ABUNDANCE: Osmeivy Ortega
Explain your technique. What are the engraving processes and materials you use most and why?
The technique is woodcut. Completely handmade impression with a stainless-steel spoon, on Japanese paper. Basically, I use woodcut in black and white because I believe it is one of the most expressive engraving techniques and can convey the message I want to be seen more quickly.
What are your creative springs? What do you think moves you to create?
To create the most important thing for me is daily life. I believe I create tune with contemporary life's rhythm; the different social dialogues and experiences are what make me create. I interpret reality and portray it as I truly wish it to be. I pay close attention to the small details of life and try to amplify them as a magnifying glass would. I pay singular attention to positive things.
What role does nature play in your work?
To me, nature is the bridge through which I can showcase different thoughts and ideas. I find many answers to socially technical situations, which humans tend to complicate. Nature is observed in a direct and honest manner.
Engraving and naturalism have gone hand in hand for centuries. Do you think that the naturalistic representations in your works have a contemplative character?
I recognize that printmaking has been a testimony to our history and has always been used illustratively with motifs from nature. However, I never dwell on the history of printmaking. I always see myself as an artist living in a contemporary world, and printmaking is the medium I chose to express myself. Printmaking gives me the structure I want for my life; the processes are lengthy, the results are warm, and there may be errors that I can solve or not. But I think that, in general, humans are like that. We are imperfect, and I would like to accept myself as I am and others as they are. Printmaking allows me that tolerance.
How is your visual process, how do you arrive at images in which you associate visual elements, apparently divorced in nature - like a Buddha with a head full of bees, or an Olmec head with woodpeckers?
I use many ways to create a work. I don't have an exact method; I feel the images, ideas, or thoughts, or life itself when they send me messages, and I interpret them my way. I'm not a profound person, and I don't want to be. I analyze everything exactly as I see it, reinterpret it, and bring it to the wood. I don't have double meanings; I'm not a surrealist artist. I'm not afraid to make a ridiculous work. I've thought of ridiculous things and carried them out, and I've felt happy at the end of the process. I interpret them as something not ridiculous; I try to be honest with myself.
Do you think abundance is an issue in your work? Why?
Abundance is a very beautiful word; I've never thought about it. I know that when I say it out loud, I feel full, pleased, happy. But I don't know why. I feel like anything is possible. I don't know if I am an abundant person; I've never thought about it, but I feel like everything falls within it as if the word itself were a sentence with subject, verb, and predicate. It could be a proper name for a girl.
