Ricardo Cavolo in Spirit 23

Ricardo Cavolo does not handle a conventional language. It tells stories through magical, visceral and ornate drawings of wandering sailors, Cossacks, Slavs, strange characters, living nature... A spiral of warm colors that seem to travel from the mountains of the Wild West to distant oceans and steppe Russia.

This man from Salamanca has sucked art since he was a child: after his father's brushstrokes came his own and now, he leaves Madrid to come to Brighton and continue with his murals, covers, exhibitions, fashion projects... and even a graphic novel about controversial artist Daniel Johnston . We travel through the worlds of Cavolo, of the outsider and the fantasy, having tea and a beer at La Gustava in Madrid:

When did you decide to pick up the brush? How does one go from doodling to dedicating oneself professionally to it?

I've always drawn but I didn't take it seriously until about five years ago. I was making the agency work compatible with some project that was coming out. Professionally, it seemed impossible to me. But ** I opened a blog with the intention of showing the works to my father ** who lives in another city and was the one who taught me how to draw. The good thing about the Internet is that you open this for your father and he ends up seeing it all over the world...

What do you miss most about Salamanca?

I think nothing. When I go to see my family on the weekend I enjoy it, but... I already burned the city . Of course, it is the best that can be in Spain; It is the complete and perfect pack for a weekend : a nice place, where you can eat and drink well and with a lot of fun.

What does Madrid offer you that no other city offers you?

You catch me right in the middle of a transition. I'm leaving Madrid . I came here to continue studying because I wanted to do a Higher Degree in Image (I wanted to branch out a bit from the profession because I didn't know what I was going to do). But I think I'm done with that stage.

I'm going to Brighton . I have been in love with England all my life, I love the culture there, the way of being of the English, I connect very well with them and professionally I like the seriousness they have. A others is a country that greatly promotes illustration . It is a springboard a little more above to make yourself known. I've been in love with the country all my life and now I'm marrying it.

Madrid offered me a place to grow professionally. And also, on a day-to-day basis, something similar to Salamanca has that Castilian 'thing' , a very similar identity seal. When I leave here, I will miss you so much. rods and skewers . Something that I love when someone comes to visit is to do the tourist route of the beers and tapas (not taking them to the Asador de Aranda...which is also).

Creating a mural for Urban Outfitters in Covent Garden, London

Your career is also closely linked to music. You have done several concert posters and album covers like for Marcus Doo & The Secret Family... Do you recommend us an album to travel or to help you travel from home?

Undoubtedly, the latest albums by Johnny Cash , there are six volumes, his last six albums that belong to a group called ** 'American' :** they are perfect songs for things to happen to you, for you to think about the road... To travel from home, I would choose Neutral Milk Hotel It's a band that I love. They are still folk but with a psychedelic touch that allow you to leave where you are without moving. There has to be a tap on the head first so that later you can escape where are you from And that's what music is for.

Pirates, anchors, mermaids, whales, sea... Do you have an ocean left to cross? What marine route would you love to do? Or are you more from the land?

I haven't crossed any. In spring I will go to Montreal, to Canada , for work and that will be my first jump. I have done all of Europe (I only have the Nordic ones left) I spent four months traveling country by country and now it's my turn to jump the puddle.

Of everything I visited, despite the fact that it already caught my attention before, I really liked the Balkan area . It attracts me a lot. If I have to choose a country, I stay with Romania . I was also seduced by **Russia, it's a place like an alien.** In fact, I use Russia in my drawings as a symbol, a vocabulary to talk about strange things. Russia and the Russians seem to me to be people who belong to another planet, they have a distinctive point from the rest.

An obligatory question: has a destination ever inspired you for any of your works?

I like to draw about nature (the 'Life' exhibition was basically this) and from the nature inside the human body . And if I have to think of an area of ​​the world, I would say Canada I always have it very present even if I have not been there.

Sailor and Sea Wolf ('Sailor and sea wolf')

You have also illustrated the book Cocina Indie. What do you like most about gastronomy? A restaurant that you would recommend? Your favorite traveling dish?

I enjoy a lot eating and going to eat , as well as watching a movie; The problem is that I don't have time to cook. You have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen because it seems to me that is another way of making art : you combine things to generate something inside a person . It's like magic. And at the moment, I haven't found time to dedicate it to the kitchen, although I would love to.

A restaurant that I love is ** El Raitán , in Oviedo**. It is an old house with dining rooms in each room and the kitchen is in the middle. I love the cuisine of the north of Spain and Asturian cuisine is perhaps the one I like the most. If I have to choose a dish... I am very carnivorous and for me a steak with chips, is the paradise. I know it may seem very simple and unrefined, but it's the TOP . The day I open an exhibition and I want to treat myself, I go for the steak. It's a delight. Bleeding and one kilo.

And you have also done a mural in Art & Burger, do you recommend a high-end fast food?

**Alfredo's** I like a lot. But I would have to also say **Art & Burger**. I had never tried the BlackAngus and since I am a very carnivorous person, I can detect the differences in flavor of the meat well... And they seem to me to be very special hamburgers.

In addition, you also designed the poster for the 2012 Jägermeister House: a perfect venue and cocktail?

A place: any irish pub in london . And a cocktail... I like to order gin with half a squeezed lemon and two ice cubes.

Red is a very present color in your work, what destination would you paint passion red? Which black and white?

Color is a chemical that enters us through the eye. I think the perfect stimulus to attract people to see my work; it is something as primitive or instinctive as bright colors. Also help me create lively situations , which is what I like to talk about. I think that these colors make you impregnate very well with the intensity that I try to transmit with my work.

