DIANA CONTRERAS
Where are you from?
I grew up in Miami but I was born in Chiclayo, Peru.
What do you love most about Miami?
I love the weather. I like the tropical weather and the beaches. I like the Latin culture. It is different from the rest of the United States.
How much of your Peruvian heritage and culture do you see in your art?
I think a lot of the colors. Especially pink. When you go to Peru, like Machu Picchu and the mountains, you see a lot of the patterns and the clothing the native people wear is hot pink and neon green.
Do you travel to Peru regularly?
I go visit my family but I have never gone to the tourist places so I am going to go next year.
Where else do you want to travel to next?
I have not been to Asia. I want to travel to Japan and China. I want to go all over the world, little by little.
How long have you been painting?
I have been painting since I was in elementary school
How would you describe your style of art?
My art has always been feminine. I like a little bit of fantasy and whimsical details. Frida Kahlo inspired my work. I love how she is able to express emotions. I think my work is very feminine and it touches people’s emotions. I can express emotion very well. I also love fashion. Patterns and clothing and trends inspire my work, too.
Who are your favorite designers?
Betsy Johnson is my favorite. I also like Stella McCartney, Michael Kors and Gwen Stefani.
You started out with gallery work and you have recently done street murals as well. When did you start with the murals?
About a year and a half ago. I have a lot of friends that do graffiti. They pushed me to do art on a wall. The first time I did it was at Cushy Gigs. I did a character there. Inside there are a lot of amazing artists, all women artists like Tatiana Suarez. I am very proud this was my first time I did a character. I like that street art brings happiness to the community. That is how I started loving it. I like to give my art to charities and do things that help others.
Are the women in your paintings and murals based on real people or do they spring from imagination?
I think people. I watch people, sometimes my friends. Unconsciously I draw them or myself. When I draw realistically I use my friends as references or people that I like in magazines.
If you could paint any wall or any building in the world, which would you choose?
I like La Familia Sagrada in Barcelona, Spain. Antoni Gaudi‘s architecture is just beautiful. It is art. It is like Alice in Wonderland. It is so magical.
You previously mentioned you express emotion in your art. Do your paintings and murals reflect your emotion at the time of painting or the imagined emotion of the character?
(laughs) It is usually about me and how I feel. It comes out in my art. It is very hard to hide it. It comes out without me thinking. Sometimes, if it is for a client, if I am feeling mad or sad, I have to make sure that it doesn’t look like that even though that’s how I feel. I adjust it for a client but when it’s for myself I just let it flow.
We have to talk about one of your latest murals, “Queen Isabella.” Tell us a bit more about it please
The story of Queen Isabella is that when Christopher Columbus was coming to America he came to the King to ask for funds for the trip and she was going to pawn her jewels. That is where the story of the pawn show and Isabella came together. The mural is half finished. They want me to do the whole building so I will add more to the story. In the mural Queen Isabella wants to finance her dreams cause when you go to the pawn shop you can trade something for funds to pay for education or travel or business. Out of her hands jewels will come out and maybe images of dreams and the ship of Christopher Columbus. It will go all around the building.
Have you done any murals outside of Miami?
I did a little mural in New York. I wanted to do another one this summer but I was too busy and I am a teacher so I have to start work in two weeks. Usually, in the summer, I love to travel. I want to travel and paint in California and New York and Puerto Rico.
How tall is the Queen?
40 ft
How important and inspiring is the traveling?
I love to travel. I love culture and people. I went to India two years ago. All the colors and the people were so beautiful. I went to school in Italy. All of that really influenced me.
What direction do you want to take with your art? Are you planning to experiment with another medium?
I definitely want to do installation. I am working on an idea with movies and mural making. Film and installation.
In the current group exhibition ay Wyn317 you included paintings inspired by “My little Pony.” Are those paintings based on childhood memories?
Yes that is something that I loved growing up in the 80s. I love “My Little Pony.” It was just something fun I wanted to try. I did a collection of ponies before for a pop art show. I also did ponies in a mural in the Bird Road Art District. It is fun. Two giant “My little Ponies.”
Do you have a fascination with horses in general?
Not really. “My Little Pony” is just cute. I have ridden horses but they can be a little bit scary. When I went to India I wanted to ride everything because they have a lot of animals. I rode a donkey and I rode elephants and I rode a camel. Camels are very tall and it is very wobbly. I liked the elephants the best.
Do you have any upcoming exhibitions?
I have one in Pembroke Pines called “About Face” curated by Jill Slaughter in October. Barbara M De Varona is going to be there, too. It is a group show and it is all about portraits.
Non Violence
inSPIRE - Acoustic Explorations in Composition
This article was edited and posted by me for Designing Sound, where I serve as one of the contributing editors.
"Earlier this year, Quartic Llama was approached by the National Theatre of Scotland to make a game as part of a city-wide trans-media project called other, supporting the theatrical debut of “Let The Right One In”- a contemporary vampire story." - Tom demajo, Co-founder of quartic llama
"In other, the game world is the real world, and the player’s expectations are linked to their experiences in it." -Tom deMajo
WYN317
A Day in Wynwood in July 2013
An Interview with Luis Berros
What do you love most about Miami?
