ENTREVISTA EN ESPAÑOL
ENGLISH VERSION:
Nuria Meseguer inundates the viewer of his works with a clear and cool underwater image . Her works evoke a serene , silent and complicit as she seeks calm atmosphere of who has the ability to breathe underwater.
Good afternoon and thank you very much . For those who don't know who is Nuria Meseguer and how we arrived at this vital moment ?
Good afternoon and you are welcome ;)
It is difficult to define oneself , only four illuminated in history knows who have been ... but in general terms a utopian dreamer who wants to experience the most intense and genuinely the only life we remember, and that means to live according to the values that are important to me ... that brings me to this moment in life . Create , to paint is a visceral need , and from that center is governing my life.
Raised between brush and canvas , grew up in a creative environment in the workshop of your father ... what memories will come to mind at that time ?
Playing career dodging the workshop canvases and brushes , the first fluorescent waxes , hours standing posing for exercise of Fine Arts, and the best, absolute freedom.
At age 11 moved to Lanzarote , Gran Canaria from your home , and that is where you open your mind to the crystal blue and whites from Lanzarote ...
Yes, a complete rebirth . It was a gift of fate ... I did not know what was the light and observe the infinite until then, and of course the turquoise weightless universe , which coincided with that at that age I learned to swim ... Lanzarote , for me , was nature in vein.
What's that smell your childhood ?
Clouds? hahah .. just kidding ..
Well the first thing that could comes to mind is the salt , which would be so consistent and dramatic , but is more about my great-grandmother's violet candies , my grandmother's macaroni with chorizo and lemon custard and " cropanes " .
What is your first memory with a pencil or brush in hand ?
Drawing with 3-4 years as my parents said , gypsy trimmed after paint with watercolors and give them like a present to the visits.
And at what point do you decide which career in Fine Arts ?
I was going to make architecture , which was what my father wanted me to do , for the academy califications in technical drawing and I did a bachelor of pure sciences , but when i finished, and say to my father that if he had done Fine Arts ... I also wanted the same! And of course , my family understood and supported me...
What gives you your step pictorial university level ?
For painting technique the truth is that I feel that I learned at home. In college I opened rather the perspective from which deal with art, with different ways to express their creativity , but for now there followed a figurative ... focus, do you want to express and , above all, to go further with the process .
Learn which "creates creating " and the results are never a final result. Until you die, your work isn't as perfect as possible . The accumulation of life experiences permeates what you do , that life is supposed wisdom that will enrich your expression ...
Slowly but surely. Not looking for a specific result , everything will be a result in itself.
And on a human level ?
A found the chosen family, those friends who are with you for life ... And travel , cultures and different atmospheres , my other passion .
You expand borders , ending your career in Belgium . From light to dark hutch European ....
Yes, it was hard to insufficient light and cold, but amazing experience. Living in a foreign country gives you a new vision of reality. Not only for the innovative techniques and artistic philosophies , but on a personal level .
It would be mandatory for me to educational level of all students at some point will experience the feel alien in a foreign land . All those mental borders on the absurd would be diluted . Live it " inside out " develops tolerance, humility and unity.
In 2000, start working on the underwater . How were the beginning ? What led to the bottom ?
Well, since I was 11 I started with the pipe and glasses trying to reflect what was in the water , but it was unsuccessful and abandoned .
One day especially crystalline blue underwater in 99 colors made me point out of the water I memorized to see a lady floating. I had no underwater camera , the digital age has not yet reached the vox populi , so it had to be drawing from memory. And , well, it was too much anger from the frustration of not being able to master the language of what i wanted to express. I did try to come up with it , at least for me, to see that peace and infinity I feel when I'm there.
What is a work process from concept to the end? Still working on previous picture ?
Before I consider the concept , I don't know in the case of the other artists , I guess we all go through it. First is the life experience : the brand defines what you will share.
And suddenly you look at the environment with a " zoom " focuses in a situation, or aesthetic script to know that you somehow need to possess and impregnate it with your own language , often not even knowing or how you will. That's what I call visceral . You have to do because if not , you die. You are trying different options , techniques ... until you reflecting how you feel.
In my case by now the whole introduction to watercolor that I lived in my house was the eureka to represent infinity, the sea, the water , the uncontrollable, the flow. Why could not manage stroke by stroke imitating the water, i felt "caught " , she doesn't ... doesn't do what you want to do , has its own life . And I respect that freedom only in the initial phases were watered down.
The rest , the human being , to oil , to differentiate also technique both as different materials .
Yes , I photograph people and then combine the images according to the script that the watery suggests to me ..
Many think that the ocean is the protagonist , but not ....
The ocean is now a backdrop of human emotions , which is what I really need to express : the relationships or loneliness , fear , passion , peace , brotherhood , courage ...
Don't know how I will be under water by now I 'm not tired , but I assume there will be another someday backdrop , the only constant is change itself says Oriental philosophy ...
What does the sea as a backdrop with not do the land or air?
The weightlessness. It is a giant uterus where we float and we can be rocked by mystery. You can dodge the logic in the sea ...
Does the water is so chromatic palette wide ?
It depends on the depth you want to convey. Deeper , less range . The warm disappear .
Also depending on what you want to reflect in water . The pristine sands and clear seas , or north strong and dark . Everything depends on the emotion you want the swimmer feel : survival or enjoyment.
A palette that broke not long ago in the red series , in which the danger reporting abuse on oil extraction in Canarian waters .....
The red serie was one of those visceral moments of which I spoke earlier . It was a necessity, but not for reporting oil , was a work in the exhibition " WITH YOU " in Luroa .
It is about passion , that double-edged sword , the passionate and the two sides of the coin involved , passion vs . war , when is misdirected .
