100 Urban Faces

Humor is so Venezuelan

One thing I didn’t recognize in me as being Venezuelan, even after more than 18 years of being away from my home country, is humor. I didn’t recognize it until shortly. After seeing all these years of artwork as well as the posts and texts in my website, I discovered humor is one of the binding forces in my life.

Humor is so Venezuelan. We laugh about ourselves, about life, bad luck… pretty much about everything.

“Al mal tiempo buena cara” (put a good face in bad times) is something you learn as a child and “Reír para no llorar” (laugh so you don’t cry) sounds a bit like “fake it ‘till you make it”. I guess it’s our way of being optimistic or bringing about happiness out of thin air. We just smile.

I tried and tried to add seriousness to my style, to the way I do things, I even wrote my statement in the third person like many artists do, but that just isn’t me. Besides, all of my drawings start with a guessing game, there’s a playfulness to every piece I make.

Authenticity is important for me. And I am so Venezuelan, I’ll just go on laughing at myself, my work and my world.

*If you’re interested in purchasing a piece from the 100 Urban Faces series, please contact me at art@atamayka.com

The weird artist – featuring Angry Sally

In times where most of what you see gives you the feeling of „been there, done that“ and taking into consideration the actual state of affairs on this planet: nowadays, finding humor in things is not such an easy task.

Humor, for me, comes out naturally. It’s part of my Venezuelan upbringing, we make jokes and laugh about absolutely everything. Even in the darkest of situations – like the actual political, economical and social disaster in my country – my people will laugh and joke about it, too.

My art pieces always have that quirky and playful component,
here in Austria you say “ein bisschen Humor muss sein”
(there has to be at least a bit of humor).

I think humor is vital for all of us!

The absolute start of a painting or drawing is, in my case, serendipitous and the development of it takes a life of its own. Staying true to your line, even when you are bombarded 24/7 with images that could influence an outcome or being tempted to do what is trending, is what I do. Trends are not my thing.

Daring to be playful, portraying the weird and quirky is what I do.

Oh, by the way. Why do you think she’s so angry?
Maybe someone took her cab.

The 100 Urban Faces series of wall sculptures are available. For details, please contact me at art@atamayka.com

Merken

Stories behind the 100 Urban Faces:
I‘m outta Love

It‘s an incredible feeling to be like an alchemist. The wonders that can come out of your working hands with the use of something so simple as clay – technically just earth – and water. For me it’s not only the appearance of faces, but more about the emotions portrayed. Emotions we all recognize and have felt.

This piece I started by drawing random lines made with my eyes closed which I then transferred to clay. And although not all faces look like someone I know, this one reminded me of someone.
As I finished her I thought it looked so much like Anastacia, the singer of „I‘m outta Love“, remember her? The way she moves her lips and looks a bit angry, just like in her video.