#littleistravelling
She laughs when you ask her why Little and admits that at 29 years old she has little left, that her friends called her because she was the youngest in the class, that she then began to draw, Fotolog arrived with their nicknames and the rest is already known. We take the suitcase to go on a trip with Carla Fuentes, because #littleistravelling.
** Carla Fuentes (Valencia, 1986) ** is an illustrator and comes from a family where Art has been very present, she graduated in Fashion Design at EASD , she has collaborated with important national and international brands and with music groups such as Polock or Russian Red . She is well known for her multiple publications in fashion and trend magazines and is currently one of the illustrators with the greatest international projection and the most successful on social networks. She is one of the artists at Gunter Gallery, one of the most powerful online galleries on the national scene, and now she is opening The Seated in the gallery ** Herrero de Tejada (Madrid) **, which you can enjoy until next January 28.
Carla Fuentes, AKA littleisdrawing
How have your travels influenced your work?
A lot, because each place always teaches you new things, whether it's the landscapes, entering a place you've never seen, seeing characters in a cafeteria. The different and the new always inspire.
Do you prepare trips obsessively or do you let things flow?
I flow.
Do you have any mania or ritual to travel?
Nope.
Are you one of those who is right or one of those who is wrong when packing your suitcase?
I'm always wrong, either I take too much or I take too little. I have never found the balance.
What can not miss when you travel?
Anything with which you can take a photo, a camera, your mobile...
Traveling alone or badly accompanied?
solitary There is nothing worse than going on a trip with someone you don't love.
Plane, train, ship or...?
Airplane because it arrives faster than anyone. On long trips at three hours I go crazy.
Travel listening to...
tame Impala , this year I have taken so many flights and I have listened to them so much that they bring back good memories. They go out.
What book would you take on a trip?
I have a thousand books that have freaked me out, but I'm one of reading things now . I would buy the last book that was recommended to me. So the book is new and the trip too.
What is that souvenir you always fall for?
white notebooks . I collect them from anywhere.
Carla in Hong Kong
What has been the craziest and at the same time the most sublime trip you have made?
The one from Hong Kong . I freaked out. I felt like I was in a video game.
What destination would you go to over and over again in an infinite loop?
To Berlin.
What is your top five cities?
Madrid, Porto, Berlin, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
If you had in your hand the possibility of drawing a perfect city, what would it be like?
I would do a mix between Berlin and Valencia, because of how flat it is, how comfortable it is and the good weather that it always does and I would give it the traditional Madrid vibe of the old town.
If you had 36 and a half hours to get away, where would you go?
I would go to the Meiroi farmhouse which is in Galicia, between Lugo and Santiago de Compostela, in a town called Navia. It is a brutal old house that is run by a couple where they raise their own organic livestock. It's a pass.
_Note Traveler: you will find the Meiroi Farmhouse in our 2015 Traveler Gastronomic Guide _ .
What has been The Journey for you?
Possibly the one I did with Polock, that we toured the United States because they played there and we went to concert halls in Los Angeles, Washington, New York, Austin... Everything related to music. It was very cool.
Seeing your work we can say that you are very into motels and bars, any confessed recommendation?
There is a brutal place in New York called Apotheke, it is a bar where you always find musicians. Maybe you go in and there are those from Phoenix, or an actor,... It's a brutal place. In Berlin there is a burger place called White Trash. It's a dark, candlelit place where they do concerts and I love it. In Los Angeles there are a lot of motels. You go out there and you find them on the road. There are so many I couldn't tell you one. That, what can be counted (laughs).
Carla's motels
What place has been that pleasant surprise that you would never have expected?
The Angels . It had a very bad reputation when we went. They told us that the least we were going to like was Los Angeles. And I don't know how to explain it to you, but I would tell you that it was almost what I liked the most.
Do you have a dream destination?
I would love to make a route through all Latin America , see Mexico , Colombia ,...
And while we're at it, with which artist (living or dead) would you go on a trip and where?
In principle anyone I admire, with Hockney, with Freud, Katz... although the myths always fall. I'm sure I'd go on a trip with them and end up hating them _(laughs) _.
"I would love to do a route throughout Latin America, see Mexico, Colombia,..."
We are going to Valencia, the place where he was born and where he has established his home and work studio, a headquarters full of art in full El Carmen neighborhood where the new and the old meet. He has no qualms when it comes to talking about her city, he knows it and claims it, knows how to recognize its limitations and its potential in equal parts . She now feels especially excited about the future of her city and us with her.
What about Valencia in your work?
For me Valencia is when summer arrives, with the Sun, the Light and immediately I start painting swimming pools and beach houses. ** **
** What is it to be from Valencia? **
Aixó ho pague jo, in Valencia we are very selfless for everything. It doesn't matter, don't suffer, I'll pay you, it will be per diners. We are not to give importance to things.
Valencia is the land of flowers, light and...
The total party, to be around (more laughter)
¿ What is the best time to enjoy Valencia?
When spring begins to arrive and you escape to the lagoon, which is wonderful eat a rice . Although, to tell the truth, it has many moments...
What is your favorite neighborhood in Valencia?
