Art, // February 28, 2018

Decolife — ARTIST

Decolife

Interview with the artist Decolife —

1. Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Andre Ruiz de Freitas, I am a painter working under the name Decolife.
I am the right person doing the right thing in the right place at the right time.

2. Why art?
I never asked myself this question, but I believe I had no choice of doing anything else! I’d rather ask art “why me?” and the answers would be in the things that I have been trough and feel responsible for painting about them.

3. What is your earliest memory of wanting to be an artist?
I grew up in the countryside of Sao Paulo in Brazil and I remember, at the age of 6 or 7, painting on pieces of wood found on the streets to give to my family. About being an artist, I never really knew what that meant! But I was sure I would make drawings all my life and needed to do something with them.

4. What are your favourite subjects?
I like to look at Art, Science and Religion as potential subjects; their beginning and roots, and also the history of art in the middle ages when these three were one.

5. How do you work and approach your subject?
I spend a lot of time in museums and other places looking and finding inspiration. I always have pieces of paper in my pockets for notes and sketches, which are useful for things I would like to remember but also for the things I would like to forget. Back at the studio, I enjoy putting those little pieces of paper side by side, analysing how my day went and what my next steps should be. Later I might use some of the sketches with the composition of larger paintings or sculptures.

6. What are your favourite art work(s), artist(s)?
It would be unfair to only mention a small list of influences, because I try to go as deep as I can researching them, and the deeper I go, the more names are added to the list! But if anything, I have to express my appreciation and respect for Marc Chagall, Joan Miro, Georges Braque, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, William Blake and Michelangelo…

7. What do you like about your work?
What I like most is the Act of Creation, the work in progress, the never ending desire for creating and the feeling, as a creator, of getting closer to The Creator of the universe.

8. Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?
5 years ago exactly, I was sleeping in a phone box in front of the Victoria and Albert Museum, drawing and writing about the moment in a diary, and I certainly could not picture myself today, in 2018, getting ready for my London exhibition! All I knew was that I would still be painting! So today I can’t think about where I’ll be in 5 years time but I am sure I see myself painting and making references in my work to new and old experiences.

Decolife: As Above, So Below

1-9 March 2018
The Framers Gallery, 36 Windmill Street, London W1T 2JT

http://www.theframersgallery.co.uk/