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Spraygraphic Interview with Artist Jorge Ivan Restrepo
By Spraygraphic | May 7, 2008
Spraygraphic’s Chuck b. interviews international artist Jorge Ivan Restrepo about his artwork and interests.
Spraygraphic Interview with Jorge Ivan Restrepo
SG: Please tell us about yourself
JR: I am a contemporary artist, in permanent change and process of expression, using a variety of visual and non visual resources. I have two careers: I am an artist and also developer of environmental protection programs. This generates complementary spaces that enrich both careers. As an artist I live the creative process intensively and produce continuously. In the field of environmental management I search for creativity and team work.
I have been making art since I was a child. At 16 I made the decision of not only having one professional career. This path, in my case, was fortunate. Even if I have good options to commercialize my painting, I do not depend on this to subsist, which has allowed me to make changes –taking risks with the market- and building an artistic process in different directions.
SG: Where do you currently live and work?
JR: I live and work in Honduras, Central America. I live on the Campus of Zamorano University an international university, where I work as the Director of a regional biodiversity institute. This is where I have established my studio.
SG: What mediums do you work with?
JR: I use different resources. I am basically a painter, but I have the fortune to live in a time where artists can have some flexibility, I use different resources: from art-object, photography, collage…to public interventions and performance. When I paint, usually I do it with acrylics on canvas or paper.
SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.
JR: When I paint, usually I paint the light, the color which has touched me in an immediate way, the day when I start the work. Since I was a child I had this reaction, the color only used to impact me strongly but it stayed in my mind as an inventory. At that moment my hands were starting to "itch", I was feeling the need to reflect again these colors and emotions on a canvas. That is when a frantic career to reproduce all this range of color starts.
When I do something conceptual everything is born from an idea, or a reaction to watching something moving. I always carry with me a small notebook where I write proposals, ideas. I review it constantly.
SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?
JR: The contact with nature, with people, the news and music takes me quickly onto a new project.
SG: Where are you currently finding your inspiration?
JR: I am painting the series "black moons", that are atmospheres from the night. During these dry months, the night is marvelous in Honduras, there I have an infinite visual resource. The rest comes from thinking: how is the night for a suffering person? The work "Black Moons" expects to show all these range of feelings. The first pieces of the series worked as a base to get to new composition paths…each time I can get further away from the origin and build on the first proposals…getting to a totally abstract level where I get further away from the night and with the elements I use to build new compositions.
SG: Can you please tell us a little about Making a Carpet.
JR: The making of carpets for The Holy Week processions is a custom of some Central American countries. A year before making the carpet as a project of the Museum of the Honduran Man, I was visiting the centre of Tegucigalpa, a day when hundreds of people were doing carpets for Good Friday’s procession. Although I knew the making process of the carpets, only that day I did see their artistic and human dimension. When I saw all these people making a chain of carpets extending for more than half a kilometer, I felt the desire to be there, mixing colors, dampening, and more than that, my head did not stop thinking of possible designs. That is when the project was born, which was approved by the Museum.
SG: Where has your work been seen?
JR: I have had individual exhibitions in Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia, Finland and Spain. Collectives, beside the ones already mentioned, in different countries, including Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, United States, Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Italy, England, and others.
SG: Where will it be seen next?
JR: My next individual exhibitions will be in Holland, Guatemala, Salvador, Nicaragua and The United States.
SG: What is your dream art assignment?
JR: …a piece that can be touched…seized…made by many people.
SG: What is your favorite color?
JR: I have been using the color gold for many years. In my work it is a frequent resource. Ever since I was a child I used to see the golden color in nature, especially in the brightness of the sun in the water at sunset. Sometimes I used to show this color to other people…
SG: Who is your favorite artist? And Why?
JR: Piet Mondrian . He is the base for my transition to the geometric abstraction. I travel on a road against his proposal, without missing the approach of his team and his. I believe at the end of the road I will get closer to them again.
SG: What book/magazine are you reading this week?
JR: This week I am on holiday in Colombia. My dad is waiting –always when I go to visit him- with a selection of the best articles about politics and the economy of the country. I am reviewing everything he has saved for me, it is a ritual. After each lecture we discuss them.
The subject: the diplomatic crisis with Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela, and of course the handling of the humanitarian interchange of hostages with FARC.
SG: Ever do a self portrait? Where is it now?
JR: I can not talk about a self portrait. I saw myself portrayed many times in the expressionist work that I did for over 20 years.
SG: Where is your favorite place to hang out?
JR: All places on the planet are very special to me.
SG: Any final words of advice?
JR: I believe that art schools should consider more carefully which are the skills that a contemporary artist requires, and adjust their curriculum to the training of these. Many young artists ask me how to achieve an international career, and the answer is in a collection of diverse skills, complex and interdependent that they should have. There is no formula, there are skills…
ART: 1. The Carpet, 2. Installation, 3. Tela de fantasia con Claudia I 4. Visitor Exploring the Exhibit, 5. Blind Woman Exploring the Exhibit, 6. Finlandia-14
Topics: Artist Interviews, International Art, Paintings |
May 8th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
What incredibly insane work from a truly inspired individual. Never would I ever have imagined that Mondrian is his favorite artist, but yet again, it shows how far Mondrian’s reach is through the art world. The amount of influence in his work is palpable and very refreshing.
Great interview.