Interview with Itziar Ramírez Elizondo
Art immerses one in the understanding of oneself ...
More than three decades of work using different techniques and forms of expression that translate into the pictorial exercise of Itziar Ramírez in the fluid handling of colors and shapes.
For her, painting means connecting with emotions and harmonizing them in a kind of deeply spiritual dance that turns a daily moment into something that transcends temporality and leaves its mark on the canvas. She is convinced that the complexity of the emotions and their recognition are topics that her continue to explore, because they largely determine the mystery of happiness and fully life.
She chose the artistic work to start the trip towards the recognition of the emotions, that allow her to reconnect with the Master of the Creative Energy.
Could you please introduce yourself and tell us how you started in the arts, and your first experience in art making?
My first exhibition took place while I was studying Philosophy at the Universidad Panamericana, in a House of Culture in Mexico City, the country where I was born in 1965. From a very young age I began to paint because I found in painting a balance that reality did not provide me. Being a dreamer, I was perhaps 7 years old , I desired everything to be good, beautiful and pleasant, I did not understand why there was evil, inequality, poverty, pain and death, among other things. In painting I found the balancing power to appease my restless mind, as it allowed me to create an alternate and controlled reality in figuration. Naturally, at that age, I only responded to an unconscious impulse, and that was how I started on this path.
How do you describe yourself and your artwork?
I have always had the feeling that there is a Vital Energy that connects everything, but to get in tune with that Energy I believe that self-knowledge and the handling of emotions is of vital importance.
Emotions bind us or sublimate us and painting helps us to identify and reflect on emotions while training us to make decisions in a world in which this capacity is more and more constrained and held back. There is in Art a wild instinctive and wise aspect that is linked to creation and that is inherent in human nature; in it freedom has one of its most refined expressions. I like to think that I am a weaver in a world in which there are more and more situations that dilute the social and emotional fabric generated by multiple and complex situations that we are currently facing. My art seeks to generate that reconnection, first within me when painting and then within the observer when making it his own if he connects with it and gives it meaning. In my personal case, each painting responds to a different emotional need.
Where do you get inspiration from?
I am passionate about trying to understand human nature. The multiple trips around the world have also been motivators to study history, psychology, astrology, human development, Art history among others. Photography has been a great ally to capture unrepeatable moments that are often an important pillar in my creative process. Painting is a catalyst of all those experiences and at the same time a spiritual path that gives me great satisfaction and reconnects me with what is essential.
What emotions do you hope the viewers experience when looking at your art?
In painting I’ve found a valuable channel for self-knowledge, so I hope that those who observe my work can discover something about them when interpreting it or paying attention to it. The interpretation of the observer might be far from my intention when painting, yet if it manages to awaken an internal dialogue in the observer when interpreting it, I believe that the meaning of my work would be complete.
When do you know that an artwork is finished?
It is something peculiar; it is simply a sensation that occurs when I observe that the work responds to my need for beauty and harmony, some kind of pleasure. With some pieces the process can last a long time, the layers enrich the work until I feel it is finished, but it has also happened that at some point I feel that the work is lost and I simply destroy it, that's why I always say that there are paintings that are born with a star and others are born shattered.
What has been the most exciting moment in your art career so far?
The best moments in my career have always been when I finished one collection. And if the fruit of my work can help or benefit someone else, I enjoyed so much. I have donated some of my recent exhibits to auction them to operate on children with spastic cerebral palsy. I am working hand in hand with the MGAS Foundation as a volunteer to achieve this. Fortunately, there are many ways in which art can help to generate multiple benefits to society. There are studies that support the fact that the more the artistic sensitivity is promoted, the greater the development of creativity, that is so necessary to use in every aspect of everyday life.
How long does it take to produce one work?
It is variable, I like to explore the different ways in which human emotions can be expressed, from figuration to abstractionism. In figuration there is more control, skills management, knowledge, and this produces the certainty that generates calm; the process is relatively fast. In the abstract on the other hand, I face the fear of uncertainty; it has not been an easy process for me. It is almost a ritual to prepare the means and use them to let the energy materialize on the canvas; sometimes this is distressing because it is a journey through uncertainty and I never know what exactly the final result will be, but I do know that it depends on my decisions to take it to term-…. At the beginning there is always certain chaos, and that is where the personal discourse begins where I have to choose what stays and what goes, and that depends a lot on the emotions that I am going through. It is a challenge to generate beauty from that which encloses opposites, intention and accident, light and shadow, noise and silence, chaos and harmony, control and uncertainty.
This is how an abstract is born for me, layers and layers that are giving complexity to the painting until I can feel that it has already materialized into something that conveys what I want to express.
What exciting projects are you working on right now? Can you share some future plans for your art works?
I am working in parallel a collection for the Soumaya Museum of Mexico of abstract art and at the same time I work on pieces that I have been requested to exhibit at art fairs and galleries.
Where do you see your art going in five years?
The creative process is constantly nourished, it is the opposite of routine. In five years, I see myself exploring new paths of plastic expression that enrich my work and exhibiting in galleries around the world.
Art is a living energy, always in constant development and change, we must be alerted to seize some of its beauty and truth through our personal filter.