Carmen where I live is great, it's the old town. Then there's ** Ruzafa **, which is a neighborhood where a lot of super cool places have opened, although it's been a bit over the top lately. Now this Benimaclet that it would be like the new Ruzafa, a neighborhood that was somewhat abandoned and where young people are now beginning to go to set up very cool things. But also The Cabanyal , which is a fishermen's neighborhood that they wanted to throw away a while ago and now very cool things are opening there.
Drawing El Cabanyal
Where to see Art in Valencia?
There is more and more artistic offer. The IVAM, the city's contemporary art museum, where people from all over Spain used to come some time ago and where very important artists such as Polock or James Turrell it was sunk by political management, in recent years the mayor's friends exposed with a very low level. Stream , which I love and which he exhibited there, has said in recent interviews that for him Valencia was dead on an artistic level since they sank the IVAM , which was one of the best contemporary art centers in Spain. But now they are starting to do super cool exhibitions. The last one I went to see was Gillian Wearing , a super cool English photographer.
She is very strong, but cathedral square It had been seventy years since a cultural event had been held. It was prohibited by the City Council. Now a cultural event has been organized, which is called El Intramurs where foreign artists intervene the city and it is the first time that they have been allowed to do so in the cathedral square.
He has also opened a center called Las naves where illustration exhibitions are being held and where he has exhibited Paula Bonet . There is a new gallery called Pepita Lumiere and where am I going to exhibit in January . In the Almudin room , an old barn where grain was stored, is now exhibited by very good consecrated contemporary painters.
One of the pieces of the exhibition still in the studio
Where to buy wonderfully unnecessary and essential things in Valencia?
I'm crazy about flea markets and markets . I have some real wonders of clothes from four to one euro. People don't even know what they have and they haven't gone to the second-hand shops to finish off the piles yet. You find cool stuff on the trail , in the Jerusalem market, or in Denia in Jalón you find very cheap furniture.
A place to have breakfast:
Dulce de Leche, a new place that some Argentines have opened in Ruzafa and where they make some amazing cakes.
A place to eat:
El Almudín, in the old town , where they make some very good rice dishes.
A place to have a snack:
Slaughter House. It was an old butcher's shop in Ruzafa, it's full of books and magazines and you can have a little piece of cake, a sandwich or some cheese for a snack. It's cool.
A place to dine:
A place called Aquarium. It's like the inside of a ship and the waiters are older and in uniform. They make very good tapas and sandwiches and some amazing cocktails.
A place that you will regret confessing:
In Cabanyal there is a place called La Peseta and it goes out. It is a cellar to have a Vermouth or a sandwich.
Where to listen to live music in Valencia?
In the ** Wah Wah , the El Loco room and in the Jimmy Glass ** to listen to a bit of jazz.
Where to dance until dawn in Valencia without routes or cod?
That's already more difficult (laughs).
Quick, a song for Valencia...
A hit of the summer, but I'd stick with the theme My hands on your waist . My friends and I love it (laughs)
Where would you take a first date and not fail?
I would take a first date to eat a paella to El Palmar at noon.
And on a last date?
I don't know, some coffee shop or any place that doesn't have alcohol so as not to mess it up . Perhaps a walk along the river, through the Turia gardens. Sit on any bench and say goodbye.
Of the Valencian pro tips, which one do you identify with the most?
My father is the one who makes the best paella in the world and he is not Valencian. I swear to you for all you want that it is like that (laughs).
If you closed a prime-time political debate and were given the final minute to make a statement about your city, what would it be?
It is a city that is full of possibilities but politically they have not allowed it to evolve. Because the fault that Valencia is what it is and we have the fame we have is because of the politicians, but that is over. Now we have to make it grow at all levels.
And finally, what is your favorite Instagram filter?
Which is it going to be? (and more laughs).
carla painting
THE SEATS ARE WAITING FOR YOU
Let's get a little serious, what are we going to see in Los sedates besides people doing the same?
A tribute to the portrait and the portrayed, to the friend, to the model, to the person who posed for the painter friend.
Where does the idea come from?
That figure in the History of Art has always amused me, the model that posed sitting down for a thousand hours to be painted. Last year I was awarded a private scholarship in Mallorca with this project and I have developed it during this year, researching new techniques and formats for me. I have painted on canvas that I have not done for many years, I have dared.
Who have been your models?
Some are real, some friends, others are half-invented characters, they are not anyone in particular and yes. Some are inspired by people in my family and others by fictional characters. For example “Jane” is based on a character from a book by Bukowski.
Understanding your artistic career as a one-way trip, where do you come from, where are you and where are you going?
I always think that today is the last day. I get up and think that today will be my last job, but things are coming out. In general I don't have a project, the illustrators of the Internet era are in a kind of limbo. I would like to make the leap into painting Although it is very complicated, I have no idea how this world of Art is going, I only know that it is very sectarian and crazy. To access a gallery like the ones before is almost impossible. It is very difficult. Now I have this exhibition here and I have another one in January in Valencia, then who knows (smiles).
Thank you Carla.
After speaking at length with this young illustrator and visiting her exhibition the seated we feel we have learned some other rare truth of the human soul stained with graphite, acrylic paint and smiles on paper or on canvas. Someone could say that this exhibition is a point of maturity in the path of this artist of her time, but when you talk to her you realize that there has been nothing immature before, that her references are solid and well anchored and that today it will be the last day, that there will be more, many, possibly all, because Carla Fuentes is and she will be drawing.
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