father Madjoub Ben Bella for having opened my eyes, and made my dream possible. After my studies I started to work in a design agency and then I quit two years later to work on my own. As I was drawing and painting more and more, I felt artist more and more, and became really proud of it, while many people around me had the will of being an artist but were afraid saying they were. I love being an artist and i’m proud of the decission I made.

And when, where, how and why did you start to do art in the streets?

The first time I worked in the street was in 1999 wih my broooother 3ttman (wesh a gueule!!). He came back from work with a big roll of virgin stickers. We started filling those white spaces. I started making eyes, nearly closed, with a kind of “malice” inside. I first pasted them wherever it was possible and once I put one on the beautifull seducing face of a woman on a advertising poster. I was really surprised by the impact of it, and how it changed the soft expression of the woman face into a vicious looking one, the one behind the mask of her “selling” function.

In your work there’s a predominance of characters and text. In the case of characters do you have a collection of them with their own personality that you use here and there or you come up with new ones for every new piece?

I don’t really have a collection of characters. At the beginning I developed a face. That was more or less my self-representation. As a witness of life or maybe just a revendication of existence… his expression wasn’t thought of before I did it. It’s just a reflection of how i felt while doing it or at that moment of my life: sometimes happy, sometimes sad, or angry. But most times I tried to lie when I saw it was too sad. Because it’s too easy to keep on being lifeless, and it don’t like spreading that vibe. Even on my canvases… if I talk about sadness, or bad feelings, I’m always trying to find an alternative, hope… In the meantime, I realized a face was not enough to express what I wanted to, and started to work on hands, patterns, and then body. That’s how shadowblackman came out and allowed me to put myself in situation, in movement, interacting with the environment.

And about the text and the word games, most artists don’t want to be too precise about the meaning (if any) of their pieces but you even give tips!! Why is that? Do you have a clear idea and concept for each new piece and like everyone to understand fully?

Of course I would like people to understand the deep part of my work. It’s not only about aesthetics. I spend quite a lot of time in front of the white page, wall or canvas, before writing something. There’s a story I’d like people to enter in. It’s really important for me creating something true and coherent. Most times, the concept of the piece is clear to me, and it gives an essential extra value to my art. My art is me. But in a way it could be you. It helps me, and I hope it could help you. It’s like the walk of a thought to the next one. I really love to explain the way an artpiece has been created, little by little, the first word, or icon, already has the seed of the one that will follow. It’s just waiting for me to find the next one. I’ve thought many times about recording my voice explaining this or that canvas. Because I want people to get it fully. And sometimes, people add an extra sense to one of the word I use. And most of all I like their interpretation. I believe in the “hasard qui n’existe pas”.

Also, it’s really good the way you make the letters part of the art. What’s up with you and letters? Big fan of typography or maybe just hand made type?

I don’t think I’ve ever been fan of typography. Text has always been present in my art since the beginning. I realized that I needed a collection of fonts wide enough to fit with the iconography I developed. All the type I drew was inspired by some existent types, but I usually look at one, forget it, and then make mine.

There’s a generation of artists worldwide that I think that share at least a somehow similar attitude and sometimes some aesthetics coordinates and you seem to be very active collaborating with artists from other countries. Do you feel part of a scene-generation… and what do you think you share with other artists from that same “scene”?

In all the travels I’ve made, for love of art, when I meet other artists, I always feel a strong energy, a strong will of living the life we choose, and make it possible in a system that is not really made for us. I feel that we represent the alternative. And it fills myself. I love to know that artists I met share the same life. We are really lucky and conscious of what we accomplishing. Something is happening!

You live a little bit all over the place: São Paulo, Madrid, Lille… I’m sure that helps you be in touch with many different artists. How’s that affecting your artistic activity and attitude as an artist?

Like I said, travelling and meeting other artists makes me stronger, because it gives me the feeling of being part of something important, whether I will be remembered or forgotten, I love to believe in us. UNITY brodaaaas! special biiiig up to the great artists who are: my everfriend 3ttman aka brad beckam, my love Fefe (cochillo bolinda!), and to my brothers, artists I respect such as Jiem, Nano, El tono, Pelucas, Zosen, Debens, Sixe, Kafre, Soviet, Momo, Maya Hayuk, Ekta, A.purdy, Andy Rementer, Dem, Orion, Kaboko, Ramon Martins, Raquel Shambri, Ciro, Speto, Carlinhos, Espak, Mikos, Isham, Mercurochrom, Buenos Aires stencil, Blu, Mark Jenkins , Tatone, Farmprod and many more I never met and hope to meet once…

Your work, for someone that sees a pic online, could be easily think is all computer-made becase of the clean lines and in fact you seem to be a very traditional artist in the way you work. Never thought of working with Illustrator, Freehand…?

I used to draw with illustrator when I was 22 til 24. I learned and understood many things. It showed me the beauty of mathematics. It gave me a graphic point of view that is still one at the foundations of my work today. But afterwards, I rediscovered the beauty of spontaneity and the “alèatoire” dimension in handdrawing. I am “mathematic” in the way I compose the image, but I keep something “human”, more about the “heart”, in the way I use the line. I like when it’s close to perfection globally, but still imperfect in the detail.

Also your work seems to be perfect for taking commercial comissions from brand and doing work as an illustrator but you don’t like it very much. Is that right? Why?

That’s right, I used to be a graphic designer before I made the choice to be an artist.

In your work there’s a predominance of characters and it also it makes me think of animation and comics and about how much of your chilldhood might reflect on your work. Can you tell us about those influences and how much of your art speaks for the child inside of you?

The influence is not really conscious. I can’t say…maybe a mix of everything I’ve seen until today.I cultivate the child in me. I prefer the word “utopia” than “cynism”.

It seems like apart from commercial work and personal work that can be sold at galleries and so on, many artists find another ways to portray their work in the form of assorted merchandising such as t-shirts, toys, etc… more accesible to most people because they are cheaper. What’s your experience and “policy” in that field?

First, I want my art to be “original” and “non-functional”. So I’m trying to keep far away from industry buisness. I don’t want my work to be seen as “decoration” but as “art”. From my point of view, silkscreening on paper is a good alternative because, it produces an affordable piece of art, it’s not a functional object as a t-shirt, and it’s still rare, original and handmade.

Not being an artist, every time I find an artist whose work I enjoy, I’m always intrigued on the creative process, tell me a little bit about it.

Nearly every canvas I do, is sketched before. Sometimes I do one sketch, which is a part of a canvas, I reproduce it on the canvas, then do another sketch, or many until I find the one that will work besides the other one on the canvas. And sometimes I do a global sketch. But everytime there’s an evolution between the sketch and the final result.

What have you been working on recently?

On a series of colourful large canvases representing a couple making love. I’ve already made two, and still have one to do. You can see one in the galery Geraldine Zberro, in Paris. 8°. 3ttman and myself have just painted the entrance of the famous ;) atelier “LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES”, in Madrid, calle Noviciado.

And any interesting project coming up that you can tell us about?

I’m now sketching for a huge wall project in Curitiba, Brazil. The theme is “Everything you see”. It’s for the festival of theatre of Curitiba.

