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Mallorca aficionados
Francesca Martì
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Peter Panton: You grew up on the island of Mallorca, what’s your strongest memory of your childhood?
Francesca Martì: Looking up at the stars and the Universe with its beauty and its extent. This is so inspiring.
Q: When did you decide you wanted to become an artist?
A: As a girl, I was always painting and drawing. I always loved creating with my hands, making my own toys and dresses… I had the possibility of studying art when I was 25. I did four years of art studies in Palma de Mallorca at the “Escuela libre del Mediterraneo”. After graduating my first solo exhibition was in 1989.
Q: How do you go about your average working day?
A: I put in many hours, and very much discipline.
Q: What do you actually do to create a sculpture? How do you work?
A: All things considered, it is an entirely long process. From dreams to motivation, from the birth of an idea to the passion… then after all, it is just work and it’s hard to transmit an expression and a message…
Q: The idea of creating a new type of visual language is challenging. Do you consider yourself as being an avant-garde artist?
A: I feel extremely good when experimenting and I need to create something new no matter what I do… this is all very stimulating. Everything I do is done with passion, I believe in what I am achieving!
Q: Experimental artists are preoccupied with depicting what can’t normally be seen: emotional and psychological states. Your works seem to portray fear and you use strong blood red colours. What do you exactly want to express?
A: Maybe fear. Yes, we all have fear… Over a period I was using red as passion or blood. Today colour is an illusion for me, it’s energy…
Q: What’s fundamental to your work as an artist and what role does the artist have in society?
A: Spiritual freedom. Expressing emotions, thoughts, love, energy. It’s very important to challenge questions and to give answers to each individual and to the Art Scene culture.
Q: What has been your greatest inspirational experience and how has your artistic life changed over time??
A: Going to Petra in Jordan for the first time. No, my artistic life hasn’t changed but it has transformed and developed.
Q: Which artist do you most identify yourself with?
A: An art critic said to me the other day: “I connect you to Gary Hill”. She is right…
Q: Picasso is quoted as having said, “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” Do you agree with this statement?
A: In my understanding he means that to learn a good technique can be done in 4 years, but to learn to create your own artistic language can take you a lifetime…
Q: What’s your favourite personal art work?
A: The first portrait of my daughter sleeping.
Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
A: To be serene and firm, to focus and concentrate. Not to react in front of provocation.
Q: What memorable critical responses have you had to your work?
A: When I was told that I had: “The power of ideas”. I like to nurture my visions and to challenge the creative side in me. I never give up! I never want to lose my dreams!
Q: Is an artist’s life lonely? What do you do to counteract it?
A: This is an easy statement… we are all a little lonely and at the same time we resolve on how to counteract. I do like to share in life…
Q: What makes you angry?
A: Stupidities!
Q: Name something you love, and why.
A: The smell of the spring air. This fills my senses.
Q: What’s your relationship with food?
A: I love food! Asian food, and red wine!
Q: What is your favourite book and who is your favourite author?
A: I have always keep in my memory, ever since I was 20 years old, the book called “Los renglones torcidos de Dios” written by Torcuato Luca De Tena.
Q: What’s your favourite film and favourite song?
A: Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose” and as far as songs go “Wild is the Wind” sung by David Bowie.
Q: Do you own a pet? What’s your special relationship with pets?
A: A dog, and it is a very easy relationship.
Q: What’s your most daunting, discouraging experience?
A: The colossal fire which destroyed thousands of millennia olive trees, just around my mountain…
Q: What would you do without?
A: Dying slowly and being sad. |
