interview

The Myth That is Our Life…

Interview on Maya Gonzalez’s Art

Dr. Kubilay Akman

Kubilay Akman Mexican art inheritance is very rich, ranged from the Muralists (Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and the others) to Frida Cahlo, Mexican surrealists (Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo). What is the influence of this inheritance in your art?

Maya Gonzalez I received very little formal art training. I mostly have studied on my own. The work of Diego Rivera moved me a great deal because he used art as a way to claim and celebrate Mexican history and cultural heritage. Which can be challenging in a "mixed" culture: indigenous and colonizer/Indian and Spanish.

He used the power of the visual image to connect people. It felt immediate and relevant to me.

I believe this also spoke to the part of me that is bi-racial. I am Mexican on my father's side and a European mix on my mother's side. His work felt very embodied to me. The way he portrayed women in particular was powerful and robust. However, I have most frequently been compared to his wife Frida Kahlo. Although I seldom think my actual work looks like hers, I sense that we paint from a similar internal space. And perhaps that is what people are picking up on.

I paint from a deeply personal space that is foremost concerned with conveying the connections I perceive between physical life and spiritual life. I believe that all things physical rise from a spiritual foundation and that to be present with both, we become more engaged creators of our reality, the myth that is our life.

KA You define yourself as a "traveling artist". How are the travels represented in your work? > 

MG By "traveling artist" I mean that I cross that veil to the other side and come back to report basically. So each piece I create is an act of "traveling." What I paint is not what I see physically, but what I perceive multidimensionally.

KA As I know, the Latin American, and particularly Mexican artists are quite into politics. Are political topics important for you? Do you intend to include them in your art sometimes?

MG There are a lot of different ways to be political. I was heavily involved in women's issues and gay issues as I developed in my youth and the personal as political was a powerful tool of change. We in the USA and I believe overall on the planet are still very much struggling with equality for women and I believe that extends into gender issues (which in my opinion is a large part of why homophobia is still so rampant). So I believe that my work is political in that it portrays powerful women engaged with their sexuality, spirituality and full existence on the planet without catering to the dominant paradigm. The more empowered we become as women individually the greater our influence will be in the wider arena of social and cultural activity.

KA It seems to me that the Mexican artists are very well established and have outstanding achievements in the USA. What are the reasons for this, in your opinion?

MG Interestingly enough, my perspective is that we are just beginning to be recognized. The double volume book "Contemporary Chicano/a Art" (of which I am on the cover of volume two) is the first collection of its kind that really gives formal breadth and analysis of Chicano art in the USA. While we have been a visible movement since the 60's, it's only in the last few years that there are university classes more widespread on the topic, etc...

KA And Europe, have you also been exhibited in European countries?

MG Not yet. I was seriously ill for 3 years and am just now getting back on my feet and have been invited to show abroad.

KA What do you think about the commercialization of art? Do you think that it is a handicap before creativity or oppositely, it may open new channels for artists?

MG I think it's challenging to do what you know is right, pursue the art that speaks from your heart, knowing that you have to pay the rent. For me, illustrating children's books has been the solution to staying true to myself. The work I do for the books is valuable and an extension of my art and beliefs and provides more consistent financial support. I have never been able to not paint what is in my heart. I count myself as lucky even though I have created a great deal of work, especially through my illness that is challenging and doesn't sell as easily as some of my work. I always tell people, in the long run this work will be the most valuable because it is so deep and personal and unique.

KA What are the regional differences for arts in the USA? It seems Western parts of the States are more dominative on the art world, not only nationally, even globally. I mean New York's effects for example, are enormous on the art world. But you live in the East. Can you make a comparison for us, please?

MG I live in the west. I always have. I have even been encouraged to move to Los Angeles because I would have more opportunities for my work. But I love San Francisco. There is a strong Chicano/Latino population here, but less of a dominant "art scene" like in New York. Since I work from such a deeply personal and spiritual base, I don't pay much attention to the outside world in this way.

KA What are your guesses for the future of your art? Do you think that you will determine that future completely? Or, are you open for not foreseen routes?

