lunedì 4 agosto 2008

Interview with Gerard Armengol

q)What is your name?

a)My name is Gerard Armengol

q) Where do you live and work?

a)I am living in Mallorca (Balearic islands), but i think it’s gonna be only for a temporarily period of time. I have lived in Barcelona for eight years and i also spent 6 months in Baltimore. So i am one of those who like changes and my work depends on where i’m living. I think it’s very interesting when the place you’re living in takes a part of you and influence your work.

q)What is your creative process like?

a)I use to go around with a little sketchbook where i make drawings. Some of them are rough and just quick ideas, but others are more delicated and maybe later i’ll be able to use them directly from the sketchbook or as a point where i can start something. Under my point of view, this kind of drawings means no other thing but reflections. Some of them will be the beginning of a project, but some others will be just there in the sketchbook and you never know if you’ll use them anymore.
Other times, i have a quick and fresh idea and i go straightly with the job.
So this sketching exercise provides my work with my own experiences and i find it very important. I mean you can use your sketchbook in a party or you can use it in a boat. Whatever.

q)What is your favorite medium?

a)I like colour pencils a lot, but i don’t have any favourite medium cause i am opened to the experimentation. I also like to work with acrylic, but like i said, i believe in the experimentation in practically all the fields as a beginning of a line.

q)What is your current favorite subject?

a)Well, i don’t have a “favourite”one, i just like to reflect about daily stuff. You know, the things that have always been thought by people who reflect. I try not to separate my live experience from my drawings and sometimes it gives them a surrealistic nature cause my real live interacts with a fiction live. I think it’s very important to have a good sense of humor to understand my work.


q)How long does it take for you to finish a piece?

a)It depends. Sometimes I go really fast but other times I am slower…

q)What has been your biggest accomplishment so far?

a)I don’t know. Probably when i decided to go to Baltimore and then just let it flow, cause it opened my mind and it was a graphic liberation for me. Since that i make desicions faster when i work.
I ‘ve been awarded a few times, so i think that’s important too.

q)Are there any contemporary artists that you love?

a)Yes, there’s a lot of them. Too many to write it down… They come from different disciplines too…

q)Can we buy your art anywhere?

a)I am thinking on do that in my blog. I will give it a new face pretty soon so I’ll probably add a section to buy stuff like original paintings on wood or canvas, reproductions of my work as postcards for example, t-shirts, independent zines...
Now, you can do it if you mail me.

q)Anything that people should know about that we don’t??

a)mmm…no. Well, about what?

q)What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?

a)I think to work. Even if you’re not in a good mood, just keep on something. Nobody has to wait for inmediate results in their work.

q)What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?

a)I don’t know. Probably just hang out with friends or take a look to their new work. I can buy a comic and enjoy it. I also enjoy talking about interesting things and reading. Listening music...Or just working again on something...Some of these things can launch you.


q)How do you describe your work to those who are unfamiliar with it?

a)Well, i am working on lots of projects right now and i’ve got to make my blogsite a better place, with recent works and all that stuff, but if a have to describe it, i would say people will notice i have different ways to communicate things. It depends on the assignment. And as i said, it’s basic to have a good sense of humor to understand my work. Not to take live too seriously.

q)What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?

a)People who gave me the most important advices were Arnal Ballester (Escola Massana, Barcelona) and Alain corbel ( M.I.C.A., Baltimore MD ) . So I think that’s why I consider them my menthors. There was a time when I was in the Architecture School of Barcelona (E.T.S.A.B.) and I learned a lot there. I learned how to look at things, to tune my eyes.
I also had this kind of self-taught training in some ways…

q)Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?

a)I wouldn’t be able to imagine a world without something to draw.

q)Who are your influences?

a)Too many

q)What inspires you to create?

a)It depends. Could be a movie, a book or just an idea that you spend time reflecting on…
Inspiration it’s fanciful.


q)…your contacts…

a)
http://gerardarmengol.blogspot.com


+34 661 814 878

Interview with Lee Roswell

q)What is your name?

a)Lee Harvey Roswell.

q) Where do you live and work?

a)I live and work in San Francisco, Ca., though my girlfriend and I have been planning a move your way, to Italy that is, possibly mid-2009. But who knows?

q)What is your creative process like?

a)These days most of what I do starts a quick, very crude cartoon drawing. Just getting the idea down. I might have specific people in mind for characters, and then I go about finding appropriate locations, wardrobing the models, and getting them to understand the scenario (their actions and motivations), and the scene is photographed. From there I do some further adjusting on the computer, and take it onto canvas, redrawing things and building up an image with my oil paints.

q)What is your current favorite subject?

