IDOLS OF ART WALK: Cande Aguilar

Cande Aguilar

• Age: born July 3, 1972
• Hometown: Brownsville TX
• Genre: mixta
• Influences: family, spirituality, popular culture, and the environment
• Upcoming shows: solo show "Dream Green" Galeria 409 Brownsville, TX in October; solo show "World Affair" International Museum of Arts & Sciences (IMAS) January 15, 2009
• Website/ Myspace page: www.candeart.com

As a young boy you were drawn to music. What made you transition to art?

I grew up around conjunto music, my father has played conjunto music all his life and with my mother's love for the music I was naturally drawn to it. When I was about 7 years old I saw my uncle Fred drawing low-rider cars with pen and pencil on school paper, I thought it was the most amazing thing "to draw" this experience stayed with me, I never really did anything with the idea of drawing because music was something that I had focused my goals on and throughout my teens and twenties my life was recording and touring, in my late twenties I began visualizing my creativity, music and art are one in the same and they come as they please.

How does music influence your art?

I am truly grateful to conjunto music, it has taught me the dynamics of artistic expression which today I apply to my visual art, and on the other hand my visual art has revolutionized my music.

Your art has influences as wide spread as de Vinci, Matisse, Lichtenstein and Disney. Talk about how you create art that unites pop culture with more traditional mediums.

Whether it is about spirituality, popular culture or the environment these subjects are the main ingredients in the creation of my art work.

Why do you create art? What is that you get out of the experience?

This is the question that has been asked for thousands of years to artists all over the world "why does an artist create art" and "what does the artist get out of the experience," creating art has become my way of being free, in my imagination I have taken strolls with de Vinci, exchanged palettes with Matisse, I have even reached the stars, the experience of making art always makes me feel as if there is a forever.

What do you want people to get out of your work? As they stand their looking at it, what emotions do you want them to feel?

In my current collection of works titled, World Affair, people will engage in a dialogue that transcends boarders and oceans, created with materials that puzzle but reveal contemporary human pattern, people may feel as if they could have created the work themselves giving them a feeling of joy. The exhibit will be on display at the McAllen International Museum of Arts Sciences from January through March of 2009.