Some project you would love to do but didn’t have the chance or nobody has asked you to do yet?

Sculpture.

Can you turn us into some artists or something interesting that we should know about?

I really enjoy outsider art, and especially Carlo Zinelli. I also recently discovered the art of Henry Moore and really love his sculptures. And, of course , you should discover the art of people I mentioned in a previous question.

2 comments March 2nd, 2008 02:01pm Administrador

Richard Camara

We started receiving his newsletter and were fascinated by his work. Richard Camara (www.richardcamara.blogspot.com) is a true discovery for the inhabitants of these submarine location. He’s a prolific artist whose work is at the same time refreshing and mature. But Richard is also a clear example of a global citizen and he has succesfuly completed the probably quite tedious test of completing our monthly questionaire with a bunch of clever answers.

First, one thing we want to ask everybody for this interviews: When?, Where?, How? and Why? you started to consider yourself an artist or at least when did you first started to see that you wanted to draw, paint… for a living?

As far back as I can remember, drawing has always been a (big) part of my life. In fact the first drawing I recall doing was at a very early age directly on my parent’s living room coffee table with a wide range of unwashable colored crayons :) Not that I have chosen to draw. It´s something that came naturally. And it would be very strange not to do it, just as if you would pull out a fish out of the water and expect it to live… Every step I took towards where I am right now was always drawing related: I studied and worked as an architect for some time, developed different collaborations as an author both in comics and illustration, and I teach workshops as well. Let’s face it: for me, there’s no way out from drawing!

How is a day in your life?

Usually, very, very busy because I’m more of a multi-tasking person. My routine includes following-up email contacts, receiving and delivering assignments, sending new exhibition or publishing proposals, attending exhibitions, practicing judo, going to the movies, etc… and much drawing in a daily basis. I need a lot of discipline to conciliate my professional and personal life in terms of time and space, for 3 reasons:
First, I love this job and I can’t get enough of it. Second, my studio is home-based so I’m basically living in the “office”. Third, because as a free-lance, I’m always looking for new opportunities, so my working hours are never limited to a 9 am to 5 pm schedule.

You do work as an illustrator and I feel that fits very much your graphic style but how different is your commercial work to your personal purely artistic work? In which way is your approach different for commercial and personal work? Do you find it very different or are sides of a same creative activity?

I find it very difficult to draw a line between my commercial and personal work because I am very self-demanding. I am as critical and sharp as possible in both cases exploring possibilities to their fullest extent, as long as the client, art director or editor allows me to. Even when I get commissions that have little personal interest for me, I take it as a challenge: Not to do just what I like, but to like all that I do.

In your work there’s a predominance of characters. The obvious questions is what are your main influences coming from comic books and possibly classical cartoon animation but also it makes me think about how much of your childhood might reflect on your work. Can you tell us about those influences and the “child inside of you” when you create?

I was born in the early seventies from Portuguese parents but grew up in different countries always attending French schools. These circumstances determined my mixed-cultural references. I was as fond of the classical tales I could read on books (Charles Perrault, La Fontaine, Hans Christian Andersen, the Grimm brothers…etc.) as I was of all the modern cartoons and animation seen on TV and comic-books (Hanna-Barbera, Japanese animation, Walt Disney, Marvel Super-heroes and of course all the French-speaking Bande Dessinée, such as Astérix, Tintin, Spirou, Gaston Lagaffe, Lucky Luke …etc). All these were my main influences by the time I started drawing. Nowadays I tend to see characters everywhere I look. Might it be an anonymous person with superhero potential that I find every morning in the bus or my all time neighbour that might become an instantaneous artificial TV celebrity. When I create characters for comic books, daily newspapers, children´s books or merchandising, I try to design their personality making them stand for an ideal, a country, a policy, a group, a brand, a product, a memory, a fantasy, a culture, a dream or even a nightmare….

You mention French and Belgian BD… and also cartoons and comic book from the last decades of the last century. Each one in a different way but I can see other artists worldwide that share these influences. Do you feel connected by them (I guess that if I’m wrong maybe with other influences) to other artists of your generation and somehow part of a “scene”?

I´m aware that many artists of my generation share common interests and although I feel connected to them, I have never intended to draw in a specific retro style or be part of a scene. My work relates directly to my need to communicate, to relate to others.

You also do collage and you also use old illustrations combined in a peculiar Richard Camara way. So you do illustration, you do comic books, collage and I’m not sure if you also paint. Do you feel more of a drawer, a painter, an all-around artist… in other words, how’s your relationship to the different art disciplines nowadays when the line between them is often blurry?

I consider myself a visual artist that likes to work with the different art disciplines. For me, these are all concerned and available when I create.
Some people are more comfortable using the same style, technique, materials, while others are more interested in trying out different approaches, working in the crossroad of references, blurring the line separating established knowledges, looking for new meanings in your work. I am more like that. In my opinion, that’s when work gets increasingly interesting…

Precisely I would like you to let us know about the importance you put in the process of creating. Maybe it’s more complex than it appears or maybe not, maybe you focus more on the final result and use different processes as long as they take you there… Is it fast and wild and not rational at all, is it meticulous and slow, do you dismiss a lot of the stuff you do?… can you elaborate on this, please?

My creative process actually depends on the assignment. First I have to fully understand what the commission is about, and only then define the best way to get there. In other words, there is a time to think and a time to act. I might work directly on paper fast and intensively if what I pursue is a more spontaneous solution (this would be a 10% thinking and a 90% acting). In other occasions, if my intention is to obtain a more elaborate image, I do a lot of research and sketches before moving to the final drawing (this would be a 90% thinking and a 10% acting).

About your comic books, I’ve always felt like the way you need to use a sequential narrative and so on takes you to a whole different challenge and demands from you not only a graphical talent but also a storytelling one. I feel like that has to come necessarily from the need to tell something. What kind of stories do you need to get out and put into the form of a comic book? Do you usually work with writers that write the script?

It is just as simple as this: storytelling fascinates me. I am always willing to hear and tell a good story. And if you add my inclination to draw on top of that, there’s your comic! Before I start writing a script, the story have to challenge me as a reader, both in an intellectual and emotional level. And when I finally draw my own scripts, I like to explore the graphical side of story-telling, looking for different ways to read an image sequence, sometimes even blurring the line between illustration and comics. On the other hand, lately I have been working side by side with other scriptwriters and I find it very stimulating.

You also have been working, even more lately, with different galleries. How do you feel in that environment?

Very much at ease. So far they all went very well. Fortunately, illustration and comics are more and more considered an art form, unlike 10 years ago, when they were seen as minor disciplines. On the other hand, I was interested in art galleries because they gave me the opportunity to reach another public segment and expose a different kind of work that wouldn’t have found a place in a newspaper, advertising campaign or illustrated children’s book.

What have you been working recently? Any interesting project coming up?

My new year’s resolution is to draw on a daily basis, so I am keeping up different sketchbooks in which I try to draw what surrounds me, just for the pleasure of it. This might come up in one of the exhibitions I’ve booked for 2008.

Something you want to do that hasn’t been proposed to you yet?

