Maria Agostini
Staff Writer
Name: Ricardo Cavolo
Profession: Illustrator, painter, sculptor, tattoos’ designer
Nationality: Spanish
Location: Madrid
Contacts: www.ricardocavolo.com / www.facebook.com/ricardocavolo
Age: 29
During a nice lunch in Madrid, my friend Albert told me about an artist he had discovered by the name of Ricardo, a very shy and grumpy illustrator. He added, though, how much of a genius he is when it comes to art, and suggested me to check his facebook page.
Among his many projects, he also drew the illustrations for the agenda of a Peruvian University: I literally fell in love with his portraits of Mario Vargas Llosa, a very famous indigeneous writer. It all started with me asking how could I get a copy of that agenda. I’m still waiting for it, but in the meantime…
1. Tell us about what you do…
Well, I work from home as an artist in many different ways. An important part of my job is just “being an artist”, by receiving orders from people (from all over the world): they ask me to create illustrations, paintings, sculptures, it could be any kind of different art.
Also, I am an illustrator: I do illustrations of books, advertising campaigns, posters, records covers and so on. Recently, I have been commissioned the illustration for Cirque du Soleil, you can see how the illustration was built, bit by bit, in this video:
Finally, there is a third part of my job, which is to create and design tattoos for people. I am not a tattooer, people commission me the design and I develop the work as a normal illustration: that is what I actually sell. Then, they go on, and it becomes a tattoo.
2. How did you end up doing it?
My father used to paint, and as a child, we lived in his art studio. So I started very young to have fun painting and drawing. Later on, I decided to study Fine Arts, and I worked hard to try and turn this “fun thing” into something that could be used in real life. I’ve been doing art all my life, but I have only been able to earn and get by selling my work for a couple of years now. Illustrating is something I’ve done for both pleasure and necessity (human wise, not financially), so when I first tried to start charging for it, it became a problem as I felt the need to be sufficiently prepared to ask compensation for my work and to show it to a larger audience.
3. Where are you from originally & what has taken you where you live now?
I am from Salamanca, a small town in the centre of Spain, known for its centenarian University but I live in Madrid. Once I finished college in Salamanca, I came to Madrid: being a big city, it offers more opportunities for my artistic career, it is a good platform to develop and showcase your craft, which is a huge advantage.
4. Where else would you ever live? Why?
I would definitely say London: I love the city, its art scene is huge. It would make me so happy to have the chance of living there for a while as I must say I do not feel very Spanish, but rather more English – at least artistically speaking.
5. What is missing in your city’s art scene?
I think that it would be great to open temporary spaces dedicated to young and emerging artists, spaces where it could be easy for us to show our work through temporary exhibitions. These spaces could be relieved from all the bureucratic problems of a standard gallery, such as taxes for example. There is often a fake label of “underground” around art projects, most of them only pretend to promote the development of new art; in fact, it is extremely difficult to find a “real” underground, truly investing on young talents.
6. What has contributed the most towards what you have achieved?
It might sound too simple, but I think that the most important thing to get through in this world is to work hard. This job demands so many hours of drawing, of learning, of experimenting, of looking for things and ideas to work on. I believe that if you actually work really really hard, you will, sooner or later, get what you have been looking and striving for. It might take time, but you will eventually get it.
Another necessary thing is to try see and study as much art you can: watch movies, read books, spend hours on the internet. All that part is work too, because that information helps you to create new ideas and stories towards your own work.
7. At the age of 20, what did you think you were going to do “in life” – where did you see yourself in the future? Has your dream come true already?
When I was 20, I was at college learning the way to generate new ideas for my work and getting ready to try and pursue my dream: to enjoy my crafts and also be able to afford to buy enough tomatoes at the end of the month! So far, I think I’ve achieved my dream of when I was 20. I hope to be able to continue working on this for a very long time. The fact that I can now combine my main passion with a way of making a living is one of the best choices I could possibly have ever made. Whereas some people think that if you professionalise your passion, the magic is gone, I believe that you simply need to make sure to always have fun while doing it.
However, I know how unpredictable this job is: it can really go down very easily, it is not safe at all, especially for a young artist: you never have a fixed salary in the end of the month. You have to think that this could well be the last week you’ll be lucky enough to receive orders, and so you just have to work harder and harder to get more new customers.
I probably will need to adopt a survivor mood if I want to go on just working on this wonderful thing.
8. What projects are you currently working on?
Well, I have just finished working on two exhibitions whose preparation took up a lot time, as I worked on brand new pieces while trying to change my work process a bit (to avoid being stale). It’s been a very exciting experience though: “Familia” has taken place in Bilbao, at “Belaza Art Gallery” and “Draw, draw, draw” in Madrid at “Mad is Mad Art Gallery”.
“Familia” is made of portraits of people, each of them a representant of something belonging to my life: obsessions, fears, satisfactions, intentions. By putting together all these characters’ traits, you get to Ricardo Cavolo.
These characters represent, as well, themes and issues peculiar of an outsider world, which is what interests me the most: it’s from there that the stories I narrate come from. Each of these characterx is its own galaxy, where planets, stars, asteroides, black holes are all details that contribute towards the entire geography of the portrait, they are ways to explain how is this character, what obsesses him, what makes him happy, etc. Each portrait explains how the character lives and why it lives in this way. Each portrait, therefore, illustrates a part of Ricardo Cavolo, why and how it is actually part of himself.
At the moment, I am working on a new project for an exhibition, which will be ready next year. Called “Vida”, it involves paintings (medium and big size) and acrylics on wood: it is a mix of portraits, anatomic and botanic studies, all part of a “crazy” concept. At the same time, I am organising two more exhibitions, one in Zurich and another one in Lima (Peru), which will involve a workshop as well.
Finally, I am in the process of putting together my first own book, made of my own texts and illustrations.
9. If you could meet any artist – living or dead – who would it be?
I would love to meet Jean Dubbufet. He lived at a very interesting time of the last century and his work has been one of the most influential towards my projects. He is one of the very few who discovered a hidden part of the art creation and made the Outsider Art truly important.
Dubuffet is to me a sort of lighthouse within the art I love. He has been like a teacher to me, it’s as if, all along the way, he has been giving me advises, while whispering always new suggestions.
10. And finally, what are you hoping will get you your “15 minutes of fame”?
Fame is not something I ever thought to strive for, it is something that never really caught my mind. So, let’s say, I’d be more than happy if, for example, by reading this interview, someone would be actually curious enough to browse through my blog, spend a few minutes there, and have a “good time”, a fun time, looking at the colours and at my art. One of the things that motivate me the most is to manage to entertain people, even if it’s just for a little while!
The traveller’s corner – Ricardo’s tips if you were to go to Madrid…Art Gallery: Espacio Valverde (www.espaciovalverde.es)
Theatre: Teatro Alfil (www.teatroalfil.com)
Band: The Secret Society (thesecretsociety.bandcamp.com)
Gig venue: Moby Dick (www.mobydickclub.com)
Area of the city: Barrio Malasaña.
Shop: Sportivo (http://www.gruposportivo.com)
Cafe: La Realidad (http://larealidaddelatiaperrina.blogspot.com)
Hostel/B&B: Room Mate (http://www.room-matehotels.com)
