Pulpo/Art, Interview

PULPO:

Hieronymus Bosch

Meets Theodor Geisel

Interview with Fernando Hereñú

by Mike Foldes

I don’t exactly recall how I came to know Fernando Hereñú’s work, most likely on a jaunt through Chelsea last summer, but I do know that soon as I saw it I had stepped into a world of fantasy that combines childhood dreams and adult nightmares. It was no surprise to find out that Hereñú, who goes by the nom de plume of Pulpo (incidentally the Spanish word for octopus), is engaged in comic book illustration. Citing historically diverse influences as Hieronymus Bosch, and Argentine illustrator Jose Luis Salinas, Pulpo invites us to venture with him into psychedelic realms where we can linger longer than with a fleeting thought. Hereñú was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1977, completed his Graphic Design studies at the Universty of Buenos Aires in 2002, and for the next four years  he worked as a designer for Cartoon Network. He lives in Buenos Aires and is creative director for an online games company.

Q: How did you come to art? Were your parents artists?

A: I have no family artists. But all my relatives are related to sociology, anthropology and humanities, science… So when I was a kid we always had many art books in my house. We had a large library where they were almost all European artists of the 20th century. I looked at those pictures and was very confused, I remember much of it, could say that I liked but could not stop looking at art. Imagine a child looking to Hieronymus Bosch. That might be a good image on my childhood.

I started to draw early in my life. Was the only way I was quiet in my house.
I could spend hours and hours just drawing.  My parents realized of it and then they send to me to study comic book to one of the best teachers in my country.

Q: Who was the teacher your parents sent you to, and what was his/her process of teaching, and working with you?

A: My teacher was Jose Luis Salinas, one of the drafters of the Marvel comics. One of the most important studies was the anatomy of the human body and another, perspective drawings. They made ​​us work very hard. Where the human form and the handling of the pen was the most important.  We students drew for hours drawing hands, bodies, etc.

I was among the younger students throughout the academy. I spent about two years and then went to work more on the comic mode. In this way, then, I got my job at Cartoon Network.

Q: What kind of work did you do in your first job at the Cartoon Network?

A: I really do not remember. The important thing to know at that stage was different illustration styles and meeting friends. Another good thing at that time was to know a little about the production of animated entertainment.

I think the best we had at that time was the quality of animation and illustration.

Q: What project/program did you work on?  Can you see them on the web?

A: Now I am working for an exhibition in Salvador Bahia. I’m working hard for this. Since it is a project to purify the aesthetic lines.  You can see it all on my page, http://pulpocorporate.tumblr.com/

My project is to continue the series. I’m working to further deepen the concept.

Q:  What is the Bahia, Salvia project? Is it a commission?

A: Salvador Bahi its an important city in Brasil. I will be there this month because I have an exhibition there. I am going to present some abstract drawing. There are something strange that happened to me now, I don’t want to draw figurative things. I prefer to be more complex than the reality. The abstraction, it’s like a dark hole.

Q: How difficult is it to make a living for a commercial artist such as yourself? What would you tell others who are interested in pursuing careers in illustration, as artists or as cartoonists?

A: For me it would be much more difficult to live a profession other than as an artist. I think I could develop another activity. To me, life is 24 hours related to art.

Some artists are rich and others poor. But art has nothing to do with money.

But the most important thing I can say is that illustrators do this activity with the heart. Finally they will find a worthy a place to work. Art has nothing to do with the grasp of money. To make money there are other better careers. The career of an artist is to find within ourselves something to show others. It puts everything into images we think and feel.

Q: Where do you get your ideas? What’s the most “fertile territory” for your images. They seem too strong to be taken from café scenes.

A: I use a technique called Synchronism for composition. This technique has to do with surrealism. I do not plan a lot about what I do. I try not to think about them if possible.

Q: What is your preferred medium these days? Do you sculpt?

A: My preferred medium is paper and India ink. It is actually the preferred way that I always use in my career. I love drawing more than anything else. But the painting half seems tedious. I just love painting with the comic style, which is easy to give good volume. Like you, I am not really a person with great patience.

Q: How do you know I’m a person without great patience? (BTW, I am laughing out loud with that last answer!)

A: I wanted to say that I’m a guy a little (too) anxious to sculpt. I want to see something now. I want to create a painting now, I feel I have no time.

Q: What’s next on the agenda for you?

A:  But I prefer to be more concentrated in the creation this year, because I have a lot of ideas that I feel have to take priority. Maybe I’m thinking to move to the U.S., France or Tokyo soon. That will be my next project.

Note:

Fernando Hereñú aka Pulpo’s first solo exhibition in New York, “Hidden Drawings,” took place at Tache Art Gallery in New York last summer, where his work is available.  This interview was conducted via e-mail between September and December 2011.

www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=187291607992623
www.tachegallery.com
http://pulpocorporate.tumblr.com/

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Anthony Haden-Guest

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