A destiny that would paint red, without a doubt, the grand canyon of the colorado with a yellowish sky at sunset. And with Johnny Cash in the background . black and white maybe Hong Kong or Dubai, these very vertical, very linear cities that have grown rapidly and at least humanized.

You have also done something in the world of fashion: a sweatshirt, the design of some Nike shoes... On a perfect shopping day, which stores would you go through?

I would choose London, without a doubt, because there I find what I like the most. Like Nike, Carhartt, tribal rings, North American Indian rings, biker imagery... and I find it in London. If I had to keep a store, I would say Urban Outfitters that gathers everything that I would take home in the same place.

You say that "bad tattoos take you to hell" but you have dared to design some...

When people order tattoos from me, I make sure that they like them, changing the design as many times as necessary. It's something personal, with their stories, their experiences... In that illustration I was referring to the fact that there are people who tattoo things that they don't feel, that I would call 'ugly'. Everything I have tattooed is mine. Since I carry it for life, let them be mine. I have illustrator friends who are unable to do it because they say they will get bored. In my case it is the opposite. This way of working and this type of drawing is my day to day and it's the best way to express myself , the way I best read things through images and I read images best with my own vocabulary.

You have been to Porto, Palma de Mallorca... Of all the places you have traveled to, where did you feel that your work fit best?

Of Port I get a very very good impression. Living in Salamanca I have always had Portugal close to me and I love the country. They are more reserved, more Atlantic, but they are very real. Also, being a smaller city than Madrid, they have two galleries dedicated solely to illustration (there is none like this in Madrid).

It is true that I have exhibited in Russia and Ukraine and there my work, surprisingly, fit perfectly and I even did a couple of conferences and without knowing me, the sites were filled. In kyiv the experience was tremendous. I know that in Mexico and Brazil He also liked my work and I really want to work there too.

What trip do you have left to do?

Mexico, without a doubt. There are some people in Europe who take for granted that I am Mexican, because my work is very colorful, very lively. I haven't really researched his art much, but I feel like we connect really well. I love his strength and his claw.

Could you choose a city and tell us about your favorite places to relax your body and mind? Disconnect? Enjoy a night of drinks with your friends?

I really like to relax Gijon It is a place with a north sea that I like. You relax more because you are more collected. It gives me a lot of peace in every way . Even for a drink I prefer Asturias. Perhaps it is because being in Madrid everything is a bit more jungle and you arrive in Gijón and it is like a little paradise.

To have a few drinks I don't like big cities, Madrid makes me uncomfortable because there are a lot of people. I have gone out through Vigo, Salamanca, but I would also say Gijón: I love the musical culture that it has, there is a lot of love for music and you notice it in the premises. I stay with the zone Cimadevilla , the neighborhood to go out at night, jumping from place to place. No endless scrolling.

Mural in Palma de Mallorca

Any souvenir that you remember with special affection that you have made or that they have made for you?

I prefer one from Transylvania that I made for my father and. A piece of folk Art, art made by the people of the villages. It was a bronze plate on which they had engraved a portrait of Vlad the Impaler and it was very crude, very simple, as if made by a child, by someone without much artistic talent. But very pretty. I totally hit because my father appreciates this type of art very much, as do I.

What is not missing in your suitcase when you travel? What do you miss the most?

Lots of gadgets: iPad, iPod, laptop, iPhone... for work and because there I watch movies, read, play... It's like my entertainment and work cell . And cables, lots of cables.

What I miss when traveling for work is being at home. When it's for pleasure... I don't miss anything at all. I have always said that I would like to be a millionaire to have children and to travel all the time . Traveling for me is one of the great passions. When I travel with who I want, I don't miss anything.

What means of transport do you prefer?

Traveling is very good for me because since I don't have time to read, watch movies, series... That's why I like it a lot the train, enjoy the trip and take advantage of it . It has a romantic point, really.

What is your bedside book to travel?

Moby-Dick. I like it a lot. Since I'm from a place that has no sea... I think I have a certain syndrome . Hence I ran away to Brighton.

In one of your illustrations you caricature the characters of 'Moonrise Kingdom', has any movie inspired you to travel?

Brighton has an air of the island in the movie... -_(New Penzance in fiction; Prudencia Island on the map) _-. But it is true that everything I see of American cinema makes me want to travel tremendously. I love profound America and it catches my attention. I crave like crazy. I wouldn't tell you a specific movie but... Who talks openly about New Jersey ? No one. Except The Sopranos . So I said to myself: the trip I make to New York has to have a mandatory getaway to New Jersey.

A city that you would paint with brush strokes? One with all the details and with a slow stroke?

would paint London in full brushstroke . With those skies always so gray, so charged, like a Turner painting. Instead, Paris would be a slow stroke : those high roofs with windows seem very drawable to me, enough to stop at the detail; It is a city with many neuralgic points and I find it very easy to draw. I've always had those roofs in mind.

Future plans?

In this new stage in Brighton I would like to dedicate myself more to fashion. Currently I make my own brand produced in the US but I would like to treat everything myself from the beginning, deciding more about the garment.

Right now I am immersed in a job that fills me a lot (and that takes up many hours of the day). I'm doing my first graphic novel , written and drawn by me. It's only about 100 pages, but it's like a real birth. It's about Daniel Johnson , a project that excites me a lot.

Related to this, I have a project that I want to develop and that I have always had in mind: to create or coordinate some type of organization that make exhibitions of work done with people with mental problems . There is an artistic path, outsider art, made by people (not necessarily, but most of them) with mental problems, like Daniel Johnston and his drawings . I would love to coordinate different works of artists, known and anonymous, and take them worldwide . Give it the importance and visibility it deserves.

'Dominic', wildlife