Artist Statement.

Diego Gutiérrez, born in 1989, Capilla de Guadalupe, Jalisco, Mexico.

Without a doubt, art has been present throughout my life, from when I contemplate the sunrise with its diverse hues, to the sunset with the magic of its colors, expressions on faces that say so much without speaking... that's what art is, colors and textures that, if they could speak, would express what I am.

2013 was the year that sparked my interest in drawing, which, to this day, has undoubtedly been the most extraordinary and fortuitous encounter I've ever had. Once I realized that my hands could speak through brushes and canvases, this—art—became the most surprising and fulfilling area of ​​my life. My work in this field has certainly completely changed the way I perceive life, express it, feel it, and make it felt.

I'm primarily passionate about drawing and painting. I've had a lot of help along the way. In addition to this, I accept portrait commissions and continue… I've found my way through studying, reading, and reproducing the work of great realist artists whom I admire.

My creative process is anchored by photography and life . Drawing from life and making copies of Old Masters are what I consider an effective means of learning, of capturing everyday life and reflecting the times I live in. This is what gives me a sense of belonging: it's what motivates me to capture.

The concept of identity in my projects arises from photography, as it is a reference point for my work.

Oil painting is one of my favorite techniques, as it's not an improvised process. It forces me to plan, build my color palette, take notes, and draw a preliminary sketch, before attacking the canvas. Keeping in mind that if I do my best at first, the subsequent layers will shape the work, and I'll have fewer difficulties in the end.

Pencil drawing has a similar process: if I'm as precise as possible at first, the final results will be better. I like to work with a single technique, without mixing them: graphite pencil, charcoal, sanguine, etc., and I use papers of different shades.

I like works that are easy to understand, and this is undoubtedly what has made me perceive life more naturally, to show that beauty lies in simplicity: everyday faces that express fragility, but at the same time, complicity and complementarity with the environment by outlining, in the stroke, a captivating language.

By expressing the passion for my roots, the vivacity of my culture, that which gives meaning in a symbolic, ideological, artistic or aesthetic way, it has influenced in such a way that I can adopt that which defined me and still does, the appropriation of historical memory through values, beliefs, forms that in their immaterial and anonymous nature have given me identity, elements that I assume as my own and that naturally become me, not only as a historical reference, but that have made me part of a collective that proudly bears on its face, the cultural heritage that defines it.

I believe that the gifts that Life gives us, that God gives us, don't belong to us; they're meant to be shared. So, through pencils, I want to convey the same love and passion that define me.