I love everything about Miami. The sunshine, the people, my friends. I am semi-native but I consider myself a full native. I have been here since I was five years old. This is the only home I know.
You started as a graffiti artist. What was the graffiti scene in Miami like growing up?
It was fun for me but it was different from what I see today. Today I see a lot of friendly atmosphere where crews co-exist. In my era that did not happen. Wynwood was our neighborhood. I was a part of the VO5 Crew, best crew in Miami history. Everything we did was trendsetting, cutting edge. We were ahead of the curve by all means. Still to this day it is still a legendary crew. As far as the scene, there were a lot of gangs back then and it was a little violent. We did fight, we did throw down if you went over our tag or came into our neighborhood. It was fun but I guess that environment, for a young man growing up, with all the hormones and the issues that we had at 16, 17, 18, it was just great and we loved it. Now I look back on it at 42 years old and married with two kids of my own and I am kind of happy it was taken a turn to where it is now. It is more about respecting art and other artists and working together, coming up with ideas together. It has changed most definitely a lot and for the better.
You said VO5 is legendary and was always ahead of the curve. Tell us a bit about what you did then that stood out to this day.
Our productions were very large productions and they were all done in one night. These days graffiti artists have the luxury of mostly doing a lot of work with permission which, I guess, is nice. The quality of the work is still there and it is beautiful work but I do not see the challenges that were presented to us as kids. We worked by street light or by no light and we had eight hours of nighttime to produce our work. Coming back was a risky option which we did not enjoy taking advantage of so we tried to do our pieces all in one night. As far as cutting edge, we came up with different techniques and different looks. They were not cookie cutter bubble letters or whatever everybody else was doing. You could spot a VO5 piece and know that was the VO5 crew that created that production.
When did you transition from street art to gallery work?
20 years after I used to paint on walls I found myself living in a bad economy, came to Wynwood for an art walk, saw what was in the galleries and I told myself as well as my family that I could do this. I had their full support and today I am an artist, going three years strong, loving every minute of it, wish I would have started earlier. I am here now and I am planning on making a mark.
You often paint Popeye. What do you like about that character?
Popeye is more of a nostalgic childhood thing. As a kid, believe it or not, I could never draw that guy. It was one of my challenges. Now that I am older and more years have gone by, I guess, I am more observing, I think I kind of nailed this guy. I would love to reach out to Warner Brothers and see if I could start doing him under contract but for now I am just happy to do him and do him well.
You also used another iconic image, of the Coppertone Girl. Why?
That whole series of paintings started by me thinking of something interesting and I thought “What could be more interesting than my childhood?” As a kid I was very much always in trouble at school and I would spend many long days driving around with my dad. He would have to take me to work with him. He was a road sales man. I saw all these images on a daily basis and I remembered the Coppertone Girl and I thought it was a fascinating little figure. That was basically the reason behind me painting her.
What inspires you besides your childhood?
The things that are around me. Things that I see and things that are part of everyday experiences. I bring that into my work.
You have a distinct style. When did you develop that style?
That style is still in the developing stages. If you look at my earlier work, there is always hints of what used to be and hints on what it is going to be. It is very hard to see my fingerprint if it were not for the texture in my work. My style basically is what I feel at the moment and where the work is taking me. There comes a point in the work where I tell myself to put it done and be done.
If you could own any work of art. What would you choose?
There are so many. That’s a funny questions because I do not have any of my work hanging in my house.
Why not?
I do not know. I am not really into that vibe. As far as other artists’ work, I have a small print of a Vincent Van Gogh and a have a print from Ricky Mastrapa.
Back to the questions. If you could own any work of art what would you choose?
If I could own anything I guess it would be Rembrandt’s “Girl with the Broom.” I connect with something about the look of that piece. In that era it was juts a little peasant girl and to see the emotion that he grabs in her face. There are so many angles to that painting you could sit there for hours and always find something interesting about it.
Where do you see yourself going next with your art?
I am thinking of going back more to my abstract world inside my head. With some of the figures making an appearance now and then. I really would like to go even larger than my work now. I am a bit limited by the space I have to work in. I would love to go way larger. I come from a background of walls and to be working on something so small makes you feel confined. I just want to go crazy and blow something up.
The Go! Shop presents: A STRANGEWAYS Group Show
Love All, Serve All
Truth
Speech
The new Divide
Can you describe Act of Divides writing process? Do you write as a unit or separately?
Wild: It's a combination of both really. Taylor and Smith will come up with the guitar parts and they bring them to band or we work on guitar parts and lyrics separately and then we get together and compare notes.
Wild: We will be announcing tour plans for Act of Divide closer to the upcoming dates. We will post updates on our website as well as other social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook.
Sympathy
Via WORD FOR THE DAY
"In your heart must well that sympathy which soothes away all pains from the hearts of others."
Paramahansa Yogananda
Average Joe Art Sale at YoMiami
