Artwork by: FULALEO
FULALEO (Left)
Q:When you were first interested in art what was your favorite medium? What is it currently?
A:The cartoons, animated series and drawings has been my childhood and whole life inspiration, however my first real interest in art came some months after I finished my university Career. I started to get to know visual artists who had in their artwork similar influences or inspirations like mine, the difference was that at that time they worked on it and I was as spectator. Their techniques were digital art, illustration, muralism, oil on canvas, I was a little bit obsessed with their proposals that I started to practice and develop concepts and techniques based on my likes. In that transition I was lucky enough to attend a workshop dictated by one of those artists and it was like the exact moment I could find myself artistically speaking.
Q: Where did your inspiration come from for your latest collection the 2080s?
A: The retro world has always been one of my biggest inspirations. I am literally absorbed by the colors, clothing, hairstyle, music and movies of the past. I think you can see the vintage style in all my artwork not only The 2080s. In 2017, I decided to do the 2080s as tribute of these likes, but first I had planned to do it in relation to Electronic DJ’s, in the course of the year my mind lit up, and I asked myself, “Why don’t you try with the popular singers” that way the project would be bigger than only focusing on the electronic music world. I then changed my artists name list and started to do the project until now.
Q: How did you feel when people in the music industry got in contact with you for your work to be featured?
A: I felt very grateful, it makes you think that you are doing things right. It is also so exciting when a company or celebrity that you are a fan of contacts you. It is a short but good feeling.
Q: What is your favorite piece from your latest collection?
My favorite illustration is “Migos from 2080s” I love how the colors looked and how Offset was composed.
Q: Have you ever used your art to comment on any political or economical issues?
A: No really, but when I was finishing my career I worked for a local magazine which I used to make political and social caricatures. I made many drawings about it and I enjoyed because actually I am very interested in the bad political situation within my country (Colombia). Currently, I do not have the interest or the inspiration to combine my pop art with politics. The closest has been the Trump pieces but it is just funny concepts. Something that I plan on doing is some projects related to the situation of endangered animals on the planet. You can search the orangutan piece that I have made. That is what I’m talking about.
@fulaleo
Q: What other collections would you be interested in doing? (I.e Marvel, DC, Cartoons,
Sports, or more on music)
A: With a company we did something related DC comics when the Batman vs Superman released. I definitely want to do more projects in each of the areas that you have mentioned. The good part of this is that pop culture is a huge inspiration which you can find and take from infinite paths.
Q: If somebody would want to buy one of your art pieces how would they go about it?
A: Now people can contact me via email or DM from my Instagram account. I’m currently working on a website so it will be easier to everybody interested in my art as well.
Q: What is something you would want the public to know about your art?
A: I just want to share with them our same interests. I know people that follow me are people that love the same things that I love, like music, movies, nostalgia, retro, pop culture essentially. The difference is I express that inspirations and they are like spectators but we belong to the same club. I want to entertain them, for instance, they came out from their reality for a while and contemplated my artworks because each of my pieces has details that communicate something. My thinking is that the concept must be more important than my art techniques. I think that’s why it has that impact.
Q: What is one goal that you have set for yourself?
A: I want to continue growing professionally and manage to do work for great companies or artists that I follow. Besides that I want to do clothing, it is something that I have always had in mind.
Q: What do you like most about your career? What do you like least?
A: The thing I like most about my job is the feeling that this is not a job. I like being able to do the things that I love and people pay you or value you is a blessing. It is more gratifying when you know that you have been working hard to achieve it. On the other hand, what I dislike is that I would like to do a lot of artwork or projects all the time but my process in general is pretty long, mainly the research after I got the inspiration. Another one depends so much of social media, social media opens curiosity, in fact I got this recognition due to social media but one day the social media might disappear and what would happen to me or any other artists? That’s why I am working on other channels apart this one to grow as an artist. You can see that the famous artists in the past did not live with this technology and they became the greatest artists in history. But, we are in this time and we have to take these opportunities, the point is to try to do not depend 100% of it.