Artist Proof: Mario Sánchez Nevado a.k.a. Aegis_Strife is a visual artist based in Muricia, Spain. His illustrations are created using digital tools & photography, but he also works in traditional medias like oil, acrylics, pastels or even watercolours. Mario has been know to work on video from time to time as well.
Artsprojekt: What inspires your art?
Mario: I try to portray my everyday life in my images. Why I do it this way… I don’t know. I guess that a lot of artists have left a trail or something on me, but I cannot identify any, except the ones left from music. I am a music eater and I am listening to music 24/7, I get inspiration from lyrics but mostly from soundscapes.
AP: What is the relationship between technique and content in your work?
Mario: It changes from time to time. I used to be more attached to technique, then I started a period in 2008 in which for me, the meaning of the piece was the important thing. That caused my technique to get a bit rusty, so nowadays I focus in both things. The technique is important to deliver a message but if that message is not clear you are doing nothing. My technique tries to talk about what I feel related to the concept I am showing, so it is important to know many techniques and medias because the same one is not always the best depending in which ideas. Sometimes I do very colorful pieces regarding to sad themes to make the contradiction of language and show people that you can do a sober piece with bright colors, because most of the time people make the opposite, which is correct, but not challenging. So having a good skill base makes you able to do such things.
AP: Describe your first experience of making art and how it affected your life’s journey
Mario: Since I started in “art” when I was a child, I just cannot remember. But I remember that I loved when my mother used to draw Disney characters for me to paint them with crayons. At first I only used to draw characters from comics or videogames, but when I started my degree in Fine Arts I started to develop my own language, so I guess I should answer this question from that point. At first we had to draw statues and paint still-lifes, but I remember the first paintings I did in my own. They had the germen of what I do nowadays and were more “classical-surreal” oriented, with a lot of reminiscences from Magritte, Ernst or Dalí for example. These pieces showed me the way to what I do, and I started to stay more in the studio than in classes to create my own visions.
AP: Describe your most recent experience of making art.
Mario: It has been with the piece “Revenge”. At the time I am writing this the piece is still unreleased. It has been my first piece of 2010, a year I have my hopes put into, since the last 2 years have been very weak, artistically speaking. It’s a digital painting piece, which is something that I rarely do, because I tend to work more in photomanipulation and mixed media, but lately, I have the need of a big change and I think that painting is the key. It’s hard to develop a piece in that media but the sense of bigger freedom is priceless. I’ve enjoyed this piece a lot, more than my last ones and I hope to keep that line in the near future to find again my artistic-self, which I lost in 2008.
AP: Take us on a guided tour through a day in your life as an artist
Mario: I wake up late, usually between 3-5 p.m., I drink some milk and if I am home alone (I live with my partner) I sit in front of the computer. I open Photoshop, Firefox and turn on the music. I am already working on a piece; I open it and usually leave it there for some hours. In the meanwhile, I check my mail, my accounts on different portals and then take a look at the image. Usually I start working on it but sometimes I don’t feel like continuing it and I open a new file and start doodling to see what happens. If I get so tired or uninspired I just leave the place, watch a movie, go out with friends, check art websites or I just sit in the sofa with my partner. I usually go to bed to 7-8 a.m., unless I am painting something and I feel that I am into the image… then I can stay awake for days painting. I know it’s not the healthy way but I just cannot avoid it when you notice that the piece you are developing is going in the right path.
