Featured Artist – Daniel Stolle


Artwork by Daniel Stolle

What is your earliest memory of creating art? (or drawing as a child)
I remember drawing was very important in kindergarten. It was done very regularly and always to a specific topic, thinking of that it seems like a good preparation for being an illustrator, though it probably was not their intention in those days. One of my earliest drawings I remember doing was of a car and I was really obsessed with the profile of the tires.

What type of environment do you prefer to work in? At home or in a studio? Listening to music?
I have a shared studio since autumn 2009, and I like it a lot. Working alone at home can become a bit creepy at times. However I found out, that I can also work acceptably well even while travelling. So I guess the environment has not such a big effect on the work. I often listen to music but also audiobooks, though they sometimes interfere a bit with the drawing. But they are important since I otherwise hardly ever pick up a book.

As a working illustrator, do you still find time to create art for yourself?
Yes I do. I think creating a great drawing is very hard. Creating a great drawing for a client with all the restrictions (subject matter, colors, format, audience, time …) is naturally even harder. Making personal works is a way to work without these restrictions and also creates a reference that can help and support the commissioned work. It helps you in finding ways to do things.

What type of transition needs to be made between creating art for yourself and creating art that is commissioned?
I only know what makes it different. The work for clients has to be often very bold, clear, all-out, quickly understandable, and often has to explain or depict a complex issue. Whereas in my own work I spend a lot of time putting in a single pose or facial expression or some other detail. A woman and a dog are a great subject for a personal drawing for me, but of course the approach is very different from an illustration about “exchange traded funds”.

How do you deal with negative criticism?
Often I know the shortcomings someone points out already very well, which does not mean that it is always easy to admit to them. And of course I might curse over the seventh correction or alteration a client requests but after that is done I sometimes even happen to be happy, that someone pushed me that far. There are also simple ways to make that easier for both sides. I do not like a simple “No, different please!” – I want to work with somebody, so they have to play the ball back, include me, explain to me and let me explain … then I am happy to go all the way until we get it right.

What are your goals for your future as an illustrator?
I am struggling still a lot with the way I am drawing and want to become more confident and better with that.


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News published at 1:00 am, Monday, May 13th, 2013

Featured Artist – Gary Sawyer


Artwork by Gary Sawyer

What type of environment do you prefer to work in? At home or in a studio? Listening to music?
I had a great studio in New Zealand sharing with other illustrators. It was nice to have someone to annoy in the afternoon when I needed a break. Since I’ve been back in the UK I’ve been using our spare room. It’s disorganized, has poor natural light and the worst floral carpet I’ve ever seen.

What type of artwork do you have hanging in your home?
A Sarah Maxey poster I liberated from a billboard outside my studio in Wellington, a Sarah Maxey screen print, a couple of etchings from an old flatmate and lots of framed postcards.

What is your favorite way to get out of a creative block?
I live a couple of minutes away from a National Trust park so a 30 minute cycle through the woods there usually does the trick.

If you had to describe your body of work in one word, what would that word be?
Wobbly.

What magazines do you personally read?
Varoom, Printmaking Today and the Guardian Weekend.

What question do you wish an interviewer would ask you?
Did you make any New Year’s resolutions?


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News published at 8:45 am, Monday, April 29th, 2013

Featured Artists – Anne Isabelle


Artwork by Anne Isabelle

How and when did you know that you wanted to become illustrators?
We had absolutely no idea that we would become illustrators when we first met at Arts School. We started out doing design, and we completed a common diploma on a “double” theme. We experimented working with four hands and loved it, so we took a studio together and continued the experience in many different directions.
One day, an editor propose for us to illustrate a (very local) book, the experience was so enjoyable that we decided to go ahead and become illustrators. Now, illustration has become our principal activity – and the most fun.
The funny thing is that at school we did all the workshops, we tried all the techniques… except for illustration.

Where do you draw your inspiration from?
From looking at people and from the street. We love to talk and discuss projects together. We prefer to do this in a café watching people pass by, observing the infinity of expressions and looks, appearances and styles.

What type of environment do you prefer to work in? At home or in a studio? Listening to music?
It depends on the work we have to do. We prefer to work at home when we have to create images, but we really loved being in the studio directing animation projects. It is nice to meet the people you work with.
Our environment has changed a lot during the last few years. At the beginning we shared a studio in Strasbourg, a big, old, wonderful apartment, a peaceful bubble! Next, we went to Paris to work for two cartoon companies, involving teamwork with many people all the time. We used the Parisian cafés a lot to talk about our work. Later on, we worked in a studio, under the roof on the seventh floor of a beautiful Parisian building, with less space but a great view!
At present we prefer to work at home because we have both had children in the past couple of years. Luckily we have skype to keep in touch and stay close.

