Post by eternity on Jun 21, 2008 11:03:20 GMT
Name? Mario Sánchez NevadoAge? 22
Location? Murcia, Spain
Website/Gallery? aegis-strife.net/
What you enjoy doing for fun?
Well, lately I’ve not been getting any free time, but usually the main thing I do when I’m not somewhere with my friends, is create something, no matter if it is illustrations, paintings, music, videos… I need to keep my mind busy all the time with creative ideas, I cannot avoid it, it’s part of my life. I create, therefore I am.
Your favourite website to visit (you don't have to own it)?
Wikipedia, definitely. I’m a very curious person and I’m always investigating things. I like to go to Wikipedia almost everyday to search random stuff and learn bits of everything.
You tend to make a series of works rather than just a one off image. What are the reasons for this?
When I started to create digital imaging everything was just a explosion of experimenting new things, compositions, themes, colours… now some years have passed by, and the way I work is more calmed and has other way of developing.
I like to group works. When I create I don’t link my mind to any concepts, I’m very impulsive and everything is almost automatic at first, so everything is more expression than speech, so I guess I group my works for the way they have portrayed certain periods of my life.
In the past my stuff was very random, every new image was completely different of the rest because that argue of experimentation on a new media, but, although I keep on evolving with every image, always challenging myself, now the aesthetics keep on appearing within certain periods.
Do you feel that you cannot cover a topic in one image? Or perhaps it is because a theme can be interpreted in different ways? Please explain.
Well, topics and concepts can be portrayed in thousands of ways and they can be more or less understandable. What I do is expression so I guess it’s just a way of learning by oneself. My messages are abstract retails of the content of my subconscious. I do not do much concept-art nowadays.
From your image descriptions you use a lot of your own photographs as the basis for your works though you do use stock from other sources too. Do you find you use your own stock more than that of others? Why is this and when do you find yourself browsing through other databases than your own?
In my late stuff, overall 90% of the photographic content is mine, and if I have to use some stock database is for getting certain things that at that moment I cannot shot. I avoid using stock all the time, makes the whole process more personal, but I’m grateful that there’re people out there lending us a hand.
It is very rare for you to use only one colour in an image, even in images such as "Exit Mould" there are small hints at other colours. Do you have any reasons for this?
Well, sometimes I really try to use a lesser colour palette in my images but I just cannot avoid it, it’s instinctive, and most of the times I even think the images do not have enough colours! I try to do compositive combinations that allow me to guide the eye of the viewer, and also to raise the attention of certain items. So I’d say that the reason of using this kind of colourization is 50% instinct and 50% composition issues.
Your work is very much open to interpretation with its abstract themes. Does it ever annoy you if the idea you are trying to get across is interpreted in a different way or is this a benefit?
Hehe, well, I have to make a difference between my old and most well-known stuff and my recent one, and that is that my old work is conceptual, and my new one as I have said, it’s automatic work about expression and emotion, so the way of interpretation in both is quite different. Anyways, whatever the goal of the artist was, always everyone understands under different points of view so the meaning of every piece is the one the beholder gives to it, because there are so many elements outside the piece that change the message of it to every viewer.
Apart of that, I like to read the message the images gives to different people. When people says something about my images usually it is how nice they look, but I rarely get people telling me what they see in the image, and that’s great, because whatever your reaction was when you did the piece, you told something to someone via the image, and that’s the important thing, that the message is always endless, as long as people are in the world. I have my interpretation and view on the piece. You have yours. Usually I prefer the way I interpret images of others because, sometimes they told me what they were saying on them, but mine is always linked to my innerness, so it says more to me.
One of your more complex pieces is "The Carnival is Over". From the details you posted there is obviously a story behind this. Would you care to explain or is this open to interpretation by the viewer?
As well as with “Hidden Place”, done one year before more or less, it seems that every year I do a tour-de-force and this piece was the last one. I have never been so sure what I wanted to say in this image, because it was very automatic. It started in a completely different way, with two women on a mountain and the one flying, and it changed a lot and had different forms until it reached this last one. I think it is a sad piece, with the metaphor of the ‘carnival’ as ‘happiness’ torn apart and leaving behind a wasteland in the sunset, leaving everything alone and broken in the night, but as I said, the interpretation is open. There are many icons and elements about loss and solitude in the landscape part. But a lot of things are just decorative I think. I just wanted to challenge myself on this one; conceptually it’s not one of my best ones.
You have uploaded several "making of"s to your gallery. Do you feel that it helps other artists to see how your pieces develop?
Well, I’m a very curious person and sometimes I’d love to see the process of the pieces I like of others, so I guess there are some people out there who are curious about how I work. I don’t know if the process is clearly readable, but I guess that maybe someone can find them useful for something.
Finally, what is your favourite piece from your gallery and why?
Hmmm, I cannot pick one; I have almost a thousand creations counting my traditional stuff. But there are some I get more identified with, like “The Rescue”, “Drink Me”, “Divided”, “Flying”, “A Moment of Doubt”, “Closer”… they describe important chapters of my life and I feel them like if they were parts of me. Also all of those are product of fierce experimentation processes and are technically among my best. The pieces I like the most by myself are because of their message, not their aesthetics.
