1. Welcome Begoña to The Influx Gallery family. Tell us a little bit about yourself and where you are from? I am a multi-media artist. My art you are showing in the exhibition is focussed are a series of semi-abstract portraits. I was born In Valencia and grew up and studied in Madrid, Spain. Right now I am living and working close to Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I must say I love city life; I am a very urbanite person. 2. Were your family supportive of you deciding to become an artist? No at first, I inscribed to Fine Art University access exam without my parents knowing it. I mentioned the possibility, but they were not very convinced about the idea of focussing my efforts on something “not useful”, They use to tell me, in the art world “you need to be someone”. They were very surprised when I passed the numerous class exam, and I was serious about it. After that moment they supported me 100%. I graduated in 1992. 3. Was there anything specific that you can remember that made you want to become an artist? I grew up surrounded by art. My parents used to be art collectors, and for me art was a path that was always going to happen. I wondered why some of the art I saw was so special to be chosen. What makes you say this is the one and not this other one (leaving the economic matter aside). 4. Did your schooling or work affect your creative development in any way? Of course. Learning gives you the chance to master techniques. It opens your mind to trying new things and you lose the fear to get out of your comfort zone. Learning and sharing knowledge makes you always grow and after all that is something no one can take away from you. 5. Where do you get your inspiration and influences from? I love experimenting with tricks of perception. I try to conflict the boundaries between figuration-abstraction, figure, and background. I look for a tension to make the observer stop. My past work experience as a graphic designer, illustrator and advertiser has had a heavy influence on my work. Henry Matisse, The School of Gestalt, the works of Victor Vasarely, are very inspiring to my creative practise, but what really inspire my work is people. 6. Do you have a favourite Mutli-media process or technique? I love working with a scanner and create abstract images through transposing a new version of reality. Getting the everyday object an out of context, its lack of perspective and shadows, translates hyperrealism into abstraction. A bunch of wrinkled papers look like a photo from a satellite. The viewer knows something familiar, but doesn’t know what it is exactly. These images are great by themselves but let me create some other pieces with incredible textures that I work on digitally. I make monoprints using these images and I let myself be playful and spontaneous with acrylic ink, pastel, and collage. Some other times I draw and paint and make photos and collages with found objects. 7. What was your most enjoyable piece to create? I try to enjoy every facet of my work, and that involves a very intimate process that makes me feel very attached to every one of them. They are joined by time, place, and situations. When a piece involves different senses, is much more enjoyable to create. One of the most fun pieces was the one I painted with my bare feet full of painting and having a walk on the canvas, dancing, actually. I was going to through away a work, so I decided to give a proper fun goodbye, at the end it was a “hello there” and a completely new art. 8. How you see your photography/ mixed media/ paintings evolving over the next 10 years? I would love to work on installations and collaborating with other artist in big projects 9. Do you collect art or have a favourite painter? I do not collect art yet, but I have some favorite artists like Denis Zarazhin, I recently discover Mónica Pérez , I love her work. I love Japanese art also, and the exquisite way they manage line. 10. Your take on contemporary multi-media art is bold and beautifully realised. How long does it take you from the inception of a piece to a final and finished realisation? It takes a while. I take a long time thinking about the composition and the equilibrium between the empty space and the fullness of the figure, rhythm is important for me too. I make many sketches and discard many options until I decide the piece is finished. Some times I work at the same time in several pieces and let them rest for a while and then recover them after weeks and work on them again. If I use scannographies in the composition can take an added time because it requires a deep “cleaning” of the image. Sometimes dust works and some other is just very unpleasant to watch. 11. Our curators are in awe of your Triptych series of works. Can you give us an insight into the ideas behind such a brilliant series of artworks? These series of portraits are a self-portrait in continuum, a diary if you wish. Very often when I am painting, I know that there are parts of my artwork that I must sacrifice for the sake of the composition of the painting. Before continuing to paint I take photos of the interesting parts that were ephemeral then but that I have decided to reconvert into creating something different and completely new to translate it into something lasting now. This self-portrait, uses these recovered fragments of my stroke, and represents the internal world of my thoughts on any particular day, almost like a different version of myself. 12.Thanks a lot for your valuable time and interest. You can include any other details you want to talk about here? Just a quick Thank You note and best wishes for the new year.