As working illustrators, do you still find time to create art for yourselves?
Yes, it is very important for us to keep time aside to create something else. And it is very important to create individually, or with someone else. We try and do it in the evenings and sometimes into the night, because we don’t have enough time to do everything we want.

What type of transition needs to be made between creating art for yourselves and creating art that is commissioned?
A technical transition. Our commissioned art is produced on our Macs. When we create for ourselves we often need to leave our computers behind and work by hand, with ink, brush and pencil.

When you are creating commissioned work, how do you take yourselves out of the project and focus on the idea that needs to be conveyed?
We have no problem with that. On the contrary, we like to be confronted with another personality. We work within a duo, and we have often worked in a team. If the graphic style is strong, the Ego has no need to be nervous… C’est ludique.

What accomplishments so far in your lives stand out as most important?
AC – The birth of my twins Liv et Aliocha.
I – The birth of my son, Robinson.

How do you deal with negative criticism?
If the criticism is negative but not violent it is often very constructive and it can make things move forward.
Working as a duo, we use the critical eye a lot on one another and accept what is said. We don’t really like it when the criticism is a matter of “taste” because as illustrators we propose a particular sense of “taste” through our images. But we can accept any other criticism.

What is your favorite way to get out of a creative block?
To talk with good friends, drinking coffee and creating new projects.

Is there any one publication that you still have aspirations to see yourselves in?
Elle, Glamour, Vanity Fair and, of course, we would love to see ourselves in the New Yorker, but we don’t have the style to match.

What magazines do you personally read?
Le Nouvel Observateur, Elle, Elle Déco, Liberation.

What are your goals for the future as illustrators?
We want to be illustrators until we’re 110 years old and never retire. So we want to be constantly renewed in order to last.


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News published at 8:00 am, Monday, April 15th, 2013

Featured Artist – Rollin McGrail


Artwork by Rollin McGrail

What are your goals for the future as an illustrator?
My goal for the future as an illustrator, is to have the ability to seek and render intriguing ideas with gesturally fine lines, combined with conjuring the ability to be able to read between the lines. To illustrate the concept of the illustrated word in the fewest amount of lines all the while with limited technique, ultimately, to display the essence of this work and play, as elegantly as possible. Hopefully, I wish the chance to practice it in many formats and media, all in the near future of course.

Where do you draw your inspiration?
Inspiration can come in varied ways, at the moment one of my favorites is my childrens’ fascination with memes. Floating around in my pool reading books on innovation, sparks inspiration as well. Then again, there’s getting out of the studio, preferably town, especially if it requires a passport, to nurture mind expansion, whenever possible. I enjoy playing competitive tennis which energizes me beautifully, giving me the restorative boost and desire for cooking great meals, so as to surround myself with family and friends.

What is your favorite way to get out of a creative block?
Fortunately, I like wood working and using power tools. The jig saw is just a jagged pencil for me, and I break the creative block by switching my materials. For instance, starting a life size cut out with the biggest piece of plywood that I can find. It’s physical and noisy, the complete opposite of hanging over the drawing board. There’s a level of white noise combined with the inability to hear yourself think, which can be a little reprieve from all the mental concentration I have to do as an illustrator.

As a working illustrator do you still find time to create art for yourself?
One of the most important activities for me has been to keep up with my trusty little Moleskin sketchbooks. I’ve favored the reporter style for some time now, with it’s handy flip over pages and pocket for collecting bits and pieces. I make most certain that I never leave home without it, or heaven forbid lose it. However, often times I find myself writing more about my ideas than actually doing them. Thankfully, necessity has always been the mother of invention, and consequently has never failed me. In turn, it has forced me to put my pencil where my mouth is, and stop talking about it, and just do it. Besides commissioned art work, I’ve had an automatically given subject matter for cartoons that flow with the equestrian community that I live and interact with.

What type of environment do you prefer to work in? At home or in a studio? Listening to music?
The best sort of environment for me to work in has always been my home, not necessarily by choice, more for practicality, especially while raising husband and kids. It’s not by accident that I live in the sub tropics of South Florida, where I can relax in incubator-like temperatures. I’m always listening to music and fascinating discussions, like TEDTalks, in fact I’m surgically attached to my head phones, except when I am submerged in water, which then I would use the speaker. The music that I listen to can be a mixture of all sorts, everything from contemporary music that my 26 year old son introduces me to, such as, lots of European lounge music, classical, electronica, etc. For example, Royksopp, because of the up beat positive tone, morning music style, and it’s happy electronic heart beat that fuels me.

