“The work that I do is joyful.”
How do you imbue storytelling within your work?
At the beginning, I just wanted a job that paid. After, I started to want to do things that reflected some kind of value or idea. I needed to see myself within the work.
It took me years to establish a studio and have a voice and to be able to push my own work. I really come from a place of animation and advertising, where there is a lot of feedback and revisions. Over the last few years, I feel like the paintings and illustrations split me into two different people. It’s all living in the same universe though.
What are some films that may have subconsciously influenced your art?
I love film, but I think I was too young to really study them in that way. At that age, I was into a lot of stuff. I think LA — having been in a punk rock band, where you have the mentality of doing everything yourself — that intention stuck with me.
Till this day, I think I do almost everything myself in the studio, besides the silkscreens. Even when I finish a painting, instead of going to a gallery, I just open up the studio for people to come see.
Aesthetically, LA is so different than Buenos Aires. It’s like a European city, in that it has a different pace. It’s more of a huge residential area. Coming here, culture is king. I started paying attention to graffiti, American art, Milton Glaser and a lot of illustrators. Seymour Chwast, Bob Gill, all the Push Pin stuff — work from the ‘50s to ‘70s from graphic designers that wanted to do something that is visually appealing. I don’t like the more utilitarian work.
Your art shows a designers eye in the way the compositions are structured. When looking at the super-sized hands and thumbs, how would you describe your own art?
I’ve struggled making statements and defining the work, to be honest. I started painting two years ago, not only as a medium, but the subject matter. So it’s just me doing whatever I want. When I think, ‘what do I want to paint or what do I want to say? How should the art look?’ Sometimes I have the answers but it is very rough.
The work that I do is joyful. It’s very positive and light. Sometimes you smile, sometimes it’s silly. It’s not a brainy thing, it comes from emotion. There is something about that, that I really resonate with.
I love bright colors, they make me feel happy. I totally feel like a teenager, in that, I’m still learning. I’m a graphic designer trying to do something with painting. The silkscreen prints were the easiest way for me to do something that looks more like myself or my own voice. Who’s going to draw hands? It’s such a random thing to do. Just the physicality of drawing is very mechanical, like meditation.
I work a lot in animation and you put stuff out and it’s gone in a week. I think the prints and paintings connect better with people than advertising, which can be superficial. I really try to create work that has a positive vibe.
[flexi-common-toolbar] [flexi-form class=”flexi_form_style” title=”Submit to Flexi” name=”my_form” ajax=”true”][flexi-form-tag type=”post_title” class=”fl-input” title=”Title” value=”” required=”true”][flexi-form-tag type=”category” title=”Select category”][flexi-form-tag type=”tag” title=”Insert tag”][flexi-form-tag type=”article” class=”fl-textarea” title=”Description” ][flexi-form-tag type=”file” title=”Select file” required=”true”][flexi-form-tag type=”submit” name=”submit” value=”Submit Now”] [/flexi-form]
wazup.