lundi 15 novembre 2010

Interview in Clone Magazine #45






Interview by Maru Sánchez

1. You say that in your works you try to explore your inner world. Why is it always so “dark”?
When i try to express feelings or ideas, some of them seem to converge into darkness, like if i was pessimistic. Sure i am, but i try to introduce comic situations into it. I usually take sad things into a graphic joke, maybe like a satire. I like sick humour, and dark aspects of life brings me inspiration and irony helps me to face fear of death and drama.

2. Do these creatures really live in your mind? Which were, in that case, your references or main influences?
Yes, they live in my mind, especially when i’m drinking, i become a zombie !! More seriously, my creatures usually rise from known figures, it can be a zombie, a skeleton, an hybrid creature, all sort of things that you can find in b-movies or science fiction. Also, It can be just a normal persons with exagerated expressions (scare, anger, melancholy...). I just make a mix of real and imaginary situations. My characters are deep in torment and sometimes monsters are just a metaphor of animal instincts. I like to show perverted people like greedy politics, psychopaths, schizophrenics or slaves.
I have many influences but i think my earliest one was Eddie the Head, the mascot of the british heavy metal band Iron Maiden. Music inspires me very much. My first book, Toxique, is largely inspired from post-apocalyptic universe and system fight that are explored by d-beat and neo-crust bands. The spanish scene is very intense, and there are many bands i like : Ictus, Ekkaia, Madame Germen, Cop on Fire, Derrota, Leadershit...

3. Do you think is easier selling the hardest side of the world instead of the easiest one? Why?
I don’t know if it is easier to sell something that describes a darker aspect of life, but i find it more interesting than if it was contemplation of beauty and nature because i think it’s too much smooth. I'm more into life suffering and death fighting.

4. Your images look like Old School comics or noir films. Some of them have been featured also on graphic novels. What can you tell us about this experience?
I'm a huge fan of late 19th - early 20th century drawers like Lynd Ward, Frans Maserel, Erich Heckel, José Posada, Edvard Munch...etc. Ward and Maserel (and also Eric Drooker or Thomas Ott for the contemporary ones) created wordless graphic novels that inspires me very much. I like this universal power and strength of wordless stories. When you read it, you have more time to spend on drawings than in regular comics, the image has its own dimension. Old school comics have the text below the image and it’s also the way i appreciate stories. That’s why i chose this format for some of my novels.

5. The scratchboard is one of your favourites techniques when working. Why? What does it give to your works?
I discovered scratchboard with Thomas Ott and he still remains my favorite artist using this technique. When i began scratching, i immediately saw the fineness possibilities of drawing. I would rather draw the light from darkness than showing shadows of an enlighted world.

6. Now that even the independent artist Banksy has his own documentary, how do you see the future of the independent art scene?
I didn’t know about Banksy’s documentary but that’s a good news, he is a great artist and he has many messages to provide. Independent artists like Banksy, Blu or Obey Giant, became very popular with their leftie artwork propaganda. The social or political issue that appears in their work is a road to follow for many artists.
I think that internet gives us facilities to show our work. That’s why i think it’s easier now to reach an audience and to keep it attracted. For example artists can have a blog and breed it day by day, users can follow the evolution of their creations. Virtual galleries can be seen everywhere you have internet connections, so you can reach a larger audience. This is why i am in your pages, you could watch my work and write to me easily. It’s a nice aspect of globalization so i think independent art scene will continue to grow, until the next global war that would annihilate it! I don’t think about the future, so i take the advantage now.

7. What do you think most scares the current society? Which are our “contemporary monsters”?
Capitalism makes monsters that act for profits, profits are made in taking money from people’s work. While people are stolen, monsters are bigger than ever. They are shameless cannibals without feelings for human kind, and they eat each other to dominate. What could scare us, is that even in the lower class, people are taught to act like that. We are told to earn money from our neighboors. Communities against communities, we are divided and the individualizing thought rules. Class war is distorted and minimized by political monsters that made it meaningless. Power of people is stolen from ballot box. Fortunately, people is not that blind animal which these monsters would like, and so the struggle continues...

8. As an artist, what do you fear the worst?
What i fear, is to repeat myself and to loose my creativity : no ideas to express and no feelings to describe that would sign my artistic death. On the other hand, It would be quite sad if i had nobody to show and share my work...

9. Finally, if you have to chose a mystery or terror legend, which one would it be? Why?
I would finally choose Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde because it illustrates perfectly the inner struggle of one person between the evil and the good. A whole person has many aspects and there are more than two persons in one, but the duplicity is a characteristic that everybody can feel in his everyday life.


http://www.clonemagazine.com/

Download Clone #45 (pdf)

1 commentaire:

POPO a dit…

trop la classe !!!!!