What is your earliest memory of creating art (or drawing as a child)?
My Mother who was a huge influence and wonderfully inspired prolific painter, always told me that as far back as she could remember, there wasn’t a single page in her sketchbooks, where as a very young emerging artist, I hadn’t left my mark. Either I would turn the paper over against the window to trace her drawings, or I would informatively leave a little Kilroy sign in the corner saying, Rollin was here. My parents’ multiple combined marriages, rendered me with 9 brothers and sisters, hence I learned early on how the best way to get my Mother’s attention, was with my interest in art.

Who was the first illustrator that you noticed and admired?
The New Yorker cartoonist, Peter Arno, was the first illustrator that I noticed and admired. It was his bold lines and simplified half tones that captured me. At the age of around 10 years old, I can remember my best friend’s guest bathroom had an entire space dedicated to one single cartoon. It was a New Yorker cover from back in the 1920s. Every inch of this tiny room was patterned with it, the wallpaper, the shower curtain, and possibly the waste basket. The scene was a wife standing at the sink in front of the mirror putting on her lip stick, completely oblivious that her husband is floating trapped in the shower stall, with the water filling up, and his nose pinched, tapping on the glass as if he were about to drown. That was the biggest tribute to an artist I could imagine at the time. The social satire, and endless chronicling of the mores of his day, largely illustrated in his art, were obviously over my head, but my early observation was that this artist could be appreciated on several levels, the poking fun at human foibles in good natured whimsical fashion, appealed to me and felt timeless. It became clear to me that this was a subject matter that would never run dry. A perfect union of idea and visual conception.


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News published at 10:43 am, Monday, April 1st, 2013

Featured Artist – Jodi Kilgore


Artwork by Jodi Kilgore

How and when did you know that you wanted to become an illustrator?
I have always drawn, as long as I can remember. As a teenager I made and sold pen and ink drawings of rodeo imagery to all of my dad’s cowboy friends- that was great fun. I studied commercial art in high school to excess, but I didn’t differentiate between fine art, drawing, painting and illustration. I didn’t really know the difference. I was in the fashion/advertising industry for a number of years and through that I was inspired to study graphic communication. I gravitated toward making imagery though, and one day I was asked to do a digital illustration (my first ever) and all of the necessary parts seemed to just gel together. It hadn’t really occurred to me that drawing could be my career “life” until I was around people who were full-time, practicing artists. It was always too abstract an idea until I was doing it.

Where do you draw your inspiration?
I am knocked out by people who can really draw. I’m in awe of figurative work that is really expressive. I love to be able to see the “hand” in work (a really hard thing to convey digitally I think). I honestly feel elevated when I see good drawing, and kind of reassured about the world! I am also inspired by graphic work, whether it’s design, fine art or photography. I find unusual perspectives in compositions particularly compelling.

What is your earliest memory of creating art? (or drawing as a child)
I can remember drawing with both of my parents- and being amazed at how something so great could come right out of a pencil. And why didn’t I know they could do that and why didn’t they do it more?! My dad drew a mean Woody Woodpecker. Ha! I think the idea that you could draw something, and there it was- something created from thin air, that immediately engaged the imagination in an instant, astonished me. It made a profound impression. I still get that exact feeling when I see a good illustration. I still have a pencil portrait I did of my cousin when I was about nine that looks the spit of her- I love that I kept that.

What type of environment do you prefer to work in? At home or in a studio? Listening to music?
I’ve always made a studio space in my home, which has been challenging as I like to be uninterrupted! Thankful for headphones!

As a working illustrator, do you still find time to create art for yourself?
Personal work seems always to go on the back-burner when I’m busy, it’s true. I try to at least take photographs or sketch. I really enjoy the challenges in commissioned work, it keeps you growing in directions you might not have taken yourself, so I don’t ever feel like I’m doing one in the stead of the other.

What type of transition needs to be made between creating art for yourself and creating art that is commissioned?
There’s a diligence when I’m working on a commissioned piece that I wish I could turn right off when I’m working on a personal thing. There’s the room then to make a holy mess and flop and ruin and explore but it’s kind of a fight to let yourself do that.