Amongst many other things, I would love to experience being an in-house illustrator in a Japanese toy company and to be able to create a wide range of characters to be released in plastic or furry toys, t-shirts, books…etc.

Can you recommend some artists or initiatives, maybe not too well known, that you feel people should know about?

I would recommend an art portal called Anteism (www.anteism.com) that has being showcasing talented Canadian & International artists, through shows, books, limited edition art prints and collaborative group art projects focused on creating crossovers between artists around the world, such as the iMYGRATE project. In iMYGRATE, artists from all over the world were asked to create and send their character artworks to participate in a cross Canada migration, relying mostly in public participation. These characters were posted in public places across Canada, hoping that passers-by which found them, would help in their migration. The results are still to be known…

February 1st, 2008 12:28am Administrador

San

2007 has brought San (www.eseaene.com) many good news and and interview was in order. Since we collaborated with him for the “La alucinante unidad errante” project we curated he was already telling us about the show he was going to be having at Upper Playground in San Francisco. Those good vibes have confirmed and right now San is one of the most international of a new generation of Spanish artists.

First of all a question we usually make: when, where, how and why you started to do work in the streets?

Well, first of all it would be good to be realistic when referring to the beginnings: Me, like many others, started by simply writting my name, without really knowing why I was doing it. This is, without a doubt, the main aspect with a Graffiti writer. It’s important to note where I grew up: a small village called Moraleja in the province of Caceres. Imagine the kind of access I had there to what was going on at the time in Spain. We are talking early 90s when freestyle experimentation with more figurative characters was starting to happen. I was very incfluenced by those murals with characters and backgrounds that I would see in my many visits to Madrid and Barcelona. We could say that the phase I’ve gone through up until now it’s been one of “training” in which I’ve learned to discover that “why in the streets”. It’s only after many years that you come to realize the power and the game factor that street as a medium has. It’s an universe ready to be explored and, no matter how much I’ve painted there, I don’t think I ever reflected there what I really wanted to.

I guess it must be difficult to find the time and energy to stay active in the street when, like in your case, a demand for your studio work starts to be important. How do you find that balance and how does it fit, the studio work with the street work and how are they different?

Honestly, I don’t let that “conflict” bother me too much. I think it’s necessary to let the work pursue its own destiny. It’s only necessary that, in my case, after all that painting outside, my work requieres more of the reflexive side of studio work. Right now I’m working less in the street because I need to develop my work on a plastic level more carefully. Let’s say that I needed to truly inmerse into my own work in both a concepctual and formal level. It’s also decissive the kind of work one intends to do: My paintings need a longer execution time and thus, I cannot mantain a constant and visible activity out there like other artists do… but I’m preparing new experiments!

Well, the news is that you had a sold-out in the opening night in your show at Upper Playground in San Francisco. How’s fame treating you? ;)

Hahaha….”fame”! What a big word? Truth is that the fact that your work fits so easily and the first time in a place where the level of the game is that important is quite amazing to me.

Now, seriously, how was the experience?

Like I was saying, I was surprised by the reaction of the people in San Francisco. I’ve realized that there’s people (artists, gallery owners, collectors, critics and the general public) that are really interested in this, that there’s a fully established scene. And after all, what’s most satisfying is the interest of the public. Selling more or less is just the result of that interest and how the market revolves around that. Unfortunately there’s a big difference between Europe and the US in the way there’s a much clearer intention from many people over there to push this kind of art forward. What I was the more surprised with was seeing some of the artists I admire buy pieces from my show.

I can imagine that after this you might have more offers to participate in events, festivals, exhibitions… but mostly there will be a bigger demand for your studio work. Does this make you have a stronger work discipline? Some people prefer working under some pressure. Is this your case?

So far things have worked out with this people over there and we are talking about some dates for this new year besides some other projects. Truth is that they seem very interested in my work and we will be working together. Besides this I was trying to put more time into my studio work months before this but it’s difficult for someone like me, always up and down painting here and there. To lock yourself up in a studio means sacrificing many other things that come up along the way and besides you have to be able to support yourself during that time. As for the pressure, what can I tell you that you don’t know already? There’s people that work months in advance, then selects work and shows it and usually that kind of artist just does that. In my case I also do work as an illustrator and it’s hard to find time for everything so I have to embrace pressure and use it in my favor.

And precisely those projects that come up along the way such as events and festivals maybe that’s something that you won’t be able to do much anymore. Or maybe you still find interesting the experience of doing work live in front of an audience and knowing that it will be a piece that will be painted over or trown away after the event…

Those events usually have positive side elements such as travelling, hotels, friends, going out and having fun… you know! Well, seriously, it’s always good to participate in something that’s worthwhile from the creative point of view. For now things are taking shape pretty much by themselves and for me what’s important is to work on my stuff with freedom and that’s precisely what I’m doing right now.

One of the things that are more interesting in your work is the detailed line work. How’s your working process? Do you improvise a lot or do you always start from a previous sketch? Do you usually work in series? Are you a slow artists, as it seems from the detail in your work or are you more chaotic than it seems?

I’m a true maniac!!! When I was a kid and would draw at school I wouln’t put color in the drawings if I didn’t have the precise colors, I would sharpen the crayons after every stroke… that kind of things. And now, in a way, it’s quite the same. I draw every day in my sketchbooks, like a regular excercise. I take ideas from there for different uses. Lately I write to put my ideas in order. If you draw a lot, there’s always ideas that are left undone and I usually use those for the street like independent pieces and when it’s time to work on an idea there’s always room for surprises and ideas that can improve the original concept. Sometimes the piece can mutate and become something that looks completely different but the concept that lies underneath always stays the same.

Back to the fact that you travel a lot, how would you say that’s influencing you and your work?

The experience of travelling and meeting places, flavors, people… it mostly teaches you to look. In my case I feel this is making my work more solid and personal. One of the things that I consider more interesting in each artist is how his culture and where he’s coming from, before he knew he would become an artist, shows in his work. I grew up in this small village in touch with nature and organic textures and things not created by men. This, in a instinctive way reflects more and more in my work. And it’s the result of confronting my background with the visual experiences I have when I travel. In a way these experiences are making me “come home”.

In your work there are shocking elements and the overall sensation is that there’s something there that can be fully decyphered. How much do you expect people to feel something in particular and how much do you rather have each person make its own interpretation?

My work is completely based on symbols. We could say that my message is part of the very essence of my work but there’s not an ulterior concept beyond the forms. The message is in the images. That’s whny I try to choose elements that, together with others, create a discourse. Although people might see unpleasant things I always refer to the most common things from your everyday life. But you have to look for it. Recently I read an interview with David Lynch where he was “acused” of making films difficult to understand, very twisted. He answered that the movie industry has plenty of movies easy to understand and made just to entertai and how people that wouldn’t understand his movies are simply not used to think. His films are very detailed both in a technical and symbolic way. In my work there’s some of that. I work very much on the details and I feel the need to suggest and twist if necessary. We all have a detective inside.

So is there a recurring theme in your work?

Human behaviour, althgouh not in a explicit way but I always try to get you there.

And as for you work as an illustrator, how does it relates to your painting, how much drawing is there in you painting and how different both works are?

