A personal statement from London, Ontario based artist, Veronica Diago. “My spirit filters my everyday; present and past experiences through an almost spiritual process where all the elements arrange themselves into abstract compositions. These compositions express and show feelings and sensations as I perceive them. Colours, shapes, textures, sound, movement, and the language behind them. They all turn into heavy textured layers of paper and vinyl that cover and uncover at the same time through little windows that reveal a background, allowing the viewer to penetrate and travel through them and to inquire about what’s hidden behind them.” Let’s Talk Art with Veronica Diago.

pbj: What’s your favorite season and why?

vd: Well, I was born in the northern coast of Colombia, where we don’t have seasons and it’s allways summer. I’ve being living in Canada for almost five, and just until this year I can say that don’t mind the cold anymore. I learned to discover the beauty in every season and I enjoy observing how the colour pallette changes around every couple months.

pbj: What makes your work stand out in a crowd? Do you have a unique trait or philosophy?

vd: I guess it’s the fact that I don’t follow any style in particular. I have my own way of illustrating what’s in my mind, my own language. I don’t follow any school. I think it’s also the fact that my art is fun. Never depressing, never silent. I want to express joy through my art.

pbj: What is your favorite color?

vd: At the moment, brown. I change my mind a lot. Brown makes me think about old, vintage things, and chocolate. Sometimes I can “taste” and “smell” colour. I know, sounds silly, but I just never grew up and live in “fantasia”.

pbj: Who inspires you?

vd: It’s not a “who”. It’s lots of things, but mostly my childhood. I’m inspired by anything that reminds me of my life when I was a child. That includes colour, visual texture, the circus, the fair, mid century modern illustrations (it’s not that I’m that old, hahaha), vintage prints, balloons, candy, vintage fabric patterns, the retrofuture, the Brady Brunch, The Jetsons, toys, old pictures and t.v shows, my grandmother’s house with all her vintage modern furniture, basically memories, etc.

pbj: What’s your favorite food?

vd: My favourite dish is the “Paella Negra”, a Spanish paella consisting of squids, red peppers, peas, and rice. “Negra” just refers to the black colour of the dish since it’s soaked in squid ink.

pbj: When did you first decide to become an artist?

vd: I don’t remember, I was too young. My favourite toys were scissors, glue, paper, cardboard, paint, etc. I used to make paper weights out of rocks, painting them with faces and adding hair to them and all. I did every craft possible, papier mache, origami, collage, drawing, etc. I didn’t need to go out or have lots of friends as long as my favourite “toys” were around. I am a friendly person, but I can entertain myself with my art.

pbj: What is the most interesting place you’ve ever visited?

vd: Barcelona, Spain. It took me a while to get over it when I was back. Arquitect Antonio Gaudi’s work is simply marvelous. Specially the fact that he had his own style, mostly understood by children or “young at heart” ones. It’s simply too much. There’s also no limit to Barcelona’s artists and designers’ imagination. Everywhere you go, any tiny little spot, has something to say. An unusual object, an dazzling giant sculpture, movement and colour everywhere. I really can’t understand how people can focus in anything else but art in there.

pbj: Beer or Wine?

vd: Wine, definitely. It makes me feel “over-inspired”.

pbj: Talk about your medium and explain – if you can – how the medium influences your work and how your work influences the medium.

vd: I mostly cut paper. I pre-paint it making sure there’s lots of texture in it, splashes of vibrant colours, and then I cut into shapes, sometimes wherever the hand takes me, and together with the left over pieces, I make my compositions. I “draw” with scissors. It gives my shapes an interesting, surprise element touch, otherwise impossible to get with brushes or pencils. I mostly use these for the texture. I always get overexcited in this process, always amused. That’s kind of like the main purpose of my art. To amuse myself and the viewer, and to communicate my strong feelings through my art. I have a lot of fun doing this; my life will definitely be very boring without creating.

to view more work by Diago, click here to visit her Flickr page.

thanks veronica, you ROCK!

images courtesy: Veronica Diago