The Artist Zone: Chris Castaneda
April 30th, 2011 by Mr. C
Chris Castaneda at the MoCCA Festival in NYC
Planet Chocko had the pleasure to attend the MoCCA Festival which was held on April 10th & 11th at the Lexington Avenue Armory in NYC to benefit the 10th anniversary of the Museum of Comic & Cartoon art! Chocko went in one direction while I went the opposite as we foraged into the abyss of comic-zine-cartoon art aficionados & made a few exciting discoveries! The impressive neo-classical structure of the Lexington Avenue Armory housed an impressive list of creative geniouses of the comic, cartoon, & zine faction! Among these artists was Chris Castaneda who lured me into her art galaxy like a spectactor in a coney island sideshow with her unique creations of mythical looking characters dare I say demonic & satanic looking! Chris graciously spared a few minutes of her time to answer a few questions regarding her art work & background! Check out some images of her creations below as well as a few photos of her studio in Mexico City! Cute kitty & hello Pequeno Jose! And Chris, we love Ghost World, too! Enjoy, share, & appreciate!
PC: Where are you from & how has the environment & culture (ethnic,music,pop culture) influenced your vision for the arts which is manifested through your creations?
CC: I was born and raised in Mexico City, so living on one of the most important cultural centers in the world has been like heaven and hell. Heaven because we have a great amount of museums and the mixture of cultures is awesome. And hell because it can be very noisy, chaotic, a little bit violent, but still lovely. The constrasts are so evident that it also becomes a strange phenomenom, but anything you need you’ll find it here.
PC: What type of media do you like to work with?
CC: Photography and drawing are the mediums that I enjoy the most, but I sometimes experiment with sculpture and video. Drawing and photography are as my faithful husbands, and sculpture is like my lover.
PC: Can you describe your work & what messages if any are intended for the eyes of the beholder?
CC: Drawing is another kind of language (or that’s how I perceive it), and what I love about it is that there are no absolute truths. In my graphic work you can see demons, sacred symbols and pagan messages, but what I really wish is that the viewers have the same feeling of enjoyment I get while I’m creating each and every one of my pieces. Fear, excitement, passion, hate… whatever! But I want the viewer to travel and be penetrated into the mystical worlds that I invented. I want them to swell with more doubts and join me in these strange parallel universes where the limits of the goodness and evil fade.
PC: With some of your renderings & drawings that we saw at the MoCCA Festival which includes snakes, demons, satan, & other cool looking mythical creatures, is sorcery or witchcraft the source of this vision?
CC: Being raised in a catholic environment influenced my work but more in a perverted way.
Although my parents have strong beliefs about religion, I could never understand many things that were said in the Church. That is why I´m approaching to what we fear, so this experiments always get me out of the comfort zone. I have been researching on Satanism, witchcraft, and things of that style (I always wanted to be a witch), and although there are things which I identify with myself completely, it also makes me doubt about everything, so I’d rather be kind of a vomiting-cocktail of things I like, and explore the faith of the human condition with greater freedom.
PC: TOYS! Describe your toy sculpture creations & inspirations!
CC: I’m in love with toys and I love collecting them, so I decided to create my own characters: Maggot Girl & Slurp-O. Maggot Girl is a girl who looks like a Caterpillar and has mouse ears, and Slurp-O is a demon of very long, sticky tongue who eats garbage and feeds himself of that. Its crazy look is very sexy and his grains are more! Both are the result of what I love to see in comic books and on TV, especially those movies which are so rubbish that later become an epiphany of bad taste.The sculptures were made by my boyfriend (who is a master at that), and we will do the official presentation of the toys very soon.
PC: What is the story behind your zine, The Adventures of Maggot Girl?
CC: Maggot Girl was created 2 years ago along with other characters on their acid-mystic trips. She is a girl who was born without legs and arms, so her mother was very disgusted on embracing her. That’s why Maggot’s mom decided to weave her a suit. One day Maggot Girl went to the world’s largest amusement park and bought some mouse ears. Never more she removed them and her mother adapted the suit with ears.
