Exquisite Arts Magazine Vol 3 - Nov/ Dec 2016 | Page 46

Many believe that artists have a social
responsibility or that art should convey
a deep rooted message. What are your
thoughts, what does art mean to you?
Art means a lot of different things to
everyone. So taking on a rather nihilistic
view, I really don’t think art needs to
convey anything or intrinsically have
any message. I believe that it comes
down to the individual artist and their
experiences with life, and subsequently
the interpretation of the viewer is going
to be different than the intention of the
artist no matter what tricks and skills the
artist has or what message they want to
say. So in the end, who is right? It doesn’t
matter, I think, because most artists create
out of an impulse to create. Whatever that
impulse is becomes our “truth,” and that
can manifest itself into any number of
ways changing and evolving over the
course of our lives. One artist might say
“real” art should confront the viewer with
the very things that make them
uncomfortable; another artist might think
“good” art should elevate the human spirit
to heroic levels. One shows ugliness and
the other shows beauty, but I strongly feel
both are valid.
This also includes
commercial art like illustration and
animation. I think Wall-E has the same
profundity as the Pieta or Guernica.
Art to me is a language like any other, with
rules and nuances that we manipulate to
our own ends so that we may explore an
idea and take it to its logical conclusion,
as we perceive it. If someone looks at my
painting and begins projecting their
experiences into it, I think that enriches
the work. If they walk past it, I don’t see
it as a failure but instead understand that
their experience is different from my own.
So I create for the sheer love and
selfishness of the creative process,
opinions be damned.
What do you hope to achieve with your
artwork?

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I just want to paint whatever interests me. I’m
not trying to change the world or start
movements or even go down in the history
books. At the end of the day, I create because
the process is so limitless and I want to push
my medium of choice as far as I can take it.
Who knows, that may mean I abandon realism
and go abstract?
Is there anything else that you’d like to
share with our audience?
I’ll be part of two group shows at Emerge
Gallery in Saugerties, NY in November and
January. I also have one of my drawings being
published in the next edition of Strokes: The
Best of Drawing in 2017.

Website: juliantejeraart.com
Instagram: @juliantejera_art