Interview: Gomez Veintes

In conversation with self-taught Madrid based artist Gomez Veintes.

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

I always liked to draw. I remember drawing birds in a notebook and the typical stick figures in textbooks and school tables. I also remember browsing through a folder where my father kept his drawings. My father is a great cartoonist. But I think my relationship with artistic creation started earlier, when I stayed alone watching the patterns on curtains and awnings at my mother’s house. I loved looking at those colorful shapes and imagining that they transformed into something different within my mind. Later I drew for seasons, as I wanted. I have even had moments that I call “Modigliani syndrome” where I draw for months, and then throw all the drawings in the trash. Anyway, it is now when I am 45 years old when I have a daily need to create, perhaps due to a more stable and calm life and a greater amount of free time.

Do you use a sketchbook? I’m interested in what a sketchbook means to you and your work?, or how people develop their ideas.

I rarely sit before the paper with a pre-established idea. I just start drawing lines randomly. The images suggest until one of them corresponds to something I want to express… it is just like that, I do not have a sketchbook where I previously developed the ideas.

Your work often features very angular, constructivist approaches. Can you talk about the influences upon your work?

I think that formally my influences are cubist, but I feel closer to expressionism and symbolism. In any case, having my own style interests me rather little, I would like to think that my drawings cause something to move in the soul and heart of people. Maybe it sounds very pretentious but it is what I think.

Can you talk about your process of working. How do you work, how often, is there a particular pattern?

I draw every day, but not by my own imposition or following a certain pattern. I do it simply because I feel like it. If it were not so, it would not. I think imposition kills creativity, at least mine.

Do you find the process of creating work relaxing or therapeutic?

The word would be satisfaction. I find it very rewarding to draw, especially when I like the things I have created. It is a good way to get away from everyday life and give life more life.