Tag: Thinkspace Gallery

Thinkspace Projects is thrilled to be presenting our debut solo exhibition with RJ Quiralta from Mexico. ‘Nocturnos: Painted Midnight Poems’ features 16 new works, including a series of works on canvas, paper and found objects that all magically highlight. RJ’s current ‘Nocturnos’ series emulates late-night inspiration, mixing vintage and modern visuals with mythological and platonic themes of love and companionship. His work often feels like a stage play, inviting viewers to sit in the front row and witness a blend of humor, nostalgia and emotional depth.

Our interview with RJ explores the motivation for this new body of work, shares how his cultural background has influenced his artistic style, and reveals where he gets most of his inspirations from.

• What motivated or inspired the collection you’re presenting in this exhibition?

When I was younger, while on my middle school and high school years, I got really drawn towards poetry and classic literature, as it was what we learn in school, and spend quite a bit of time composing rimes and short story to the best of my abilities, then I found out that because those styles where not in use or fashion any longer I was rejected from contests or literature events, then I didn’t pursue them anymore. Among my favorite was those of dark and bohemian themes and stories, the likes of Dickens’ and Poe’s had a big impact on my imagination, and although I have many other influences in my artworks, some of the foundations are always base on those old darkly poems and stories. In the Spanish literature, there is a sub genera called Nocturnos, literally ‘nocturnal’, they are compositions from a mix of melancholic, bohemian, romantic and dark topics. It is said that those are usually composed in the late night, when our brains get naturally “drunk” with wild inspirations. With this body of work, I’m bringing back that inspiration from my days of youth gone, now I’m using graphical interpretations of verses I didn’t have a chance to write, and just like in the Nocturnos, my collection is a series of funny and dark themed stories, platonic love, friendship, mythology adorned in vintage and modern visuals.

• Could you walk us through your creative process from conception to completion of a piece?

To me, is very important to have a clear image in my mind of what I want a piece to be before I start, and for that I have to make first a story, I found this to be my most difficult and lengthy part of the process as I don’t want to just repeat a piece, but rather a formula. The final composition needs to be a “snapshot” of those stories. After the idea is conceived in my mind, I look for references, photos or illustrations, I look for a pose that would fit that composition then I make a very loose drawing. I always use geometrical grids for objects and actions placement, then I fit my composition within those lines, I found out this approach makes a big difference on the way my artwork develops into the final piece. Normally I draw a loose idea in any piece of paper I find around, but the main sketch is most of the time right on the canvas, thus lost to the paint. Although the pieces end up with some differences and new parts from the original sketch, I personally feel the need to have the process in control, unlike free style drawing or painting, which I enjoy too, making these pieces true to my original compositions, makes me focus and learn new approaches and techniques as I force myself to figure how to achieve the images in my mind. After a piece is done I still let it sit for a few days before the final protective coating, some times I need to go back to it for a touch up or detail I forgot. And of course, to stay able for this process, I make sure to have always some physical activity or exercise, and coffee and sweets is a must, it might sound funny or cliché, but this allows me to produce artwork much better than otherwise, I can only assume is the rush of blood in the brain.

• Are there any recurring themes or symbols in your paintings? If so, what do they represent to you?

I do tend to go back to a kind of cute-dark environment, this is because I always enjoyed the Halloween season, the vintage visuals more than the modern gore, as a Mexican kid, I was totally aware of this holiday but wasn’t something done in my town, a least not like in the T.V. or postcards. You might think we had “Dia de los Muertos”, we did, but it wasn’t anything like today’s celebration, in fact it wasn’t a celebration at all! I’m not a believer of the supernatural, yet it fascinates me, I enjoy the iconography and concepts quite a bit, witches and magic, ghosts and skeletons. Is strange but I feel nostalgic for something I never experience myself. Although in part it might have been vintage cartoons and illustrations I saw as a kid.
Sometimes I think it has to do with the cooling of the weather, I’ve had always struggle with heat, health wise, thus Fall always felt like such a relief, thus my joy for the season might be the association of Halloween and Autumn temperatures.