MG I have learned through aging and from being seriously ill, that the ability to flow and be flexible is the strongest stance possible. I am always open to where life leads me. It never fails to surprise me in some way that I could not have imagined. It is the way of the artist. But I know that I will continue to paint and report back from beyond the veil. It's what I'm made for. It's why I'm here. I cannot help myself.

KA Thank you very much for this interview. It was a pleasure for us.

MG Thank you for your time and interest on my art.

interview

Faces in Faces

Interview with Spanish Painter Antonio Santin

Dr. Kubilay Akman

 

Kubilay Akman Your paintings have a modern harmony of figures and colours. Especially your portraits are very successful. Could you tell us a little please what is your story with the "colour element" in painting?

Antonio Santin In my recent series painting harmony has indeed a crucial presence. I mean, harmony understood as the balance between opposites. According to that, between light and shadow exists a void, and  I’m on the end just  freezing images of  the souls of those who are crossing the same bridge with me, from darkness to  light or the other way around.

I use painting as an exercise of approaching the faces of those around who represent for me an enigma. Beauty or ugliness, aggressiveness or victimization, me or you… The whole world could be reduced to opposite poles. The important question is for me to understand the origin of my feelings of fear or attraction. It demands from me a slow reflection that fortunately just painting can provide, because it’s about looking at things more calmly and respectfully. Now, we are used to consume a huge amount of images per day, by painting them I get the chance at least to be able to digest a part of it.

At the moment, colour is in my work just a consequence of the processes. What is really important to me is how I connect with the psychology of the person that inhabits in the canvas. This is like a miracle, when suddenly you realize somehow you’re not alone in the studio, something has come to life in front of you, and it looks you directly in the eyes… Secondly, I care as a pleasure itself of the process; how light is able to draw and even change the character of somebody, the developing of a structure, and the trace of my tools… The painting wants always to paint alone, and I feel many times like a strict father that pushes the flow to enter into the artificial lake of my brain.

KA What were your experiences in arts in the Germany period?

AS Berlin is in many senses an exceptional city. The quality of life, the effervescent artistic ambience… It’s my opinion that we are talking about an unavoidable art scene to visit and, when possible, to participate in. It’s amazing for me to see such a big amount of “art seeds” trying to germinate in the same squared meter of earth. One always have the feeling that something big is about to happen

KA Who are your favourites in Spanish art? Have you ever been influenced by them?

AS Let´s say they will be n heterogeneous group as follows: Velazquez, Ribera, Goya, Benlliure, Sorolla, Pinazo, Mir, Picasso, Anglada-Camarasa, Leiro, Javier Perez, Barceló, Jaume Plensa…Yes, sure I got influenced by them… It was my pleasure!

KA What are the possible new tendencies in European art, according to your point of view? Let's make a little futurology. What do you expect from the European artists in the coming decades?

AS Maybe massive migration movements in direction of China, while the rest who decide staying here will turn to a neo-conservative scene. I guess that unless the intellectual frame of the present society changes to a radical new point of view, we will see in the future how the coming generations will re-invent again and again the wheel.

KA Have you ever been to the Istanbul Biennial, as a participating artist or audience? What is your impression about the Biennial?

AS Until the date I had not the chance to visit the Biennial. And it’s a pity, because aside that I love Turkey and would go there delighted,  I’ve been told about the  modern flavour of this event, so I’m really curious.

KA As a staff of the EuroArt, what are your critiques or suggestions to our magazine?

 AS My only suggestion is always to keep on and never forget this is a long-distance race.

KA You will return to Spain. What are your new projects there?

AS Just before leaving Berlin, I have in December a solo exhibition in Art-Center Berlin. From January on, I’ll be living in Barcelona for about half a year. I’ll work there in a temporal atelier in the Contemporary Art Center Piramidon, so I can concentrate on my next exhibitions. But my main activity, at least the first weeks will be enjoying Spanish sun and food while I walk along the beach… You can’t find everything is in Berlin.

KA Thank you Antonio and good luck in Barcelona.

AS Thank you Kubilay. See you there.