Interview: Ana Bustelo

In conversation with Rome based artist Ana Bustelo from Madrid, Spain.

Can you talk about your journey into or interest the arts?

I have always drawn and especially I have always read. I mean I was not the kid who drew, I was that little nerd who read. 🙂

I think that literature is the biggest influence on me as an artist. It is the way I have to think and understand the world and myself.

Nowadays I am more into visual arts, I enjoy a lot with graphic design, painting and theatre.

For me, art is the way I can understand another person, kind of telepathy.

Can you talk about the influences upon your work?

I am a very eclectic person in my tastes. I am interested in very varied disciplines, in fact, I am especially interested in the spaces in between, the gaps. I think that right now what most contaminates my work is editorial design: I am very interested in the composition and hierarchy of information. I try to do something similar with drawing. To name some studies that I like, The Royal Studio, Patrick Thomas, or Braulio Amado.

Related to the illustration in a more direct way, I’m very interested in the studio/editorial Fotokino from Marseille.

What themes are you exploring through your work? Iconography of nature, identity and obersvational drawings all feature in your work for example.

The main theme of my work is the representation itself. How some images are related to each other, what images interrupt us without consent, and how one and the other coexist in our memory. this allows me to explore many topics and techniques.

On the formal side, I’m doing a lot of research on the line. It is a very naked drawing with which I still find it difficult to see myself. I also really want to paint, which implies giving up control and recovering more expressive and spontaneous processes.