When you are creating commissioned work, how do you take yourself out of the project and focus on the idea that needs to be conveyed?
I try not to get into the project at all until the message is crystal clear and I have a good plan of how best to convey it. I find that if the image comes to me before the concept is solid, it’s terribly hard to work back the other way as successfully. It feels like a slow start sometimes but always is a better result.

What type of artwork do you have hanging in your home?
You’d laugh at my house as I’m in a pre-reno’d 140+ year old farmhouse with busted old walls in various states of repair, and they are covered in artwork with better frames than the wall!

I have a lot of photography: portraits by Penn, Annie Liebowitz, still life photographs by Lilo Raymond, large format pieces: a huge image of Robert Plant (at his finest, by Barry Wentzell), a giant self portrait of my father as a teenager with a very colourful hockey-puck black eye, old screenprint circus posters, fine art drawings, vintage fashion illustrations, old prints of classical studies of women, landscape paintings of the prairies, some very nice little oils of plastic soldier figures by Brian Harvey, a beautiful big wooden sculpture of a howling coyote by Rory Alvarez. And probably like everybody else, there’s a spot on a wall where everything I see that’s loose and appeals to me gets pinned up. It’s quirky in here.

What accomplishment so far in your life stands out as most important?
Somehow I raised my 2 kids as a freelance artist and single parent without being irreversibly crabby.

Who was the first illustrator that you noticed and admired?
Tomi Ungerer. I had his children’s book,“The Hat”, and I can picture every illustration in it right now. As a kid I was transfixed and now I admire them for being so loose and expressive and smart. He has been quoted as saying that there is a conspiracy against childrens’ intelligence! (I recently found a book he wrote and illustrated about his very colourful adventure moving to a small
coastal farm in the Maritimes- a real thrill to come across, and a weird comfort as I’ve just done the same. “Far Out Isn’t Far Enough” and another, “A Slow Agony”. I think many artists can relate.)

How do you deal with negative criticism?
I welcome it- it opens my eyes to another perspective that I likely hadn’t considered. It gives you the opportunity to avoid narrowing thinking!

What is your favorite way to get out of a creative block?
Oh, I don’t think for me there is a way out! It always seems to be an inner argument until something accidentally comes along and breaks the ice. I wish I lived next door to the V&A design museum, 5 minutes in any exhibit in there and I’m out the door reeling with my head full of ideas.

If you had to describe your body of work in one word, what would that word be?
Nascent, hopefully!

Is there any one publication that you still have aspirations to see yourself in?
I have a cartoon in my mind for the New Yorker that one day I would like to work out and submit. I think it’s so funny, and am confused by the blank looks I get when I describe it to someone.

What are your goals for your future as an illustrator?
I am so fortunate to be spending my daily life drawing. Apart from continuing to feel challenged, interested, and growing, I’m pretty happy to be where I am right now.


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News published at 8:06 am, Monday, March 18th, 2013

Featured Artist: Judy Kaufmann


Artwork by Judy Kaufmann

Where do you draw your inspiration?
As I always say, I get inspiration from what I don’t understand, what I don’t know, what I don’t know how to do, what I am not.

What type of environment do you prefer to work in? At home or in a studio? Listening to music?
I love to work in my studio and share working life with other designers and illustrators. Every morning I love to ride for 20 minutes from home to get to this place and yes! I always listen music when I’m working.

As a working illustrator, do you still find time to create art for yourself?
Completely, it is something I need to do constantly. I need to take my mind to those basic and deep places where the only thing I need to do, apart from drawing, is to think of nothing.

What type of artwork do you have hanging in your home?
I’m lucky enough to share life with a sculptor who loves lots of different artists, so in our home you can find pieces from Marc Sparfel, Josep Riera i Arago, Sasow, Valerio Adami, Arman and Albert Ruiz-Villar, among others.

Who was the first illustrator that you noticed and admired?
Alen Lauzan, a Cuban illustrator based in Santiago de Chile.

What is your favorite way to get out of a creative block?
Hang out with a friend and talk about life and every single topic that has nothing to do with work.

What magazines do you personally read?
I’m subscribed to four different magazines; The Clinic, Yorokobu, Mongolia and the Spanish AD. I also love Orsai and Lamono Mag.


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News published at 2:31 pm, Monday, March 4th, 2013

Featured Artist – Grems


Artwork by Grems

How and when did you know that you wanted to become an illustrator?
I started drawing when I was a kid. When I was young I started by copying cartoons, then invented the continuation of the stories. With books, I was not interested in the texts, I only looked at the drawings.

