“After several visits to the island, I felt the concern that it was hiding something that would nourish me. After painting there for a few weeks, I still couldn’t see clearly what it was that attracted me to it artistically. Of course, its colors, the infinite shades of the skin of its people, the clothing, etc. are something beautiful and new. I painted some works that left me impassive, they didn’t reflect what I was looking for, that wasn’t the driving force, nor that kind of energy that made me continue to reflect, attracted by “I don’t know what.”
On my return, already in the studio, the mystery was still present. I came back with good photographic documentation, and I also kept in touch with new friends from the town where I stayed, something that helped me discover what it was that had me restless.
A town, its customs, a society that changes every moment, things happen without its inhabitants wanting to generate it. They are creators of unique moments; one has the feeling that everything is always in continuous movement. This is because they spend most of their life on the street and always together, working, talking, just being there.
This movement makes it possible for the elements to change continuously and for scenes to occur in which many things happen in a short time. Children play, fishermen remove scales, a boat enters, a family of tourists dives, you see the fish swimming, the foam is horchata-colored, a bike passes over and the horchata turns violet. And in a few seconds a cloud so white that it lights up everything. This leads to an endless number of textures and sensations creating scenes full of chromatic richness.
Added to these circumstances is something impressive to see, and it is a sky that changes and moves even faster than its society. Clouds that go from blackish-purple tones to “cotton” clouds that reflect an overwhelming light like I have never seen anywhere pass through the island all the time. Such cloud movement creates a variation of light, modifying and transmuting all the elements in a matter of seconds.
This fact of wanting something and not knowing why reminds me of the soft drink commercials they used to show in the cinema between frames. It made you crave that soft drink without being fully aware of it. That which your eyes are not able to see, but your mind can. That is how I began to understand that what I wanted to paint was not a specific image, it was a combination of all of them, a joy bomb where such special colors and scenes naturally converge. In short, pure beauty and life was that “je ne sais quoi”.”
