Todd SumamnoAlberto Cerriteño is a Mexican illustrator and designer who are now located in Portland, U.S.. Alberto’s pieces have very strong personal style, and are influenced deeply by urban vinyl toys, alternative cartoons and the pop surrealism movement. His works receive recognition by many art institutions like Juxtapoz, Create, Drawn!, The Little Chimp Society among others.
With more than 10 years of experience in the field, Alberto is still keep going and trying new things. He is now working as independent artist and enjoying his experiments in fresh and creative ideas along with some other talented artists. Check out the interview and see how Alberto plays with textures and colors in his works!
Q1. First of all, thank you for your time with TDI. You have been living in Portland for several years now. What do you think about the working environment in the U.S. compared to Mexico?
I moved from one of the biggest cities of the world to a small, green and quiet place in the U.S. So the difference is huge and for sure living on this tranquil environment was a key to start my artistic work.
You know living in a big city usually you have just the time to wake up, run over to the job and get back at night exhausted and with just one thing on your mind, get to sleep.
In Portland my lifestyle is such more relaxed and I have more time to use my mind for the creation, maybe now I’m not embedded in the world of beautiful colors and shapes that Mexico offers but all that is archived on my memory and my blood and I use them as inspiration sources to create my work.
Q2. We can always see Mexican elements in your creations. How does your culture background affect your works?
As I told you in the first question I grew up surrounded for these visual elements, I’m convinced as an immigrant person once you leave your culture and your country after a few years there is a big nostalgic feeling that makes you to value more those elements related to your roots, as a visual artist you cannot avoid this call and it will flow naturally, sometimes even without noticed it.
Q3. You have keep your unique style all through your creations, would you experiment with other new styles in the future?
Well I’m convinced that the style it doesn’t make it just it evolves and gradually will change, sometimes more than others but the creation process is always an exploration and experimentation journey. Is nice to feel that you have a distinguish artistic style but also is amazing to discover and try new ways. I’m happy doing what I’m doing right know but who knows? Maybe tomorrow I would love to do something totally different, I’m not close at all to the change.
Q4. What messages do you want to deliver through your artworks?
My work is spontaneous, free and not pretentious, for me art is more about beauty and happiness and that is what my work is about even when I illustrate dark themes I like to create a happy and colorful atmosphere around it. So, maybe if there is any message behind a piece created by me this would be a positive thought at the end.
Q5. What tools do you usually use when creating a work? How do you combine different tools when creating a piece?
To me is essential the use of paper and pencil, I need to sketch out the basic idea first. Then I re-draw the piece in Illustrator with my trusty Wacom tablet and add all the textures and colors in Photoshop, even that most of my work is digital I like to keep and analogue perspective so I produce a lot of my own textures with artistic materials as acrylics and water colors that later I will scan to applied them digitally. I think my process is sort of an analogue-digital collage.
Q6. Your works are recognized by many artists and fans, do you have any long-term goal you want to achieve?
I’m so thrilled about what I’m doing these days, I’m so lucky to be recognized for doing artwork and illustration and I would love to keep doing it for many, many more years. Fortunately or unfortunately I’m not an strategic-methodist person who likes to plan every step in my life I like to be surprised by the unknown so will see what else is there for discover and get amazed in this incredible adventure. Thank you so much for this interview.
Brittany Maslo