In the technical aspect I feel like I’m getting there, to a middle ground, at least with paintings and street work. Let’s say that there’s a symbiotic approach, part painting part drawing. My goal now is to make this appareance come true. On the other hand I love drawing and I will never stop drawing as a goal in itself and not just like a mean to an end. And in the more conceptual sense, I try my work to have a common coherent discourse, at least for now.

And back to your street work, how do you see the situation right now and compared to what it used to be?

When I started there was everything and everything was part of the same thing while now each particular scene is apart from the rest. I guess it’s only logical. I’ve always considered myself a Graffiti writer because I’ve done Graffiti but at the same time my work has evolved to the point where it is now and I think that you have to respect where you are coming from while not necessarly making it the main part of your discourse. In interested in a scene where you can create with absolute freedom, and no prejudices but always with a sense and a goal. I love Graffiti but it doesn’t mean it invades my artistic interest.

There seem to be a lot of people nowadays doing art in the streets but with a great diversity in their ethics and aesthectics. Where would you see yourself in that world, what would be your coordinates? What artists do you admire the most?

I couldn’t say… my coordinates but right now I’m focused in the more formal aspects of my work to give it still another twist. This way I go out to the street with a different vision and with it I can contribute without having to go for the latest trend of posters, stencils or purely conceptual actions. I cannot understand my street work without the technical side so I tend to do more meditated actions. Well, I guess those are my coordinates after all. I admire many artists in different ways. In the visual sense I find the work of Sat one, Herbert Baglione, Mars one, Vitché, Os Gemeos is very interesting but I love the discourse and tone of Banksy, Revs or my friend Blu.

Besides these shows in the US, what have you been doing lately?

I’m working on a couple of shows in the UK in february. After that I will try to organice things a little bit and do some more street work that I’ve intending to do for some time already, very teathrical, you’ll see…

Any plans for the future you want to tell us about?

My general plan is to work hard as a consecuence of my experiences. Every new year is a surprise and there’s always new people and travels and conversations.

What project do you want to do that still nobody has asked you to?

Any project where the curators would really research into my work and the final result would take an interesting shape for the public and myself.

Any particular artist or initiative you want to recommend?

I think that all the pieces in this world would have to open and look further towards different places more seriously and in a professional way. Start defending our ideas in our own area although that’s difficult in a country like this one. I feel more exchange between artists and more solid projects are possible. It’s just a question of hard work and energy so… let’s get working!

Add comment January 7th, 2008 10:00pm Administrador

Alex Trochut

It’s not like we pretend to know everything that’s going on around us but we do take pride in being in contact with new talented Spanish artists coming out, particularly of a certain kind (hard to explain which one!) so we were surprised to see some guy from Barcelona illustrate on of the latest issues of the magazine Beautiful Decay, that we have been carrying here in Subaquatica since their (and our) beginnings. Alex Trochut, (www.alextrochut.com) is that artist and he certainly deserves that attention and today it’s us that take a look at his work and have a chat with him.

Beautiful Decay Issue T (cover, detail)

First a question we always ask: why, when and how did you begin to consider yourself an artist?

I’ve never considered myself an artist. I started studying graphic design and I’ve always been interested in the more expressive side of this profession. So I think that it’s always been there, without ever seeing myself as anything but a designer and never ceased to feel like one. I try to approach my profession and new jobs in a natural and honest way, as a graphic designer, although I do use illustration as a tool.

The basic thing I wanted to discuss with you, because your work is a clear example of this, is how the line between graphic designer, illustrator and artist is so blurry. From which elements of each discipline do you nurture your work?

I agree with you that the hybrid conception of a designer is spreading more and more. The way I see it is that there’s a need by designers of expressing himself and, why not?, to use artistics approaches more personal and expressive. At the end of the day the labels: art, illustration or graphic design come, in a certain way, from the context where you find them and those contexts are changing and making borders not so defined. When we refer to working with images and visual communication many art techniques are migrating into this world. It’s not so much that bnew things are being done but where you find them. It’s a question of adaptation and change.

Psicotipo print for MadinSpain 07

A new generation of visual artists get comission jobs from agencies and brands and graphic designers show their work at art galleries. It seems that the distinction lies in the purely creative purporse of the work or if iot adresses some particular communicative goal other than those of the artist. Is there, in your case, a purely creative work or do you feel that you have enough to deal with with the work you do for your clients?

Truth is that working for other people and having them put new things in front of my eyes that otherwise I wouldn’t find by myself is a good way to evolve and learn. On the other hand I do feel the need to do something that departs from that commercial side of things and portray things that are more reflexive or simply outside the realm of the consumist act. In fact I’m preparing this show to be exhibited in London and I’m very happy because I can deal with m y own theme.

Cover illustration. Kult magazine # 4

A given job I imagine can be a challenge and as such something attractive and at the same time a limitation of your creative expression. How do you deal with this balance?

Many times it depends on how open the person you deal with is to see outside the established reference and as far as comission jobs go it’s always also a question of the barriers we build ourselves and how we use formulas that limit the job to a few specific possibilities mostly because the lack of time and the fear of trying new things.

Poster for Arjo Wiggings (with Marta Cerdá)

On the other hand I imagine that the more known you are the more jobs you get but the more clients ask for something they’ve seen that you’ve done before. How do you manage to avoid being narrowed down to do the same thing over and over again because of that?

It’s true. Very often clients look for what they want in my previous work and the portfolio becomes like a menu in a restaurant where no client is going to choose something that just isn’t there. That’s why I truy to diversify as much as I can and show different styles so the possibilities are open in each new project. Where I find the most freedom is with collaborations because of how you can take risks and experiemt and try new stuff so you can put a new dish in the menu. It stills depends very much on the client or art director you have as travel companion. There’s the ones that like travelling because they can discover new things and there’s the ones that just want to go see the places in the postcards.

In your website you refer to how your style changes with every new project. Is there still an Alex Trochut style that one can find in all your works and what would be the elements that stay and you identify with?

I guess you can still see the same hand behing every work and as common elements I would say that there’s some “horror vacui”, weakness for lettering and admiration for the graphic design from the 60’s and 70’s.

Lettering designs for the “Rolled Plus Gold” album by the Rolling Stones (Zip Design for Universal)

Besides the graphic designer-illustrator you are also a typographer and a huge fan of typography. There’s many, many letters in your work but you take them to a very elaborate and complex style. How do you find a balance between the aesthetic aspect of letters and legibility

Yes, very often I care m ore about the aesthetic over legibility and I find it difficult to get rid of a nice abstract form in exchange of a more legible letter but I do try to find a balance. Forgetting legibility altogether is a big price to pay but so is making the overall design weaker. I always find myself in that struggle, trying to contain my ilegible side. However I find it neccesary to go through this abstract aspect in letters in order to obtain forms that are both simple and legible as well as original.

It seems as if many of the new creative people all around are at the same time very different in style and very close in attitude in the way the preconception of what you are supposed to do and not are not as important anymore. Do you feel part of that same generation?, What other artsists and designers you admire the most?

