Then there is a state of great reflection?
TV: It was. I've been through this phase. I could have at this point, three lines of work on the banana, because I found more components capable of development to another type of work.
It is the due to maturity?
TV: I would say yes, the process is already in my mind. It's almost a biological process, it flows with great intensity. Maybe, because I've done lost of research in my area, I had to seek to develop much later. It was on reserve. Also I do a lot of notes I have much material to produce. Can be done more spontaneously because I did a maturation of the idea.
In the early years, as you said before you researched a lot, was a matter of insecurity?
TV: No, I really needed because I had to represent what I saw, what I wanted, in the form that I understood. One of these aspects, it took about two years, was trying to represent the texture of the dried stem of the leaf, which is brown. I had to make it, to do it with the few materials available, with plastics and paints; ways that could give that texture, so that people see that art object and make the connection. Identify the object. This took longer. The work is here, which is newer, it is with the sap, which is part of the design context. I cut a small banana put on top of an inclined canvas and from the liquid dripping I draw. What gives me great pleasure is to make an ecological masterpiece, that it did not take any chemical. We have cotton, which is the canvas and raw sap. The pigment forms the drawing.
So how do you do the drawings?
TV: This work must be done very quickly. The banana has what it's called children, a designation of the banana workers, I cut the sprouts and the smaller should be allowed to grow, because takes the edge off the others. Then let it "bleed" over the canvas and as the route of the drop goes, I with the tip of a knife do the lines of a house, for example.
Because it dries very quickly?
TV: It does start to oxidize immediately, but more because of the rush of the drop off, if it goes too far to the other end I lose the opportunity to create something. The idea is to bring the pigment where I want to follow-up, start the roof, doors and windows and then take the drop to another house and so on. It is a work of 42x42 cm, made in a minute, but the paint starts to drip to the sides and I do not take advantage of it.
It has, however, you do stamps?
TV: Yes, I intended to record the body of the banana, the idea is to create the fossil plant. Create your own body, because they are endangered in several countries in South America due to a virus that comes from the land. So I decided to create the inside record, so I cut the banana tree, leave a few hours later on the canvas and give an appearance of a fossil. It is a matrix of the plant. This type of exposure has been very successful; I explained this concept of art, because even when my abstract work grows out of a visual reality people can recognize it.
The creative process depends on your environmental concern?
TV: A lot without a doubt. There are many implementations of biological products to avoid the use of chemicals.
Still seeking to create pigments from the earth just as you said?
TV: Yes and also used sand, but had to use a binder. To fix it. In this case, the line is entirely made of banana sap, did not had to wash brushes in water for me is a great pleasure that does not pollute the environment and that work is a proof. I have big works in this genre, ruder.
This is not a contradiction? The artist wants to perpetuate itself in time through their work and yet these studies you are developing are biodegradable.
TV: There aren't. The juice of a banana stays almost endlessly. Nothing is, but is more durable than some paints that are sold. I guarantee. I already painted t-shirts with this natural pigment and trend is darker, that's all. Does not fade. You can pour bleach, the shirt will not survive, it will rip the material and the ink will not.
When you began to use the sap you had that in mind?
TV: Sure, all I do is much thought. One such aspect is the durability. I will not be selling a piece of art that will fade after five years, or begin to defragment. With the banana sap you have this lifetime warranty, just look at the workers who deal with the banana, if you look carefully they are always covered with stains, but the clothes are washed. During my history I have had several themes, from the rocks that have a lot to do with the island and one of the themes was the forces of nature, land and water.
Yes, but the theme of nature continues to be cutting across all your work as an artist?
TV: Yes, but this is due to the fact that reside on the island.
And if you lived in a city?
TV: It would be difficult. I have resided six years in New York. I graduated there and then I returned to that city several times. Could possibly do something like that. Nature is a great resource and our mother. Today it will be our great salvation, because the rest is not. The great technology is not the answer; the man is directing its intelligence for that matter. What is the nature still prevails and we will have to return it. I think that art associated with nature is even more fantastic.