Where do you draw your inspiration from?
My inspiration comes from a patchwork composed of TV series (from the 60’s – 70’s), cinema, funk music, Jacques TATI…

What type of environment do you prefer to work in? At home or in a studio? Listening to music?
I prefer to work in my studio, listening to a perfect playlist.

As a working illustrator, do you still find time to create art for yourself?
Every time it’s possible I always take time to create for myself. It’s so important to stay creative.

When you are creating commissioned work, how do you take yourself out of the project and focus on the idea that needs to be conveyed?
When I have a commission, I usually keep the brief in my mind for 2 or 3 days and live with it, then try to forget about it. The idea then comes naturally. When I work on the image, I always take the place of the reader and try to surprise him.

What type of artwork do you have hanging in your home?
Paintings, portraits by a painter friend, “kitch” art, deco and children’s drawings.

Who was the first illustrator that you noticed and admired?
Sempé.

Do you read criticism done on your work?
I would really like to read criticism on my work.

How do you deal with negative criticism?
It depends on where it comes from and who is criticising. Constructive criticim is positive.

Is there any one publication that you still have aspirations to see yourself in?
Cover magazine.

What magazines do you personally read?
Graphim, fashion magazines.


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News published at 2:20 am, Monday, February 18th, 2013

Featured Artist – David Senior


Artwork by David Senior

How and when did you know that you wanted to become an illustrator?
For me there are two times that together made this decision. The first time reaches all the way back to the last few years of design school. A vast majority of my student work featured illustrations I would create for my projects. I enjoyed it, but adding an illustration major to my workload was not an option. I was told during portfolio reviews to consider putting an alternate portfolio together of my work.
Fairly soon out of school I started working at a magazine, and I was able to commission a handful of illustrations every month. It was a wonderful experience working with all these illustrators I admired, and many I had never heard of who were equally amazing. Being in this environment fueled my passion for illustration, and I continued to create my own work. Once I felt I had a solid portfolio built up, I set up my website and marketing efforts and began my illustration career. Working with so many illustrators in itself was a big inspiration and influence on my decision to be an illustrator.

What type of environment do you prefer to work in? At home or in a studio? Listening to music?
Working at home is by far the best place for me. I have a place in the basement where my set-up is. I tend to work very late into the night, or even get up very early to work, so its nice to be home with my family even when I am working.
I always have music playing, and when I am working through concepts its usually something instrumental like Explosions in the Sky, then when I am creating the work it can be anything I’m in the mood for.

As a working illustrator, do you still find time to create art for yourself?
Not nearly as much as I would like, but I do find some time throughout the year to make it happen. It is pretty important to make the time if you find you become too busy.

What type of transition needs to be made between creating art for yourself and creating art that is commissioned?
Not much transition is needed, I go about it the same way for both. The biggest challenge or difference is that there is usually a story or summary when it is commissioned, and the timing is often up to the client. Work I do for myself is based on inspiration I have after something I have read, watched or talked about. Then the timing is up to me, and when I can fit it in.

When you are creating commissioned work, how do you take yourself out of the project and focus on the idea that needs to be conveyed?
I find I will often put myself into the situation to see what kind of emotion comes out of that. I straddle that line of viewing it from my point of view, and then also looking at it from the outside, and removing myself. Both will give me various viewpoints on how to handle the concept and idea. Then I use the one that works out the best.

What type of artwork do you have hanging in your home?
I actually do not have a lot of artwork hanging, but what I do have I love. My stand out items would have to be the 6 or 7 Nick Dewar originals, one of my all-time favorite illustrators. They are framed and in various spots around the house. One of them is even the first illustration I ever commissioned as a young art director. He was so gracious, it was a “welcome to art direction” gift.
I Also have a handful of posters some friends have created, and some photography. I used to collect photo and illustration postcards from my magazine days, and I still have a ton of those tacked up to my boards at home. They are their own little pieces of artwork.

Who was the first illustrator that you noticed and admired?
Brian Cronin is one of the first that comes to mind. He did the cover for AI 19, and had a handful of images in the book as well. The man ironing his lower half while standing at an ironing board is still one of my favorites.

What is your favorite way to get out of a creative block?
If time allows, then I put it aside and just do something else altogether, something that does not require conceptualizing. Read a magazine, make some french-press coffee, something along those lines. If I am pressed for time, then its just a battle that has to be won, and you push through it. I will do word association in my sketchbook to help me lead into a new idea and get over the block.