Then we have the skull, I’ve have been drawing skulls since I can remember, as a kid it made me think of pirates, later as a teen I though it like a cool, defiant and fun icon. I’ve been using it in so many ways, after all these years now I realize how versatile it is, it can have many meanings depending who sees it, and depending on the rendering styles, can be from something very child oriented and cartoon like, to something very dark and or philosophical. Recently I come to a realization that the skull is also a vehicle, in true reality we are only our brains with extended systems of organs, but we live inside the skull, is like a cabin from where we control these bodies we use, thus I think that in part, our attraction to skulls is similar to what we have for a car or a house. In my latest artwork, the skull is that unfortunate fellow who loose his soul to for the sake of love, then he just hangs around with the rest of the characters, is the clumsy friend, they are mostly the remnants of lost souls that have been trapped or devour by the Nymphs beauties, and like in many depictions of the skulls before me, it defies the idea that dead is the end, but rather the next episode, it represents a bit of both, impermanence and eternity.

• Can you share a particularly memorable moment or experience that influenced your artistic journey?

When I finished high school, I stopped pursuing education and thus never had any knowledge on anything academic wise, and although I always been drawing and making up stories, I never had an actual art or design training. I grew up not understanding or even knowing about the art scenes, contemporary art movements, artist or anything related to it. I always though that to be at any art gallery you would need a least a degree in fine art, illustration or design. In part, because of this ignorance I didn’t purse art seriously until I got old. Now, I still remember the first day I saw Bob Ross in my early teens, I think that definitely kept very deep in my hearth the aching for art making even when I didn’t pursue art for most of my early life, seeing him painting was definitely one of my early influential experiences, that stayed dormant until much latter, in the mid 2010’s when by mere chance while visiting the Japanese American National Museum in LA, I got to see the Giant Robot Biennial exhibition, and completely opened my eyes towards the art that has been flourishing in the LA area, and beyond, but most important it reignited my thirst for art making, I started dreaming that I could belong to one of the art scenes, it made me idealize myself with purpose, it inspired me in the right direction, that’s the power of my fellow artist and their work totally enchanted me. I really hope one day someone gets the same motivation seeing my own work.

• Are there any specific artists, movements, or periods in art history that have significantly influenced your work?

I can’t think in any specifics, in fact, growing up in a little town in the country side of Mexico, isolated me from contemporary art movements and artist, and I wasn’t a great student to begin with. When I moved to LA, I become a hermit of sorts and didn’t notice the huge LA art scene happening literally across the county, but as a kid from the end of the 70’s I did had a lot of pop culture visuals from the 80’s. My Dad used to have a lot of science and auto mechanic magazines and books from the 40’s all the way to the 70’s, I spend hours contemplating them as almost everything there was illustrated, from motor diagrams and vacuum tube radios to pretty women in appliances or soda advertisements, those images where really enjoyable and thus I come to realize later in life that they had been a strong influence in what I do. Vintage cartoons and comics have also played a role in my style and I often got to contemplate many illustrations from fairy tales on school text books which had inspired me with my compositions. Among the media I was exposed as a kid was Japanese animation, oddly, we had a least a couple of series always on air on regular T.V. As an adult in LA, I started frequenting the Libraries and after my nephew recommendations, I got to get myself into Japanese comics: Manga, these where definitely an important influence, in some series, the depiction of woman is quite different from the western comics, manga has managed to portrait beauty and strength together, that is something I consciously seek to incorporate in my artwork.

• In what ways does your cultural background or personal identity inform your artistic perspective?