Sometimes, you can see her travelling with demons or fighting with her clones. She can be evil with her friends and even to herself, but seconds later she turns into the sweetest girl in the world. I think that she is like my alter ego, as the girl who can move to strange worlds and then return home without any problem.
PC: Who are some artists that you admire?
CC: The Mexican artists that I admire the most are Manuel Manilla, José Guadalupe Posada, Ernesto “El Chango” Cabral and Pedro Friedeberg (although he was born in Italy, most of his work was developed in Mexico). The novohispanic and religious art is amazing and inspiring too! Looking to Cristóbal de Villalpando’s paintings make me shudder. Also, the films of Kenneth Anger and Christopher Ulrich’s paintings make me want to continue working, and about comic artists I am ardent fan of Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes, Frank Woodring and Tove Jansson.
PC: Do you have any upcoming projects that we should know about?
CC: Right now I’m preparing an art residency that will take place in Iceland. I’ll play the role of a witch that invents herself a new religion and this project will end in a solo exhibition. This project is sponsored by the Fundación / Colección Jumex, so I’m very excited for this trip, and I’m very anxious to find a big wall for street art, so if you know any place that needs a satanic drawing, please let me know.
PC: Do you have any other hobbies to free your mind when not creating artwork?
CC: I’m like a trash collector. I love to go to garage sales and find little treasures that once were useless. Sometimes I find cool outfits for my two cats, so cat cosplay is another hobby too. And I love to read the dictionary, specially the “Dictionary of Occultism”, but one of my strongest desires is to learn taxidermy and to be a tattoo artist.
PC: What foods do you miss the most when away from home?
CC: I really miss my mother’s “fideo seco”, her mashed potatoes and a stew that looks like a big meatball. The coziest meal you’ll ever have.
PC: Any must eat destinations for travelers to Mexico City?
CC: If you visit Mexico any time, the must place is “El Cardenal” restaurant. The “agua de amaranto” (amaranto water) is simply delicious and the “panza de borrego con tortillas” (belly lamb with tortillas) tastes like heaven!!! There’s another place near my studio, “El Maquech Púrpura”, that has one of the greatest lime soups that you’ll ever try.
PC: Your favorite bands to listen to are…
CC: My all time favorite band is The Velvet Underground, but while I’m working I like to listen to Os Mutantes, The Zombies, Wanda Jackson, The Kinks… surf, psychobilly, rockabilly, darkwave and 80’s are a must too when you enter to my studio. The retro atmosphere comes good for sketching the upcoming drawings.
PC: What are some of your favorite movies?
CC: Alejandro Jodorowsky’s “Holy Mountain” is one of my favorite movies ever. His film has been a big influence on my work. I saw a few weeks ago this japanese movie “Hausu” and it just killed me. The moments when the vomiting cat and the floating body parts appear are priceless! David Lynch’s “Wild at Heart” is another favorite one, but “Gentlemen Broncos” entered on my top ten when I met the actor Héctor Jiménez (the guy that plays Esqueleto in Nacho Libre). You must know that my boyfriend is a make-up artist, so horror movies are always on the TV too.
PC: Where can fans contact you to purchase your artwork, toys, & zines?
CC: You can visit my virtual diary christiancastaneda.tumblr.com theadventuresofmaggotgirl.blogspot.com and christiancastaneda.carbonmade.com .
I love to receive emails and chit chat, so you can catch up with me at xiancv@gmail.com
or you can facebook me too! http://www.facebook.com/christiancastaneda.v
(Oh, I have a flickr account, but you must be 18 or older). http://www.flickr.com/xian_cv/
PC: Any other tidbits, closing comments, & words of wisdom for the aspiring artists out there?
CC: If you love to make mistakes and learn from them, then you’re on the right way as long as you have fun and passion. The hard work always has rewards. Just like Aleister Crowley said: The joy of life consists in the exercise of one’s energies, continual growth, constant change, the enjoyment of every new experience. To stop means simply to die. The eternal mistake of mankind is to set up an attainable ideal.
I love to receive all kind of comments (the dialogue is always enriching), so if you want to make a collab, any trade or something you like to add you are very welcome!
Chris
Tags: chris castaneda, drawings, maggot girl, mexico city, mocca, photography, sculpture
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