Yes, in that sense I like to feel free to work without limitations or norms and I also think that the world of design is less and less limited to the traditional sacred and dogmatic principles of design. People I admire: Mario Hugo, Rinzen, Luca Ionescu, Serial Cut, Inocuo, Deanne Cheuk, Siggi Eggertsson, Aaron Horkey, Justin Thomas Kay, Parra, Si Scott, Dvein… and many others that are also a big influence on me.

Numeric alphabet (BBH for British Airways)

What have you been up to lately?

I’ve been designing some snowboards for K2, a campaign for The Guardian, a poster for the new edition of “If you could”, the cover for Taiwan magazine Xfuns, a campaign for Nike with VillarRosas,…

Any new plan coming up you want to tell us about?

My first art show :-)

Any project you would like to do but still haven’t been asked to?

I’d like to put my work in motion….

Any artist or initiative in particular you want to recommend?

Parra, -the one and original-, and his upcoming show at Vallery. If you are in Barcelona don’t miss it!

“Liquid Illustration” (personal project)

Add comment December 3rd, 2007 01:15am Administrador

Nuria Mora

Often eclipsed by the shadow of Eltono, the ubiquous and restless artist with whom she shares many projects and Nuria Mora (www.nuriamora.com) and her work have a personality of their own. Lately it’s more frequent to see her embark on her own solo projects, while still collaborating with Tono on a regular basis amnd it was about time that, after knowing her for longer that Subaquatica exists, we had a chance to talk with her and feature her work on its own right in this website.

First a question we always ask to artists who do art in the streets, like yourself: why, when and how did you begin to do art in the street?

I started painting in the street in Madrid around the end of 99 with Eltono. The reason was that we wanted to reach a lot of people easily, whether they were sensitive or not to art in general. The rest of the reasons to paint in the streets I found out later one but at first that was my motivation.

I can imagine that no matter how exciting it might be because it’s also risky and demands a lot from you, maybe you don’t feel that need anymore now that you have your studio work and so on. Do you feel as motivated now as back then to do art out in the street or maybe you do it also because it’s an integrating part of your work as an artists?

Actuall I would say that the street is my studio. I don’t feel lazy at all when it comes to go out and paint. But truth is that now that I’m busy with many projects I do it less frequently. At the same time all the projects I do in let’s say a gallery or a Museum, have the street very present.

For those not so familiar with your work, like you mention, you always try that your projects relate to actions you’ve done in the street for that same project or in the past. Tell me a little bit how do you work with that duality between the outside and the inside space.

For me it makes no sense working on a project for a art space and not use the street as a reference. I’m very interested in the whole issue of the use of public and private space and the analysis and experimentation around the intersection of both places.

I find very interesting how your work has that conceptual component without forgetting the importance of the aesthetics

Both Tono and myself make a political use of the image because of its context, the city and because there’s an intervention of public affairs in our actions. I intend to invite to reflection and calm. I would like to be more questioning than afirmative. I think that this is where the strength of suggesting things comes from. With the aesthetics I start from a pre-defined geometrical structure that has infinite possible shapes because this sign adapts to the surface chosen for the action with a dialogue with the architecture that supports it. My objective is give value to the surface.

Another aspect in your career is the proximity to the world of fashion. I feel it shows in your artwork and it’s very clear when you use patterns that could very well be patterns made for stamping on fabric. I don’t know how intentional this is and maybe you can tell us a little bit about your relationship with that world.

Right now I don’t have much contact with the fashion industry besides some projects like the one I did for Loewe in Japan or designs for some T-Shirts, etc… The main reason for incorporating those patterns with flowers and geometrical shapes to my paintings is the need to transform painting into an experience through which I want to invite people to think about our relationship with time and space. Time because the repetition of a given pattern suggest a long duration of the time needed for its completion and space because through drawing on it I make the architectonic space where the viewer will projects his experiences and ideas my own. There’s also this crussade clearly against the industrialization of the artistic language which is very common nowadays, particularly among street artists.

Whatever happened with Kiricol, the brand of purses you had? I had the feeling people loved it!

I killed Kiricol before it would kill me! It was very sucsessful but a decision had to be taken. It was growing very quickly and it was still a brand where we would manufacture the purses by hand between my mother and myself, from the prototype to sales or the whole production. We realized that we couldn’t do all that ourselves. It led me to take the decision of not becoming a businesswoman and making all the changes we should have made such as not doing exactly the things that we felt like for economic reasons or producing in China. Besides I was having more and more projects as an artist and just decided to quit it.

For you, beyomd the fact that both are worlds with a creative component, is there a relationship between fashion and art that you want to explore?

After working with Gavina Ligas in the Jocomomola brand I realized I had learnt very much from her and that’s one of the reasons I started to include patterns to my paintings. But besides that experience I don’t see that much of a relationship between these two worlds for me. Fashion has a function and art doesn’t but there are many areas where the two meet and there’s a field in which a taylor and an artist could both feel at ease.

And then you have a side of your work closer to the illustration world when you use ink or watercolours but that’s a lesser known aspect of your work. Maybe you are not as interested in working in that field or maybe it just doesn’t fit the projects you usually do…

Maybe a little bit of both! But, see, that’s such a coincidence because I’m participating in an exhibition in New York organized by Michael De Feo with other street artists but with the idea of showing lesser known aspects of each one’s work and I’m contributing with three 1 x 1 m watercolors.

Much of your work can’t be understood without mentioning Eltono with whom you sign many projects and have been collaborating for many years now. How does each one’s role work in your joint projects and what do you accomplish with these project that you can’t when doing solo projects?

After so long working together although now we need to explore different projects separately we’ve found that we make a very good team and I don’t think that’s going to change. We want to continue doing things as “Eltono y Nuria”. There’s nothing established in the way we assume different roles. It’s usually a very natural and fluent form of collaboration where the ideas take form with contributions from both of us. Of course there are aspects in which each one is better at but on a conceptual level we are fully syncronized. Often, once the concept is defined the actual work is done without having to discuss or even talk to each other anymore. A clear example is our recent wall in Cordoba.

And again about your street activity, what changes do you see between now and when you started in Madrid and in general?

My painting has evolved because the medium, the city, changes and also because I find new ideas every time I travel. In Madrid there are less and less spaces to paint, specially downtown which is where I paint more often but I’m lucky enough to travel very much and around the world there are many nice people although there’s also a lot of groupies and wanabees. When I started there wasn’t that many people but now it looks so cool and people see if under a different perspective. There’s much “telegraffiti” and not much research and there’s many people with their blogs… well I think you know what I mean.

Now and before, there’s always been a great diversity of styles and techniques among street artists. Where do you see yourself in this sense?, What artists do you admire the most?

Ooouch!! What a question!! I do this because I need it and I couldn’t tell you where I see myself. Somebody else would have to say that. And I admire Johnny Cash and Maria Callas, Millie Jackson a Gordon Matta Clark, Andy Goldsworthy, mis friends from ref=”http://www.equipoplastico.com/” target=”_blank”>El equipo plástico and the people of El cartel including Mutis, Manu this guy’s cousin… I don’t know… Pepa Prieto is the bomb!! and Mister “Eltono” too.

What’s your experience in the world of art galleries and what shortcomings do you see in the world of the art establishment for your kind of work?

