if u've never seen his paintings u can have a look at the website www.nagualcreations.com
Bologna (Italy), March 17th 2006
Let’s start with your name: Nagual.
For Castaneda a Nagual is someone who leads other people to new areas of consciousness, but according to Mexican and Maya tradition a Nagual is also a kind of phenomenon people don’t understand and it’s a symbol, a representation of an animal..In which way are you a Nagual?
There is also another interpretation of a Himalayan tribe, for which it means “omnipresence”, Nagual. All of them are quite cool meanings, but for me, there are actually two reasons for this name. I chose it many years ago, around the time I started doing paintings and stuff like that. I was reading a lot of Carlos Castaneda and I was surely influenced by him. So, one of the reasons is leading people into other dimensions, to other areas of consciousness. Then, Nagual also means “of the left”. The right side of your brain controls the left part of your body, your creative part, and your left side of the brain controls the other side. I am left-handed, so I am using the wrong side of my brain to do physical things. There is Nagual and Tonal, the Nagual is of the left and the Tonal is of the right and I chose Nagual because I am left-handed.
What about bringing people to other dimensions? Do you think this is your “ role” as an artist?
It’s quite an arrogant thing to say “Yeah, my work will bring people into other dimensions and state of consciousness!” But this is the sort of spirit in which the work is done.
I’ve done traditional exhibitions and been asked to explain my work verbally to people. To actually explain a piece of work and say “This what it is about. This is what it represents.” Well, for me this destroys the potency of the piece completely. People come to me and say “Wow! I was looking at this picture and it represents this and this, doesn’t it?” I’d have a million reasons I could tell them what the picture is, but for me, if they come and tell me something the picture is about, something that has never come into my head... Yes! That’s what it’s about. It’s fantastic. Obviously for me there were many reasons that made me paint that particular thing, in that way, and there are different levels of interpretation, but the best one is to leave it to whoever uses to see whatever they see.
What do you think about today’s artistic scene?
Art, instead of being something intuitive, it has turned into something intellectual. It has turned into something people discuss about, people discuss about the piece, trying to understand its meaning and what the artist wanted to say. I like Conceptual Art, but for me the first thing a picture has to do is to compel you to look at it. Maybe you hate it, or you love it, but the worst thing is indifference or having the feeling that you have to look at it and understand what it means. I think that is why I started doing work in the parties and in this scene. It’s just a completely open environment, people don’t have to look at the work, they haven’t gone there to look at the work. It’s something that it happens to be there when they’re there. It catches people off guard, they may be in a completely relaxed state of mind and hopefully they get attracted and they come a bit closer...It’s much more natural. The environment is much more open-minded, people don’t come to analyse, but to experience and to feel.
What about the business aspect? Very often artists have to adapt themselves to the market if they want to make a living out of their art.
I sell pictures of my paintings, but I prefer to use my art, to go around with it, to display it at parties without selling it. Anyway, you wouldn’t buy a party backdrop to put it at a party...
I do sell paintings as well, at a reasonable price, but, you know, I have travelled all over the world putting my art in parties and I don’t make a great deal of money doing this, but enough to live. I have been living like this for fourteen years now. I am not rich but I make a living out of it and I am sure that if I was exhibiting I would have probably stopped doing it a long time ago!
You speak to artists and they say, “you know, I spent months on this piece of work, you get an exhibition and the most you can hope for the piece is five hundred Euros or whatever it is and then your agent takes half of that..” I couldn’t do that!
I would like to enjoy a sort of recognition in the art world, but at the same time I am probably doing a lot better like this! I have an appreciative audience....!
Conducted and edited by Marge
Bologna (Italy), March 17th 2006
Let’s start with your name: Nagual.
For Castaneda a Nagual is someone who leads other people to new areas of consciousness, but according to Mexican and Maya tradition a Nagual is also a kind of phenomenon people don’t understand and it’s a symbol, a representation of an animal..In which way are you a Nagual?
There is also another interpretation of a Himalayan tribe, for which it means “omnipresence”, Nagual. All of them are quite cool meanings, but for me, there are actually two reasons for this name. I chose it many years ago, around the time I started doing paintings and stuff like that. I was reading a lot of Carlos Castaneda and I was surely influenced by him. So, one of the reasons is leading people into other dimensions, to other areas of consciousness. Then, Nagual also means “of the left”. The right side of your brain controls the left part of your body, your creative part, and your left side of the brain controls the other side. I am left-handed, so I am using the wrong side of my brain to do physical things. There is Nagual and Tonal, the Nagual is of the left and the Tonal is of the right and I chose Nagual because I am left-handed.
What about bringing people to other dimensions? Do you think this is your “ role” as an artist?
It’s quite an arrogant thing to say “Yeah, my work will bring people into other dimensions and state of consciousness!” But this is the sort of spirit in which the work is done.
I’ve done traditional exhibitions and been asked to explain my work verbally to people. To actually explain a piece of work and say “This what it is about. This is what it represents.” Well, for me this destroys the potency of the piece completely. People come to me and say “Wow! I was looking at this picture and it represents this and this, doesn’t it?” I’d have a million reasons I could tell them what the picture is, but for me, if they come and tell me something the picture is about, something that has never come into my head... Yes! That’s what it’s about. It’s fantastic. Obviously for me there were many reasons that made me paint that particular thing, in that way, and there are different levels of interpretation, but the best one is to leave it to whoever uses to see whatever they see.
What do you think about today’s artistic scene?
Art, instead of being something intuitive, it has turned into something intellectual. It has turned into something people discuss about, people discuss about the piece, trying to understand its meaning and what the artist wanted to say. I like Conceptual Art, but for me the first thing a picture has to do is to compel you to look at it. Maybe you hate it, or you love it, but the worst thing is indifference or having the feeling that you have to look at it and understand what it means. I think that is why I started doing work in the parties and in this scene. It’s just a completely open environment, people don’t have to look at the work, they haven’t gone there to look at the work. It’s something that it happens to be there when they’re there. It catches people off guard, they may be in a completely relaxed state of mind and hopefully they get attracted and they come a bit closer...It’s much more natural. The environment is much more open-minded, people don’t come to analyse, but to experience and to feel.
What about the business aspect? Very often artists have to adapt themselves to the market if they want to make a living out of their art.
I sell pictures of my paintings, but I prefer to use my art, to go around with it, to display it at parties without selling it. Anyway, you wouldn’t buy a party backdrop to put it at a party...
I do sell paintings as well, at a reasonable price, but, you know, I have travelled all over the world putting my art in parties and I don’t make a great deal of money doing this, but enough to live. I have been living like this for fourteen years now. I am not rich but I make a living out of it and I am sure that if I was exhibiting I would have probably stopped doing it a long time ago!
You speak to artists and they say, “you know, I spent months on this piece of work, you get an exhibition and the most you can hope for the piece is five hundred Euros or whatever it is and then your agent takes half of that..” I couldn’t do that!
I would like to enjoy a sort of recognition in the art world, but at the same time I am probably doing a lot better like this! I have an appreciative audience....!
Conducted and edited by Marge