Is there any one publication that you still have aspirations to see yourself in?
New York Times Op-Ed.


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News published at 2:44 am, Monday, February 4th, 2013

Featured Artist – Eduardo Bertone


Artwork by Eduardo Bertone

How and when did you know that you wanted to become an illustrator?
I’ve worked as an art director for advertising and a graphic designer for more than 10 years. But over the last six years I’ve taken part in a lot of independent art projects where illustration was involved. And finally, a couple of years ago Anna Goodson Management contacted me to join them. I was so excited, it gave me courage to mainly express myself through illustration.

Where do you draw your inspiration from?
I find inspiration everywhere: maybe a stupid situation in the street; a child’s scribble; graffiti on the door of a toilet; perhaps in a song, a movie or a book. If you’re an artist it’s important to be constantly aware of what’s happening around you.

What is your earliest memory of creating art? (or drawing as a child)
I’ve always liked drawing, since I was a child I wanted to work in the graphic area. But I started being interested seriously in art about six years ago. At that moment I discovered that art was not only a matter of classical painters. Designers, illustrators, and even people not connected with the visual world were doing great pieces of art, then I started working in this way, my own way.

As a working illustrator, do you still find time to create art for yourself?
Definitely. What I do professionally influences my artistic work and vice versa. I love painting and I always try to make some time to do it and also get involved in art projects like mural painting, video art or anything that makes me feel good.  
 
What type of transition needs to be made between creating art for yourself and creating art that is commissioned?
The art I create for commissioned projects should be as personal, implicated and committed as the art I make for myself. Commercial work has also to represent myself, it must have part of me, and it´s important to enjoy creating it. Otherwise it could be like any other job. On the other hand non-commissioned art has to be serious and committed.

When you are creating commissioned work, how do you take yourself out of the project and focus on the idea that needs to be conveyed?
Sometimes I work in a completely spontaneous way, and sometimes I´ve got a really clear idea of what I want to say, so I work in a rational way. Once I have received a brief, depending of the project, I take one of those routes. I also a mix the two, which creates a weird atmosphere.
 
What is your favorite way to get out of a creative block?
“Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working” Pablo Picasso.


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News published at 10:15 am, Monday, January 21st, 2013

Featured Artist – Marisa Morea


Artwork by Marisa Morea

How and when did you know that you wanted to become an illustrator?
In 2009 I moved to Barcelona to study a design master’s degree in one of the most prestigious universities in Spain. One day I went for a walk by myself and I ran into a gallery with a awesome exhibition of a bunch of very talented students of an illustration master’s degree, ran by an American illustrator who had been living in Barcelona for decades. So I felt like meeting them and exploring my creativity through this discipline. That’s the way it all started.

What is your earliest memory of creating art? (or drawing as a child)
When I was a little child I loved drawing. One of my treasures was a huge colorful markers box. At school I had a diary where I wrote all my tasks full of little funny and lovely doodles and scrapbook stickers.

Moreover, I loved Barbie and all her pink and fashionable world. So I began to draw in a notebook a lot of teen girls with very, very long hair and fabulous clothes. Actually, I was into it for years. Also, I played with my mum to name each fancy girl and to imagine what could go with her outfit.

Many years after, I thought I’d like to study fashion design, but finally I didn’t. And now I realize it wasn’t my fate.

What type of environment do you prefer to work in? At home or in a studio? Listening to music?
I work at home, but one of my short-term resolutions is to rent a studio with other mates. I’d like to have two clearly different spaces: one for work and another for my personal life. Sometimes if you work at home you don’t see the moment to stop what you’re doing and to take some time for you. There’re always a lot of jobs to do! Also, I’d like to relate to other people day to day. Sometimes I feel very lonely.

Of course I also listen to music! I’m a big music lover: oldies, post-rock, lo-fi, dream-pop, folk, stoner, power pop… I love a lot of music genres, but I feel the inspiration that I need while I’m working in vocal jazz: Nina Simone, Diana Krall, Ella Fitzgerald, Rickie Lee Jones, Dakota Staton…

As a working illustrator, do you still find time to create art for yourself?
Not really. My friends usually ask me for an illustration for their living room or as a present for their birthdays but I’m always too busy. I apologize from here again, buddies!

What accomplishment so far in your life stands out as most important?
To love and be loved. Truly, deeply, fully and plenty.

If you had to describe your body of work in one word, what would that word be?
Colorful playground.


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News published at 10:10 am, Monday, January 7th, 2013