Artist Lucas León
Lucas León is a Chilean professional illustrator who studied Professional Illustration at the Acros Institute in Chile. He works freelance and has been commissioned to make the product image for a brazilian beer brand named “Hocus Pocus”, music album covers for bands such as “Nerbuda” and posters for festivals such as “Rock And Trance”. He has also been selected in the Shortlist for “World Illustration Awards 2020” by The Association of Illustrators (UK) and Merit Winner for the "International Illustration Annual No.17" 2020 by 3x3 Magazine of Contemporary Illustration (NY, EEUU).
“What Are We”
By Lucas León (2nd Edition Finalist)
Mixed Media
“The inking and the pointillism are handmade, then scanned and painted with digital colors. The "Unmasked ones" have a dialogue with the uncertain, and open themself up to infinite possibilites. The infant arrives at the world by crossing the door, now there's no un-crossing that door, the unknown will forever be such. The landscape mutates, the strangeness moves them, the masks open their eyes, knowing themself fictions, and contemplate unlimited discovery. I worked with the symbologies that stemmed from research on the field of psychoanalysis and the concepts of facing the self within, the angst and the darkness, and accepting them as part of ourselves. Allowing uncertainty to open its space into possibilities of being and doing. My intention was to invite the spectator to engage with that depth and by that giving value to the transformative power of the question “what are we?”.”
When discussing his inspiration for exploring art, León explained that it was “the depth; the substance within the image of things. The question of why something exists like this, and the value or criticism of its mystery. Depth enriches life and enters your wounds. I want to show it, because from it we can heal ourselves and build clarity to bear pain, and redirect our potential for the better. I am inspired to be able to contribute my part to the world, towards the direction of the value and autonomy of being with the art, to better relate to our own unconscious, to the other and to nature.”
“The Theatre Of Appearances”
By Lucas León
Mixed Media
“The internal theater must fall if we want to transform the domain structures, in order to be responsible for personal and social history. If we are not able to see the repressed unconscious, we are exposed to repeating patterns of violence and division. From the daily treatment to our places of power, they may be contaminated by tyranny and fascism, even if we are driven by a revolutionary impetus. May the internal theater fall and life open to us, may our nature overflowing with uncertainty, genuine fears and pain, new intensities of pleasure and ways of loving behind the curtain open. We are facing possibilities of new strategies of domination, but also our possibilities of giving way to another form of collective culture, which is going to need mental health as a form of emancipation.”
The desire to understand and explore what he is capable of creating is what really inspires León’s work now. Especially after a long process of studying his unconscious from Lacanian psychoanalysis and the restructuring of his artistic career, which he focused on doing during quarantine.
“The Magician”
By Lucas León
Mixed Media
“ The magician is set in motion by assuming his own existence. It is the encounter with internal unity, the recognition of potentialities and the sense of vital objectives, which transforms into action, to activate the power to heal reality and take a different place in front of it.”
León’s work is solely mixed media, his work mixes the analogue with the digital. For analogous he illustrates the lines and Pointallism with ink, then scans it, and paints it with digital paint. León further goes on to speak about the supplies he uses, stating that his favourite pen to use when illustrating is the 0.05mm Sakura Pigma Micron Multiliner that has a regular ink, with the fineness of its tip allowing him to go into a lot of detail with pointillism so that the shadows, highlights and volume effects in the shapes stay smooth.
León also works on smooth opaline 220g, because “ I really like the absorption of ink on this paper, it does not burst or create roots when inking, when making a point with the pen, it is concentrated and compact, that allows greater control of the technique and more firmness to appreciate the details.”
“The Fool”
By Lucas León
Mixed Media
“ Both the fall and the elevation are equally divine, they are part of a change in consciousness towards new enlightments, and the fool is the innocent force, the dynamic energy that permeates and plays with the whole magnitude of this being in transformation, its the opening of the punch changing chaotic risk, towards the drive and explosion of elevation.”
When León was asked about his process for overcoming creative blocks, he had this to say “When there is a block, one can force oneself to act without thinking too much, pressing the will, by using practical techniques, such as moving forward at your minimum per day, without pressure for doing so little, and making art with patience. I would also recommend something else, that I find interesting. Recognizing that the "artistic block" does not exist, that the problem is deeply psychological. Before the block, a direction was followed, but it can no longer be satisfied. The desire is extinguished and you do not want to continue. To unlock you have to become different and enter art differently. It requires a deeper study of what one had been doing, about himself and the philosophy of art, to find the new desire. The block is diluted when the artist changes too. Working for a new discovery of the purpose of what is done, with an even more responsible rigor, and put it into practice from other motivations. The question of the block is, do you want to unlock it? Do you want to continue that way? Why are you doing it? What do you really want to express?”
“Patience In The Metamorphosis”
By Lucas León
Mixed Media
“The person sees how storms invade the island. Violence and uncertainty run though. But he stops to meditate in order to see, face, and give them a place. He builds with patience a growing tree where his face rises up among the branches. It's the study of the mind and the unconscious, that clears out the illusions and the mirror between it and the observer. Subverting the painful image, the island is sustained on the wide ground that resists, and builds the foundation of a new shelter.”
León happily walked us through his creative process; specifically the process of his creative works from start to finish. He starts “Before illustrating, I write, read and research, then I make these reflections to symbols that take place in the composition. The first composition I build it in graphite sketches, and then I build it digitally with references to elements on the web, along with photographs that I make, special for the need of the work. I print that collage composition, I put it on a light table, and I trace the shapes with graphite on a transparent paper, to take the real substance from them, and then I add the imaginary shapes and abstractions. Then I go to the final paper, inking on a light table with the graphite drawing below, I then retouch shapes by inking with reference to the digital collage. When I finish, I scan it, and finally I paint the illustration with digital colours”
“Our Apparition”
By Lucas León
Mixed Media
Just like we show up living, our death can appear, and already dead, if we stop having the capacity to give an account, death also disappears. Life is an experience that then dissolves into the impossibility of being the individual that was, meanwhile no subject will be born and grow with the same that another one carries, as you will never really know what the other thinks and feels. We are condemned to the death of the singularity ... in the ocean of existence, What do we give our time and presence to? What do I wish? What style and intensity will be given to the wave of our existence that will then cease?
Lastly, León was asked to give his fellow artists a piece of advice that he had learned throughout his career and he had this to say “The study of being is the first layer of paint. Art is refined if it is driven by self-knowledge. Art is a field of knowledge that speaks as firmly of the human being as science, philosophy, etc. Art expands our “visual-sensitive vocabulary” to understand us. Art requires a deep study to know what you want to express, it is not enough to just express, it is to ask existentially why? for what? how? And answer it in aesthetics. Art is a game to be taken seriously, and sometimes it is the most difficult thing to do, the most difficult thing to believe in, and you have to resist, because it is necessary that art sometimes die in you, so that it appears in you with new power, because art is also fight, fight for what you want to say from the bowels.”
To view more of Lucas León’s work