a)I find influences eveywhere. No lack of points of curiousity. Lately I've been finding a lot of ideas in Buddhist teachings, particularly the many books published by and about the Dalai Lama. So, concepts like interdependence and shifting perspectives, those sorts of concepts, have been active in the creative process.

q)How long does it take for you to finish a piece?

a)Anywhere from a single sitting to a month or longer.

q)What has been your biggest accomplishment so far?

a)I don't know what my greatest accomplishment would be. Probably something totally unrelated to painting. Maybe just being here, pushing myself further, and finding some happiness in my work and what I do. I don't think the artistic process is inherently a means of happiness, so if you can set yourself in that direction that's a good start. It's important to give your work 100%, but it's also important to create happiness for yourself and others.

q)Are there any contemporary artists that you love?

a)I really like Mark Tansey's work. He's got great technique, beautiful compositions, and his concepts are both brilliant and full of humor.

q)Can we buy your art anywhere?

a)The best place to buy my work is straight through me at
www.leeharveyroswell.com. There's also Justin Giarla of the Shooting Gallery in San Francisco, www.shootinggallerysf.com.

q)Anything that people should know about that we don’t??

a)Yes, there is plenty you need to know, but you are not ready yet grasshopper. No, kidding. Nothing comes to mind.


q)What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?

a)Advice... Great works of art do not come easily. So, creating a strong self-criticism towards your work is needed. You may also find that you have to eliminate certain aspects of your life that serve as extra baggage to make yourself equipped for the level of commitment required. I don't even answer the phone for days on end if I need the time. But with that in mind, I also recommend developing a commitment to those aspects of life not so much directly related to painting but that make you a healthy being (physical excersize, making yourself helpful to others, and so on). It's easyto lose sight of that in all your disipline.


q)What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?

a)I'm compelled in what I do, so if frustration has my energies flagging, I might turn to another project temporarily, and come back to the troubled area later. Sometimes backing up helps.


q)How do you describe your work to those who are unfamiliar with it?

a)I'd tell someone who was unfamiliar with my work that I try to paint the meat and bone of human existence, which has a lot to do with suffering... and comedy.


q)What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?

a)I'm self-taught, which means I wasn't taught by an elite of teachers, but by a wide array of sources. Daydreaming has been incredibly instructive, pouring through books, being observant in the presence of others in the trade, contemplating those two eyes in my head and how they work. My training has been life. And I'm still an amateur.


q)Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?

a)Air is a hard one to imagine living without, but no, there's no tools or materials I couldn't live without. Art is not essential to survival, though survival in it's more precarious moments could be called an art.


q)Who are your influences?

a)Well, painters obviously, and of them I love the Baroque painters, I really admire a lot of the futurist, surrealist, impressionist, cubist movements, ect. ect. Beyond painters, I'm very influenced by classic literature. I love theatre and film and photography. Comedians and humorists. It's a fairly bottomless subject the more I think of the things that have influenced me.

q)What inspires you to create?

a)Just the sense of being part of creation. Monkey see, monkey do.




q)…your contacts…

a)
www.leeharveyroswell.com

www.myspace.com/leeharveyroswell

venerdì 1 agosto 2008

Interview with Marcio Matos

q)What is your name?

a)Márcio Matos

q) Where do you live and work?

a)I live in Odivelas – Portugal…but I’m from Azores

q)What is your creative process like?

a)Well...It depends..
But it’s a disaster…

q)What is your favorite medium?

a)Acrylic

q)What is your current favorite subject?

a)Don’t have…or maybe
Last week was Mystic stuff...


q)How long does it take for you to finish a piece?

a)Well...depends...but usually it’s fast...I do things on impulse...if I leave them around
Usually I always tend to paint them over and over again…

q)What has been your biggest accomplishment so far?

a)To be on the hospital for almost a month .. and return back home

q)Are there any contemporary artists that you love?
a)Everybody and none .

q)Can we buy your art anywhere?

a)At
http://www.trema-arte.pt/ and from me

q)Anything that people should know about that we don’t??

a)No…
but I hate making portfolios and taking pictures of my work
and if you have any doubt write me. I´m friendly.

q)What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?

a)Work ..work ..work..and work again

q)What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?

a)Nothing...
I just wait...until it starts again...
it always does...
sooner or later

q)How do you describe your work to those who are unfamiliar with it?

a)Hot sexy stuff!!


q)What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?

a)Training?
Well..work , work, and work
That was it…

q)Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?

a)It's not a tool or a material ….but I guess I don’t live without sex and music

q)Who are your influences?

a)My life

q)What inspires you to create?

a)Naked Women.


q)…your contacts…

a)
www.marciomatos.pt.vu