Flow State

I have received a few commissions lately in which they asked me for urgency even when there was no hurry for something in particular, they were simply anxious to have them in their hands. It is a pleasure to receive commissions and I value the trust that is given to me, and I understand that if someone is looking for a piece of mine they will want the best one possible. Artistic work requires time and tranquility, in addition to many other things that are not always given. The world goes fast even when the situation does not require it and it is hard for us to live in the present. We are impatient waiting for something to take us out of this constant tedium in which we are installed, but we have the wrong objective. The rhythms to which we become accustomed do not allow us to enjoy the road.

For me, art is a refuge from the rush and speed of the present. Time is relative (beyond Einstein’s theory) and when you enter it, it flows at a different rhythm and has its own speed. The state of flow, as it is now called, is not always easy, because life requires other obligations, but when you reach it, you are in your own space-time and the result becomes substantial and unique.

Stopping to contemplate the result, today, is a revolutionary act.

Let’s slow down and be patient with artists, let’s enjoy art at their pace and let’s be infected by their slowness. It is one of the few ways to survive the madness.

Watercolor

It requires the precise level of humidity.

Patience and gentleness are key, although sometimes getting loose and acting impulsively has good results.

It can be combined with other less humid techniques.

Horizontal is the most common, but it is not the only possibility.

Raising the temperatura can be useful at certain times.

And although the final result is important, the most important thing is to enjoy the process.

Time

A little reflection on time.

These days I was thinking about one of the most heard lies these days: “I don’t have time”. I don’t have time to meet you, I don’t have time to answer your message, I don’t have time to write the text I promised you…

Lately I have a lot of work that doesn’t allow me to focus on creating content for my account. Yet I have time to stretch out on the couch and do nothing, I have time to go for a walk and clear my head, I have time to waste time on the phone.

It’s not that we don’t have time, it’s that we don’t feel like doing “it” with the time we have. If you feel like doing something, you always find the time. But it doesn’t look good to say that and we hide there.

The red dot

Two of the questions I receive most often are the following:

Why labellecicatrice? and why the red dot on your paintings?

labellecicatrice (the beautiful scar) refers, first, to the scars that decorate my belly, related to several operations I had in my twenties following an intestinal disease from which I am now recovered, but it also refers to all the scars, beautiful in themselves, that remind us that we have overcome some setback. The fact of using a French name when I am Spanish, has no other explanation than an inexplicable passion for this language.

And about the red dot, I have little to say. I was simply looking for a way to sign and aesthetically it seemed ideal.

What is drawing?

Sometimes I wonder what’s the point of just copying a photo, and maybe that’s why I always try to go a little further, either trying to create movement with the multiple poses or going a little further back and creating the image from scratch.

When I knew that Desirée was coming home to collaborate in my Empordà project, I asked a friend of mine if she had any idea to take some pictures of her and she proposed this image you see. I asked the model and she said yes, she liked the idea. And so we did it. Once I had the photographic material, I put it in drawing format and I was quite happy with the result.

In this case a drawing created from nothing with the participation of 3 people, each one with their share of responsibility.

Photos

I have opened a photo account. I don’t consider myself a photographer but I like to take them and I use them as a reference for my drawings. Unfortunately I have to deal with instagram censorship. Also the models are not professional and they are photos made in private that then they have given me permission to make them public but covering their identity.

You can follow me on @labellecicatrice.photo