My introduction into this world was natural and casual. One day, painting in the street Tono Arean saw us and asked us “is this something?”, we replied “Yes, it is” and the following week he and Marta Moriarty sent us an e-mail about their new project for a new gallery, Vacio 9 and invited us to have a beer with them at the Cervecería Alemana in the Plaza de Santa Ana. We all liked each other and they offered us to work with their gallery. It’s been 5 or 6 years already and our participation in that world has been progressive and we haven’t found any problems because we have a really good relationship with our gallery owner.

What have you been doing lately?

Last thing was the projects with the signs in Berlin in august. In september I went to London to paint a mexican restaurant called “Wahaca”. Then we did the sculptures at Matadero and I just got back from Austria where I painted with the people from Tagtool on the Danubio bank and doing night missions with that nice little toy.

Any new projects you want to tell us about?

Next thing is the collective show in New York, another one in LA with El equipo plástico and in december I go to Argentina.

What project you would like to do but didn’t have the chance so far?

Big walls in Madrid!! There’s one in particular but also many other ideas.

Any other artists that you want to recommend?

Take a look at the webiste of my gallery Vacío 9. Most of the artists are great. My favourites are Julio Jara, José Luis Vicario and Cara Montoya.

Add comment November 4th, 2007 09:47pm Administrador

Juju’s delivery

Juju’s delivery (www.jujus-delivery.com) is the brand name used by Julia Schonlau for her different creative activities. Her work, that started mainly as illustration jobs for different clients, has diversified and while her style remains as characteristic and personal, she has gained a well deserved status as a recognized artist with her own brand of t-shirts (only printed in small runs), collaborations for other brands, exhibitions in art galleries or presence in magazines and events. In any case, she’s the guest artist this month and this is her interview:

First of all when, where, how and why you started to consider yourself an artist?

I always wanted to be an artist but it took me a while to figure out in what field… I studied photography and conceptual fine art… but after I had my degree I immediatly returned to the simplicity of drawing and became an illustrator and character designer.

Do you feel that drawing is the most essential of all arts? Some people even go as far as saying that and artist that cannot draw is not a real artist or at least not a very talented one. What do you think?

For me the most essential form of art is music… drawing is beautiful because it is so immediate. I had no classical training in drawing and never went to a life drawing class. But I believe it’s more important to find your own style than trying to be good at photo realism. Of course a good foundation can be helpful but the challenge to overcome your shortcomings can produce more interesting results.

There’s a generation of artists worldwide that I think that share at least a somehow similar attitude and sometimes some aesthetics coordinates and you seem to be very active collaborating with artists from other countries. The collaboration with Rich Jacobs for example. Do you feel part of a scene-generation… and what do you think you share with other artists from that same “scene”?

I’m lucky to have been supported by Pictoplasma from Berlin and Rojo from Barcelona. They both are a merger of artists and through them I met a lot of like-minded people. There is a new kind of art out there and only a few galleries and shops worldwide, like Subaquatica, support it. The artists backgrounds are mostly Graffiti, Street art, graphic design or comic art related. And the work they do is somewhere between art and design, very playful and accessible. What I share with these artists is the intention to create something which can be understood without any knowledge of art and the interest in mass production to infiltrate everyday life. The collaborations came about because I love working with other people. That’s why I sometimes curate group shows and regularly release a Pocket Diary where I invite other artists to publish their work. Its a good way of staying touch with what’s happening, contacting artists whose work you respect and having fun with talented friends.

You live in Berlin, that seems to be a real hotspot when it comes to artistic activity. How has that affected or helped shape your own particular attitude as an artist?

Berlin has not defined me as an artist or had any influence on my work… but I benefit from what Berlin has to offer. I can afford a studio and whenever I want to do an exhibition there is an aboundance of alternative spaces. It’s really about knowing what you’re after cause everything is available in Berlin. Just recently I painted a petrol station from the 1920s with a some friends. The petrol station is now used as a gallery who asks the artists to do interventions with the building.

You do work as an illustrator and I feel that fits very way your graphic style but how different is your commercial work to your personal purely artistic work? Maybe once you reach a certain level of recognition you are more liberated from the client’s restrictions because if they choose you for some project is because they trust that you are capable of doing what they need without much input from them?

So far I have mostly been approached because of my style and enjoyed total freedom. Sometimes it is even easier working with the limitations of a brief and I do enjoy getting some direct feedback. My artistic work is a lot darker, more critical and layered with meanings. I work with slogans and images like in advertisements… but undermine them with confusion and doubt.

In your work there’s a predominance of characters and particularly kids and it also it makes me think about how much of your chilldhood might reflect on your work. Can you tell us about those influences and the child inside of you?

I don’t really know why I draw mostly children… it wasn’t a concious decision. I think I like the way children have no concept yet of good or evil, right or wrong. They don’t yet know what to make of everything until they are being told by others or find out themselves by gaining knowledge. And I like teenagers because they question everything and they’re so at war with themselves and the world. I want to talk about these basic experiences we all once shared. There is not a lot of my childhood in these drawings, even though my parents moved around a lot when I was a kid (Rwanda, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia…) I had a pretty sheltered upbringing. During my studies in London when I lived in the rougher parts of the East End I first developed the images and my style of drawing. I was seeking refuge from the hardships surrounding me by creating very sweet drawings. But I was also reflecting on that harsh reality by adding text and through the mood of the kids. After five years London had worn me down and I moved to Berlin where I found the freedom to really focus on my illustration.

So I guess there’s a balance between the cute appareance of you drawings and characters and the fact that you draw kids very often with a more sinister feel when one looks at your work more closely. How would you describe that combination between the happy, colorful and optimistic and the darker side of things?

It is very pleasing to create cute drawings but its even better to subvert these images. The result can be melancholic (… lost innocence) or funny (… through its absurdity). A drawing is more engaging when it has many layers and is at best ambigious. Ideally it creates a dialogue with the viewer and can be completed by his/her own experience of life.

It seems like apart from commercial work and personal work that can be sold at galleries and so on, many artists find another ways to portray their work in the form of assorted merchandising such as t-shirts, toys, etc… more accesible to most people because they are cheaper. I know that you have been producing your own small runs of T-Shirts and now a new series of prints but what’s your experience and “policy” in that field?

I started out producing my own shirts. Slowly I’m gaining recognition and now t-shirt companies approach me. In the recent past I have worked with Graniph (Japan), Concrete Hermit (UK) and Threadless (USA). My own line is more a sidekick of extremly limited but very affordable t-shirts. It’s about cooperating and keeping in touch with the most interesting shops around the world… I have no interest in breaking into the fickle world of fashion. The prints are being produced for a solo show here in Berlin. I will do a limited number of prints and send them out to a couple of places but as it’s the first run I’ll see how it goes. I almost prefer to see my drawings being worn on the street, taken to clubs, sweated into at gigs. A young woman from the green party has worn one of my shirts when she was holding a speech in parliament… that’s much better than being framed on the wall.

