https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCNB5MNROrhSzUfD-VDZ6sWrCBjF6n-Omjrw6eMfsKyl0pJrhyphenhyphen3OZWtjDS0E-zFfLTAilIRCt4A9U56c33Kxd3U50-4QEi2wnkKpEdI2q1hG3LlVqoW4mCSjcJt_5wYRzg1ICcaVZV768x/s1600/jonathan3.JPG">

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCNB5MNROrhSzUfD-VDZ6sWrCBjF6n-Omjrw6eMfsKyl0pJrhyphenhyphen3OZWtjDS0E-zFfLTAilIRCt4A9U56c33Kxd3U50-4QEi2wnkKpEdI2q1hG3LlVqoW4mCSjcJt_5wYRzg1ICcaVZV768x/s1600/jonathan3.JPG" width="320" />

Did you studying religion help you to  shape your work, as did Greco?

What I remember most about studying religion at University was the "Iconography of Religions" course. It was a presentation of religious ideas as seen through the art of Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam. The El Greco paintings really struck me as being amazing and used a religious theme. Modern art moved away from traditional religious iconography, but it's an important tradition, so I'm happy to use it as a reference in my art.

What attracted you from "The last Supper"?

This really came from the painting/sculpture/relief which I mentioned above. One of my rules for Abstract Heads is to make the original drawing from life. When I saw the three-dimensional heads in this Last Supper, I realized that I could bend this rule (though there are some who would say that one of the characters at the table is still alive!).

I interested in the traditions of art, and using them as a basis for moving forward. I don't believe that art should always be looking to destroy the past, to reject religious art just because we have found new subjects (or non-subjects) for art. Modern Art can just as easily have a traditional/religious/spiritual element to its theme, if the use of the media is moving in new directions. And that is what I am trying to do.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEnMB4XhEfJf4v08RnDk_7In7iuIRAilDQ46mUPVYb2bFbiVnhjWLCg-6bMVfp9Fet5cQ38en8ynRJW6ToyLxQCXQVLedjV0uDXzKU4M4EbHELkeh3qf-YZXkkJRb2ZBknIVERcU2c-qY/s400/The-Last-Supper.jpg" height="211" width="400" />

Do you usually make and sculpture and afterwards draws/paints it or the other way round?

With "The Last Supper" I was exploring the idea of how to represent the image of a sculpture without just talking a photograph.  Richard Serra creates engravings from his sculptures, and I thougt painting pictures of the sculptures would add a new dimension. I like to play with the "Modern" idea of "What is a painting? What is a sculpture" and see how these two areas of art interplay.

Which authors influenced you the most and why?

Clement Greenberg, the American art critic, and Robert Hughes, a critic who followed him. I also love reading interviews with artists, as it gives a good insight into their practice. I've spent a lot of time in the library at the Tàpies Foundation reading collections of discussions with artists.

Library of the Tàpies Foundation

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ200zRD_HUZNxURJamn35ZBkmvMnEmNS4CpMVVmt02AOkNF8sh" width="400" />

Clement Greenberg in an exhibition

He cited Piet Mondrian as an artist he liked. Great coincidence that I made two collections of jewelry (Mondrian and Petit Mondrian)! I guess he moved straight lines and precise Mondrian to move to transform them into 4 dimensions.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vQtYnK4g8GGM5rIJ4odb1KKWURHKYiYfAUQnQhc2wl2aamJ68Bm9diixy5A3KYB838BEn-KkjiLye8pIGCj_olcICddG_nm85idW8yJzlyCXZIXZWrTW52vf0cvamcvRaGUPSmfnE=s0-d" width="200" />

A painting by Piet Mondrian

Do you play with the volum to make a sculpture?

The sculptures in the "Abstract Heads" series start life as a flat surface with lines. They are lines that become planes that become volumes. I suppose the key with the Abstract Heads sculptures is that I have in mind the dimensions of a head, which give them a certain form. I've never thought about this before, and I suppose if you look at some of the sculptures in "The Last Supper," they are moving away from these "square" dimensions.

The other point is that the sculptures must be free-standing. As I weld them together, I have to make sure that they will balance phsically. In fact, it's a bit of a suprise when I see the finished sculpture, because I don't plan or design it first, it envolves out of the process of creation from the table ut.

The objects found in the street can become a work of art?

I'm not a big fan of "found object art" personally, but of course, anything can be art. Having said that, I have a series called "Groundworks" which looks at making fine art from the city environment. I wouldn't want to make art from concrete blocks, but I do make art by printing concrete blocks onto paper. I like my art to look "Modern," but to be made via a "contemporary" practice.

Please explain the experiment of carves wook 40 x 40... for me it's great!

This was the first iteration of "The last Supper", wich I made from pieces of old doors and other furniture which I found on the streets near my studio. It was my first large scale experiment with Abstract Heads sculptures, and delighted when I was able to exhibit it an "upper room" in the gallery Mezzanina in Gracia. It was a kind of homecoming for the piece, because the original painting/sculpture/relief was found on the streets of Gracia.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9gsBfBZp6ngzjyu7DbZPSsIF_zeAyzx_LlFAxUd9VNzcS9PXYWmcO6UzqbQ5Am3vPpPYzXassbLnw5Ai5h-AbTMq_KiOoM7Na1wa5PDnx9WdRZMm24gyvqzXAJVSTM3JIoXIEaCinuuyH/s1600/jonathans.JPG">

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9gsBfBZp6ngzjyu7DbZPSsIF_zeAyzx_LlFAxUd9VNzcS9PXYWmcO6UzqbQ5Am3vPpPYzXassbLnw5Ai5h-AbTMq_KiOoM7Na1wa5PDnx9WdRZMm24gyvqzXAJVSTM3JIoXIEaCinuuyH/s1600/jonathans.JPG" width="320" />