The oil is a combination of blue and black , of course ... Hopefully not have to pull the oil black with that approach .
I must confess I see your work is pure therapy .... What does the silence underwater ? Evoke How do you get that atmosphere ?
It's therapy for me when I'm performing.
To silence the more water surface in space and less human. To express other things ,people can play a greater role , with peers from different species , colors .... but for silence, the preponderance of blue is basic , like when you swim away with the tube to where you have no reference or background , or on the sides , only rays of different degrees of blue surround you and you only hear your own breathing .
You're so small , you could almost say that you feel ridiculous presence in this vast space. Conceptually relativized you around you .
Even problems become smaller ... But to really convey this feeling, i need a canvas of meters and meters . So far I have not had the opportunity , the materials are too expensive, but my work would be much more ready-witted on giant canvases . Someday!
What does the sea canary that distinguishes from the rest?
With respect to the Caribbean and Mediterranean I have known , is more intense , strong, powerful , wilder , retaining clarity.
Let's talk about exhibitions . Already a veteran in this field. How do you handle the criticism of others and the works falling into the hands of others?
Criticism affected when inside you know you have not given everything I could give, or justified by circumstances that could not get away from the result you wanted. But reasonable or not, you must take it into account , because the next thing kicks will best , whether you give credit or not and you reinforce your perspective .
As in life, we are to learn and improve through our interactions , wrong or not, with our peers. We refined. Certainly, not ever have to take it personally: " Your enemy defines you " is a reference that I read in a story where was explained the sadness felt by a king when the king enemy dies, his existence was defined by him, his movements, and the withdrawals ... Finally, when itthe enemy disappears , you're empty. I never would have thought .
I think that is the most positive approach that can give criticism , not only in art, but in life . It is an opportunity to improve , always.
Knowing that your work has adoptive parents is comforting, is like you feel empathy, they have understood, " feel " you. I easily let go of the works , is a gift that others want to take them. Only once cried , with the work " Silence" , but I was glad it has new home after all ... and now that time has passed , even more happy ...
It always amazes me that the works will find new homes, and I am grateful every time like the first time ...
Where is the farthest you know there's a Meseguer ?
USA , I do not remember exactly where. Oh ... and Russia.
Can survive working only in art in the Canaries?
Depends on what you need to live, I guess. The less you need , the easier . For now is the price i pay, but i prefer live in total freedom and follow my own beats .
What do you do now? I think the comics of the eighties has much to say about it ....
Yes , those eighty with Cimoc , Zona84 , Richard Corben and many more ... They're coming to the skin now that I've lived life situations in which the unconscious memory has become flesh . Well, for now are idea even , and sketches.
When the crisis began more present, in 2008 , when I created the red work, i had the idea.. the script for what would be, but my personal life events has been delayed that . It is an effort of time and money and I've been a little subject to personal cincunstances , but I'm very stubborn when I have something clear, when vibrates in the bowels. I will do it for sure.
The cooking time has not been in vain , despite the changes of destination. The have matured and now is more complete in my head, carries more weight . I hope to have it ready for 2015 , while : Corners of Water" and parallel sketching new ideas ...
Do we have a quick test Take a breath ..... Oil or acrylic ? ?
WATERCOLOR
Soundtrack to work .
Depends on the moment . I usually start workshop dancing metal , rock , dubstep ....
When i 've broken the thoughts of the day , I go into the painting with techno-environmental , I concentrate fast. For children or sweet paintings, i prefer reggae. I only know one thing constant: in silence I can't paint. And the more pleasant sound , but it's when I stop the stroke , is to listen the voice tone scale of my doughter with the keyboard walked with stones because she hasn't enough fingers , curious opera-techno ...
A moment to translate ....
The liquid light on flesh.
Sketches or direct ? Pit ?
Direct , if not, I get bored fast. In addition , the photographs are already sketching.
Combine the bodies on the blue without drawing , based on spot colors . I sort of mentally projector like magic eye , with the image of the photo between the eye and the canvas. Soon I shall ( on November 15 ) and give a workshop , two weeks later, in Fluxart about these tricks , and other of color also .
A place where you dream exhibit ....
The cradle of art , Florence , it's done, but it was a romantic level ..
Well I suppose like any artist, Guggenheim , MOMA , ... a retrospective with works that hopefully can make meters and meters wide and long ... or sculptures and installations that I have sketched ...
An international reference
Now love the water sculptures Shinichi Maruyama
National Anybody ?
i don't remember now...later i think about it...
What about the islands?
All my artist friends , I'm not objective , I know. Many years of experiences parallel to they works , and understand much , do not know when it is separated from the work itself, or for all that I have experienced the process of creating a life together ...
Laura Gherardi for her delicate sweetness, tormented and wise at the same time , a line difficult to balance . Santiago Palenzuela , for his sense of color and mass . Juan Pedro Ayala , his stroke heartbreaking and secure. Julio Blancas for its amazing underground worlds brain . Cristina Fierro Hernandez , Nacho Hernandez and Juana Fortuny for they carefree colors and boundary-breaking madness . Jorge Rojas for his continuous line direct gushing deep from the psyche . The daily life dignified of Teresa Arozena . The human mandalas of Maloli Mardones . Transparencies colorful lights of Meritxell Barroso ... Do I still ? Should !
But my favorite , Santiago Palenzuela , Juan Pedro Ayala .. And of course, Nestor de la Torre and Miro Mainou of previous generations .
An inspiration ...
Always where you least expect it .
The sea is ...
the mysterious infinite water become , easy to fly without machines, a gift for those who can't be astronauts or shooting stars.
Thank you very much once again , and good luck in the dive.