Not being an artist, every time I find an artists whose work I enjoy, I’m always intrigued on the creative process. In your case it looks very organic but maybe the process is more digital than it seems, and I don’t know if is it fast and wild and not rational at all, meticulous and slow, do you dismiss a lot of the stuff you do?… I don’t know, tell me a little bit about it.

Very good question… I work very fast and immediate. Doodles are usually the key to really good ideas. I don’t want to control my drawings too much… and try to let my subconcious suprise me. The first drawing is maybe imperfect but usually the most expressive one. To keep this expressiveness I try not to going over them too much. And the drawings that don’t grab me immediatly are dismissed. Doodles are the starting point to everything I create but I have to adapt them depending on the project. They can be cleaned up, redrawn or scaled on the computer and finally applied to different media.

What about the balance between the process and the objective you are trying reach? Which one you would say matters the most to you?

As I am very ideas driven and I do a lot of research into the best way of how to realise my objective. Before I embark on the process I mostly have a clear idea of what I want to achieve. Depending on the objective I work on the computer, with collage, screen prints, stencils and acrylic paint. So the process very seldom changes the outcome of an idea.

What have you been working on recently?

A group exhibition of wall paintings in Berlin, a ten page spread for Arkitip, Dunny designs for Kidrobot.

And any interesting project coming up that you can tell us about?

In november I will have a solo show at Supalife kiosk in Berlin.

Some project you would love to do but didn’t have the chance or nobody has asked you to do yet?

My favourite crazy project would be to put my drawings on an aeroplane as well as design the interior and the costumes for the stewardesses.

Can you turn us into some artists or something interesting that we should know about?

My favourite artist right now is Miranda July. Recently I rediscovered the photographer Jim Goldberg. For drawings check out the Pocket Diary for 2008 … there are lots of talented people in there!

Add comment October 1st, 2007 12:09am Administrador

Matt Sewell

From an exciting new generation of British illustrators, Matt Sewell is on a creative crisis with his website (www.mattsewell.co.uk) under re-construction and his mind set on his forthcoming long break and trip to Australia. Still he was glad to chat with us for our monthly interview.

You come from a background in Graffiti or art in the streets of some for, so first of all when, where, how and why you started to do work in the streets?

Street work really started for me around 2000 or something, not really sure. Thats when I properly started painting walls in Brighton and just moved it occassionally to the streets, there was no plan or anything, just a natural evolution. I used to try and paint letters, they were rubbish. So one day I was scanning my outlines for something to paint when I saw a character I had done and thought just do that instead, so after a few times a really found my feet and just carried on painting characters. This was before the whole character “street art” thing was any kind of a big deal, it was just me doing my thing and wanting people to see my work. Painting walls in abandoned warehouses, skate parks and far out halls of fame is all good, but at the time I was hungry for people to see my work, get charmed by it and fall in love with it, so I started painting and pasting on the streets. It seemed to work.

And… have you stopped entirely nowadays?

Err kinda…it would be an out right lie to still say I do street stuff… there has been the occasional quiet hit but other things in life seem more important at the moment, everything in its right place and all that. I still paint walls though, I’ve actually just got back into painting letter pieces. I got completely bored with everything I do looking “Sewell”. My Graffiti bored me, cutting back and everything bored me… now its all about mulsh fills, simple outlines and psych.

You do work as an illustrator and I feel that fits very way your graphic style but how different is your commercial work to your
personal purely artistic work? How would you define the way your creative output steps on those two different ways?

I feel my commercial and personal work have become too interwined with each other. An oversaturation and need to make my art be my income has caused a confusion between the two…so I’m stepping away for a while.

In your work there’s a predominance of characters. Do you have a collection of them with their own personality that you use here and there or you come up with new ones for every new piece?

Nope, not really. Certain things have been used time after time, mainly just because I like the form and colours. Its that repetition thing also, trying to get it better and better.

Also, there are a lot of elements from nature in your work, many animals and landscapes. Could you elaborate on how’s your relationship with the urban and the natural and how that reflects on your work?

I grew up in the sticks, it was amazingly easy to get out to woods, fields and rivers. The family house was a derelict farmhouse for many years, with its own few field surrounded by council estates… that was my domain. So with that in mind i guess its only natural that my work features bucolic landscapes and british animals. I left when I was 18 and have lived in many cities all-over the UK, but I still hark for the countryside.

Your characters, the use of color, the overall impression your work gives is of a “cute” type of approach, somehow similar to the kind what Japanese like so much. Would you say that you are inspired by Japanese manga and illustration or is it a british kind of cute? Also, do you deliberately try to portray a happy, optimistic view of things with your work?

Yeah I can completely see how people see my work as cute manga, but the thing is I have barely even seen any manga films. I love Totoro and all the other Miyazaki films and that Japanese design/character interface. But I personally feel my work gives more of an impression of 60/70’s childrens illustrated books. That’s what my major inspiration was and still is, I dont think you can beat the era of European illustration. You had all these wacked out hippies finally getting paid and the output was for children, lucky us… The joys of being born in the 70’s. And yeah I do try and portray an optimist vibe through my work, especially the prints and canvases. I want people to be able to look at it get a spark, a little smile, get reminded of good times you know. I’ve tried to do dark, but it doesnt quite work. I do think though, that I have not expressed everything yet and am actually struggling at the moment. As I feel I wanna cover new ground but unable to with the work I have been producing for the last 10 years… So I am taking a break for a few years, stop doing illustration completely, packing my bags and heading off on an adventure to the other side of the world with my lovely girlfriend.

Not being an artist, every time I find an artist whose work I enjoy, I’m always intrigued on the creative process. In your case is it fast and wild and not rational at all, is it meticulous and slow, do you dismiss a lot of the stuff you do?… I don’t know, tell me a little bit about it.

Its usually pretty quick, especailly with illustrations.. With bigger paintings it all depends how long I have got. Everything begins in the sketchbook, it is ALL about drawing. There is nothing better than getting paid for a week to paint a big wall, thats when I’m at my happiest. Taking time to make time.

About balance between your personal and commercial work, do clients usually ask you to do your “own thing” when contacting you because they know your personal work and that’s precisely what they are looking for? Does is depends from the client? Do you expect to someday feel as free to do whatever you feel, no matter if it’s a comissioned work or not? Do you think the challenge to create what the client needs also enriches your work and you enjoy the restrictions commercial work has for that reason?

It is very rare I get asked just to do my thing. But when it happens its ace, such as my work with Gravis. With my illustration, I get approached with almost complete ideas and I just have to cleaver my style into it. I guess that summons up the illustration industry completely for me, its not half as creative as people think. Commercial work seems to be the bug bear of most current day artists, it is such a shame to see so much dull, badly exacuted work getting commissioned. But man’s gotta eat and records aint gonna buy themselves.

What have you been working on recently?

My finger-picking, climbing mountains and getting some money together to travel.. Basically lots of non art things. But I have been combing Brighton beach for bits of wood to paint for a micro show at Toylife and doing artwork for my favourite stoner-pop band The Beep Seals.

And any interesting project coming up that you can tell us about?

I’m involved with a small record label, Transparent Face. Doing artwork and other bits, next year should see a steady stream of releases. My new Gravis trainers and bags should be out soon too.