One of my hobbies since I was young was genealogy, through many years I had the opportunity to read a great number of old records and manuscripts that goes back four to five centuries. This allowed me to get familiar not only with my own roots buy with the real formation of today’s Mexico, learning how much diversity we actually had during the colonial days explains a lot of current customs and traditions, we are the product of a cultural fusion, and although politically we’ve been forced into a nationalism and the belief of a fictitious “only indigenous” background, our culture says way more than that, with influences from Africa, Middle East, South East Asia, Europe and all the tribal Indigenous nations and states that ruled what’s today Mexico, we are in fact really colorful people. Art wise this has allowed me to embrace much more than I though I should, my artwork is, like my background a mix of all, a “Mestizo” like myself, it gives me freedom of expression and doesn’t limit what I can produce. Understanding this rich background also makes me appreciate the elements I borrow from any place or culture around the world, I don’t do it out of an impulse or a fad, I do it because it makes it human, and I hope that this joy I feel producing with all these “colors”, it becomes a joy for anyone who sees my paintings.

• If you could collaborate with any artists in any sort of medium (i.e. movies, music, painting) who would you collaborate with, and what would you be making?

Doing painting and illustration art has been a delight and is my passion, but I must admit that I truly enjoy all kinds of arts and crafts, I have met so many great artist in LA and some through the internet that do all kinds of things that I would love to collaborate with all of them. From toy making to sculpture and ceramic, carving, animation, comics, music, you name it. Is just so much fun to create. I already had a couple customized toy opportunities but I really want to sculpt some of my own characters, carving and clay or ceramic sculpture are definitely on my to do list, in fact I had done a little of both before. A mural is another goal of mine, I’ve never painted in big scale, would be great to do so with a fellow artist. Another big one in my bucket list would be to curate an exhibition, a drawing/illustration one, and invite artists in all kinds of disciplines, I think that’s like the ultimate collaboration. That would be an awesome achievement.

• How do you approach the naming of your pieces, and what significance do titles hold for you?

I always try to make sure that the tittles are not too philosophical and yet not too explicitly plain, they must make sense and go along with the composition but I like them to be playful at times, or sound like a book, novel or movie tittle. Sometimes I can’t come out with anything interesting so I try to look for “sophisticated” or less common synonyms, and maybe come out with something funny. It might not always work but I want for people who read or listen the tittle first, to get very curious about the artwork. A funny thing is that now that I’m older and had done many pieces, I think I might had repeated tittles unknowingly, I know I need to do a database of my own but is something that doesn’t amuse me to do. By the way my tittles go some times through my wife and kids seal of approval, as English isn’t my native language, I might have different ideas in my mind from the way it actually reads.

• Do you find yourself drawn to certain subjects or scenes repeatedly? If so, why?

Although I try not to make “clones” of my pieces, is true that I end up with very similar scenes, one of the reasons is because I want to produce a “signature” style not only on characters and rendering but also on composition, for example, one of my goals with my recent pieces is to resemble at some extent the vintage soda or food advertisement, this is, unnecessarily pretty and slightly flirty woman holding a soda bottle, it is a marketing formula that I want to twist into a simple aspect of the full composition for the only purpose of delight, I notice that it does produce satisfaction on the viewer and thus I repeat that aspect as necessary, but in fact it does give me satisfaction and joy to produce it too, and that makes art making much more meaningful, similar goes to the inclusion of musical depictions or dessert and sweets, these two are universally enjoyed, is relatable to any person regardless of age, background, nationality, etc. Which allows me to communicate my art to anyone.

• If your paintings had a soundtrack, what kind of music would we hear while viewing them?

Classic Jazz and Blues, mostly instrumental, specially the most upbeat type, is what is in my mind while I’m painting them, half of the time is what I’m actually playing when painting, I guess it is due to the vintage cartoons and movies I used to watch, and although comes from a couple of generations before my time, still has that nostalgic feel I quite enjoy. Some times as I’m studying my finished pieces I end up
humming those tunes almost unconsciously.

• What’s the weirdest or most unexpected inspiration you’ve ever drawn from for a painting?

I don’t think anything odd or weird has inspired me, yet, but I do get a lot of visual stimulation from dessert, pastries, candy, drinks, food, glass, shadows, reflected lights. electronic components. I’m more of a conventional folk I guess.