From my studio: Camplá Livesey

Ever since I started working I've made my living by handling visual images. From my early days as a designer, art director and later creative director at the world's leading advertising agencies right up to today, I haven't stopped coming up with concepts and turning them into images as part of my daily work. Today I'm completely devoted to the passion of my life, painting, after selling all my companies so I could dedicate myself to it exclusively.

Among a few of my achievements are hundreds of logos, complete corporate identities, hugely successful products and very well known, award winning campaigns in Chile and abroad. I worked alongside famous international design studios such as that of Ettore Zottsass, founders of the Memphis movement, with Marco Zanini and other multinational teams at several agencies outside Chile. After all that experience, I founded my own advertising agency in Chile and several related companies, basing my "school" on principles of the Bauhaus movement. One relevant detail, which has strongly influenced my artworks, is my studies in psychology, particularly a postgraduate course on Psychopathology in Freud, taught by the unmatched Argentine master Guillermo Brudny.

When and why did you start painting?

When I was very small, and the truth is I don't know why. I think I simply came with the genetic programming already installed. My Catalan great grandfather was a painter, sculptor, writer and journalist. Let's say it was his fault.

How do you think a gallery and its artists should help each other?

By building a relationship of trust and mutual support, the way it's done in any successful project in any field. As The Little Prince says, "you have to create ties".

What advice would you give to artists who are just starting to show their artworks?

To open their minds and be honest with their artworks and their lives. The most common mistake is "wanting to be", instead of simply "being". That shows up in stiff, rigid, pretentious artworks.

You have to learn the whole technique, and then forget it. Zen in the Art of Archery is a good book for understanding the idea. It's like driving a car, once you've learned you don't go around thinking about where the accelerator or the brake is. You just use them. That's what you have to get to.

How did you sell your first artwork? Is there one you feel a stronger connection with?

I sold my first artwork at my first exhibition, and because of its story I feel a great connection with Sideral, sold through you. It's a canvas a client commissioned, 3 x 1 metres, he asked me for a painting for the reception of his corporate building. I had a heart attack and couldn't paint it, but the idea of making it gave me the strength to recover. It turned into a personal challenge. It sat stored away for years and travelled through different houses and studios, until one fine day I lost my fear and went for it. I didn't stop until it was finished. It was a frenzied process of exorcism and unrestrained pleasure, with a result that left me very happy.

What is art for you? What part does it play in your life? Do you make a living from art?

Art is a way of seeing life. For me it doesn't exactly play a part. It's more like part of my daily living. I simply find it terribly hard not to paint or draw. Art is a vice. That's what it is.

I don't make a living from art, but I could say that my life was built around it and thanks to it. In some way, the income I have today comes from an eternal love of design, aesthetics, creation and suchlike.

What are your sources of inspiration? Do you identify with any other artist?

I've never needed inspiration. I just sit down and paint. For me, having a blank surface and a few instruments to stain it with is enough. They're an irresistible temptation for someone with such a vice.

I think Roberto Matta had an influence on my artworks, even though if you compare them one to one they aren't even similar. There's only an underlying echo that sometimes surfaces and evokes him.

Have you held an exhibition recently, what can you tell us? Do you have any project in mind?

No, and I don't plan to hold one either, even though I've had several offers. In Chile at least, they're of no use whatsoever and they're an expense and a waste of time. My buyers are in Europe and the United States. I sell almost everything over there. Several galleries in the United States have kindly offered me their space, but shipping artworks is a mess of paperwork and money.

Could you recommend us:

An artist: Roberto Matta.

An artwork: Too many.

A book: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

A film: The Remains of the Day by James Ivory.

Thank you very much.

We invite you to visit Camplá Livesey's gallery and to read the Artelista review.