My Creative Life
I really like to read about the “normal” life of artists and to see that every daily experience that seems trivial to them has become part of their creative development, leading them to express art in one way or another. After all, creativity comes from the most unexpected sources. Creativity is everywhere!
This is my story so far:
CHILDHOOD: I did not study much at school, but I always passed everything. I watched a lot of black and white TV and played non stop with my sister (oh yes, Chile in the 70s. That should be another blog post).
UNIVERSITY: I studied graphic design, thinking it was more like art but at that time, computers took over and I didn’t like using computers at all. I realized that my thing was actually artistic work using my hands.
At that time I also made my first abstract paintings – wild and strange creations with hand-made paper -. I devoted myself completely to experimenting with that for a long time and I even wrote a small thesis about the artisan work in design (spoiler alert: a very bad one).
AFTER UNI: I worked as graphic designer with computers, hated it. Quit. Traveled a lot. Arrived in Barcelona and fell in love with someone at the same time as with printmaking. Awesome times!
Then came the day when I signed up for a printmaking course for a few months and when I entered the workshop for the first time, I simply felt that this was my place! Clara Oliva would become my teacher for many years, and to her I owe everything I know in printmaking as well as in expressing myself graphically through abstracts. Several years later, I had a hard time making the decision to go to a workshop on my own and get away from her expertise. I could never separate completely: until last year I was still going to her workshop to do aquatints, methodical and precise technique that contrasts and complements my more improvised and chaotic way of working.
THE STUDIO IN BARCELONA: I left my teacher’s studio and started by myself in a gorgeous old workshop that I shared with other artists. Prolific times developing my work and experimenting with different techniques, work styles, formats and colors.
I generated some great bodies of work and some very bad. I did courses, open workshops and participated in many competitions that allowed me to exhibit my prints at Krakow Triennial in Poland, Guanlan Prints in China and many others. I started selling online.
TODAY: I have less certainty than when I was 20, but I definitely prefer this. I no longer have a printmaking studio due to a slow-life change: I moved from the city life of Barcelona to a small village in South of France. Now I only have a small desk and I have dedicated myself to making illustrations and small paintings. Adapting to working online for my store and website has been quite difficult: the online art world seems a bit false and pretentious to me, but I have to adapt and manage to stand out with honest works. I miss my print studio, but to be honest, not as much as I would have believed it because I found painting! The result was very daring and elegant within so many spots and brushstrokes, I will continue working on it!