featured artist Leonora Carrington

interview transcript Rolex Replica Watches www.rolexperhot.com Date of Interview: Jul 01, 2000 Location: Mexico Topic: In the Studio with Leonora Carrington Interviewer: Cynthia MacMullin LatinArt:  Leonora Carrington explains, Leonora Carrington:  I left Europe and I went to New York and I came to Mexico. I was very impressed by New York, the United States, equally by Mexico, and Europe which I left behind and the place that was the most receptive to me, to what I do, would be Mexico. Theres an extraordinary richness here, and Mexican mythology is very powerful indeed. LatinArt:  Mexico and Surrealism Leonora Carrington:  Mexico provided a natural home for many of the European artists of Surrealism. In 1938, Andre Breton, the founder of the European Surrealist movement, visited Mexico and declared that Mexico was "a naturally surrealistic country"." During World War II Leonora Carrington found refuge and a lifelong home in Mexico. She developed a personal and inner-directed form of surrealism that engages the occult, the irrational, the supernatural and mythical. LatinArt:  A Visual Vocabulary Leonora Carrington:  I happen to paint. I think it came very easily and naturally, and then it became more and more difficult as time went on. Im not depicting anything that I know of, maybe Im depicting something but I dont know what it is. I dont think there is a visual, a real visual vocabulary maybe there is but I dont know if there is. You cant learn a vocabulary which is something invisible. Everybody has an irrational side which either they contact or they dont. I think what we call rational thinking or doing habits that which we have acquired and irrational as something we have not yet acquired so theres not really a distinction. LatinArt:  Fingerprints and Handwriting Leonora Carrington:  Each and every persons fingerprints are different. So, everyone has a recurring very personal individual thing. I think the only real individuality that I know of are fingerprints. Everybody has a different handwriting and if you can tell, for instance, the more the handwriting is visible, I think you can say that is a real artists. I am thinking of the moment of El Greco, who I dont like, but I can not deny that he is a great painter. LatinArt:  Everybody is Mysterious Leonora Carrington:  We try to put things into categories so that we can say ah well, now we know how it is... We dont know how anything is. We dont know what any of these people are like and that includes myself. What I do, I do and thats the way it comes out. I dont know how to explain it any more than I can explain dreams or visions, I cant explain them. I dont think anybody can. I dont know what anybody is like interiorly inside, really like. People are as mysterious to me as I am to myself. Everybody is mysterious, and theres so much that we dont know about that we should be constantly amazed. back to artists