Some project you would love to do but didn’t have the chance or nobody has asked you to do yet?

Record an album. Make a film. Start a magazine. Fly a boat to the moon.

Can you turn us into some artists or something interesting that we should know about?

art: http://www.oliverhibert.com/

music: http://www.voiceofthesevenwoods.com/

3 comments September 2nd, 2007 03:38pm Administrador

Steven Harrington

This month our featured artist is Californian designer and illustrator Steven Harrington (www.stevenharrington.com). With an imagery connected to 70’s aesthetics and its organic feel you would say his style is retro while we believe it’s, in fact, one of the freshest artists around so we decided to interview him for this site.

First of all: Why, where, how… did you become an artist?

I have a few theories. It may have started the day I was handed my first crayola crayon or maybe it was that hand-print Christmas tree I made when I was 5. I’ve always really liked making imagery and playing with color, and for some reason I just kept on doing it, right through middle school, past high school and then I really decided to get ‘serious’ about it in college. I guess you could say that’s when it became a reality. I met Justin Krietemeyer while attending art school, and shortly after graduating we formed National Forest (www.nationalforest.com), a collaborative design studio specializing in art direction and print design. National Forest keeps me busy, but I still, somehow, make time to work on personal artworks and prints and things. It’s been a pretty natural progression.

It looks like much of your personal visual universe comes from your childhood. And I would say also influences from the 70’s and hippy-psychedelic culture graphics. Is this so? Could do try to detail the ingredients in the mixture of influences that your work feeds from?

My childhood has had a tremendous influence on my personal works. I constantly find myself digging back into my ‘memory banks’ for inspiration and ideas. I feel that young people have a natural ability to see the animate world around us; they relate to objects as if they had a character and as if they were alive. Later on you are taught quite the opposite: wood is dead, fruit can’t breathe, the wind isn’t a person… the only other relevant beings are humans. I guess I’m trying to find my way back to my younger days of thinking. I want to be able to see the world as it was before I was taught that reason and logic and science had to be superimposed on the universe. It seems like somewhere along the way most of the westernized world has lost the sense that fire, mountains, water, rocks and the whole of nature is a dynamic living organism.

And there are a few elements that keep showing up in your work: triangles, circles and squares, winks, animals… I guess you want viewers to make their own assumptions but any clues on what all these represent in your world?

I enjoy using reoccurring imagery. The triangles, circles and squares are easy… According to Ed Emberly, all things visual are created using these three simple forms. I agree with Mr. Emberley. As for the other things, I like to give myself time to develop and explore simple ideas. Many of the elements I use have a lot to do with multiplicity. A puzzle piece represents connectivity and community because it’s identity is found when connected to another piece. A wink is a gesture with many meanings depending on the receiver, the sender, and the context in which it is given. A circle, square, and triangle mean a whole lot more together as complex shapes than as individual ones.

And I also noticed that there’s not just many animals in your work but also quite some other elements from nature. I don’t know if you come from an urban background but you live in a big city now, like many of us. How’s the relationship between you-the city-nature and how does it reflects on your work?

I grew up camping a lot with my parents. Spending time at places like Big Sur, Yosemite, San Elijo, El Capitan−pretty much all of the California state parks. So I love nature and being outdoors. Don’t get me wrong. I think that Metropolitan areas have a lot to offer culturally within the arts, music and film. And although I enjoy living and working in Los Angeles I would rather surround myself with sky, mountains, ocean and forests. It just feels more comfortable to me, and this is why I like to use it in my work.

I guess we could say you are a proper artist probably just because you feel like one (or maybe you don’t) but also because of the fact that you do purely personal work and show it in art galleries and so on. But you also have this company, National Forest design studio with your partner Justin Krietemeyer. First question is maybe obvious: How do you manage to do both things: the commercial and the “purely artistic” stuff?

It’s hard to balance life in general, but you just have to make the time for the important things. When everything’s important, then you have to make the time for everything. Balancing National Forest and Art-time is the easy part. Its fitting it family time, girlfriend time, beer time, party time, cooking time, healthy time, love time, happy time, that’s the hard part.

Also, do clients ask you to do the same type of art they see in your personal work when they ask you to do something for them? Does is depends from the client? Do you expect to someday feel as free to do whatever you feel, no matter if it’s a commissioned work or not? Do you think the challenge to create what the client needs also enriches your work and you enjoy the restrictions commercial work has for that reason?

Depends on the Client. Sometimes clients want a signature art piece and sometimes they just want something designed or art directed really well. I like to do both and the balance between the two is important. I can’t imagine only making commercial work, nor can I imagine producing solely personal work. The two fuel each other. The restrictions of commercial work can be great because it tends to push me out of my ‘comfort zone.’ I like that it forces me to make things that I wouldn’t typically make. At the same time, I enjoy the challenge of making personal work. I am my toughest client. Making work for myself teaches me a lot about my own being, a self-realization in a sense.

I would like you tell us about your creative process. How’s the balance between analog and digital, between the process and the result,… can you elaborate on this, please?

Really, all I need is a pen, a piece of paper and a table to start my projects. Some ideas are scribbled in a sketchbook I keep next to my bed. Most of the work I make at National Forest for clients is created within the computer, so I love being able to make things for myself by hand. By the time I get home to work on my own art I reach for a pen before a keyboard. I’m not saying that I don’t use the computer for personal work; I’ve just recently made an effort to try and do more drawings instead. The balance between the digital and the analog is a fine line. I feel it’s very important to always let my viewer know that there is a human being behind the work.

What have you been working on recently?

Slowly but surely making new work for an upcoming art show scheduled for November of this year. Always making new things for the ‘Sixpack’ clothing line in France. I’ve been contributing to a bunch of new publications as well: two new books put out by Die Gestalten Verlag, one very large book published by Victionary and several books put out by Maomao Publications. I will be releasing a three-color screen print through Youworkforthem very soon here and possibly a couple of pieces with the radical dudes at Kidrobot. National Forest has been very busy as well−some new things with Burton recently and collaboration between NF and WeSC in the future.

And any interesting project coming up that you can tell us about?

I do have several art shows planned for the next year or so. The first is a two-man show with Justin Krietemeyer. We will be showing at ‘Subliminal Projects” in Los Angeles CA mid November. I will be releasing a bunch of new prints through my online shop ‘You&I’ shortly after, so keep your eyes peeled. The second art show is a solo show scheduled for May of 08 at the Lazy Dog gallery in Paris. Lionel from Sixpack.fr is helping out with support/sponsorship so we’ve got a bunch of really exciting things planned for that one. I might even see you in Spain around that time if everything works out.

Some project you would love to do but didn’t have the chance or nobody has asked you to do yet?

I’d be really interested in creating three-dimensional sets for a large-scale fantasy play. It would be radical to build a life-sized world of fictional environments using old world gadgets.

Can you turn us onto some artists or something interesting that we should know about?

I went on a camping trip to Yosemite and stumbled on a little shop in the woods that had the most amazing collection of mugs with owl designs on them for a quarter each. I bought every single one. I fought with my girlfriend over who got to keep which mug since we both discovered them. She ended up with the best one.

July 31st, 2007 11:40pm Administrador