{"id":41,"date":"2017-10-10T12:04:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-10T11:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/everpress.local.com\/?p=41"},"modified":"2018-05-29T19:11:21","modified_gmt":"2018-05-29T18:11:21","slug":"studio-visit-joe-cruz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/studio-visit-joe-cruz\/","title":{"rendered":"A Day in the Studio with Joe Cruz"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s an element of formalism to his process and at no point do his resulting pieces ever feel over-embellished. By isolating and emboldening shapes, he elevates elements of each image, breathing new life into existing work. Yet he\u2019s not the sort of artist who would enjoy labels being foisted upon him. The way Joe works is instinctive and usually not the result of a predetermined or rigorous process. Images reveal themselves to him, and he uses his artistic sensitivity to navigate through the creative process.<\/p>\n

We met with Joe at his studio in London to get a better sense of who he is, and what he does.<\/p>\n

\"Joe
Joe Cruz in his studio, by Lauren Maccabee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What\u2019s your name? Where do you come from? What do you do?<\/h3>\n

My name is Joe Cruz. I\u2019m an artist and also a commercial illustrator. I was born in North London but all my family are from different places; one nan is French, one granddad is Spanish, my other nan is Austrian and my other granddad is English. They all came to London and from there we moved to Hertfordshire as a family.<\/p>\n

I did my foundation course in Cambridge and then studied BA Fashion and Illustration at Norwich. Mainly specialising in printmaking, doing lots of life drawing and using the library and stuff. Then after uni I knew I wanted to be an artist, so I carried on going… and here we are! I initially worked lots of part-time jobs for four or five years \u2018til art became a sustainable career. That\u2019s pretty much how I got to where I am.<\/p>\n

As a little kid, I always liked to arrange things and be in control.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Can you remember the first moment you were captured by the arts?<\/h3>\n

I don\u2019t know specifically \u2013 none of my family are really into art but I’ve always loved drawing, even in, like, play-school. That\u2019s all I was interested in at school. I\u2019m not academic in other aspects, but I\u2019ve always been drawing.<\/p>\n

As a kid, I liked cartoons and fashion. Actually, always fashion in particular. In fact, even as a little kid, I always liked to arrange things and be in control; rearranging everything in my room all the time and stuff like that. So to answer your question, not really. I knew I wanted to pursue art from a really young age, and I couldn\u2019t become a professional athlete, so that was the natural conclusion.<\/p>\n

Did you have aspirations to be an athlete then?<\/h3>\n

Yeah, I\u2019ve been doing karate for over 20 years and have always loved sport \u2013 loved football, loved basketball. I wanted to do something like that but then I sustained a bad knee injury and couldn\u2019t really continue.<\/p>\n

\"Joe
Joe Cruz in his studio, by Lauren Maccabee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Did growing up in North London influence your work at all?<\/h3>\n

More than North London being an influence, the fact that all my family are from different parts of Europe has played a big part, as you get all the different influences from there. I go to Seville every summer, which is where my nan lives, and it\u2019s always really exotic. The Moors populated the area for hundreds of years and I love the Arabic influence that you can still see there today \u2013 I definitely think that feeds into my work. See, like that piece there [gestures]. It carries a lot of the Catholic influences from that area; it\u2019s quite camp and over the top with lots of gold. That\u2019s definitely fed into aspects of my work. And it\u2019s only when you look back on it that you realise that\u2019s where it comes from.<\/p>\n

Does sport and being active feed into your work?<\/h3>\n

Definitely. My work is really high energy, there\u2019s lots of movement and it\u2019s very physical and responsive. I suppose it\u2019s not overly thought out initially, and I respond viscerally to the imagery I work with and attack it.<\/p>\n

\"Joe
Joe Cruz’s studio, by Lauren Maccabee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When you\u2019re creating the work, is it an intuitive sense that guides you?<\/h3>\n

Definitely. The best work is when nothing\u2019s planned and you end up making mistakes. It\u2019s best when things naturally occur \u2013 you end up discovering new techniques and new ways of working, and that\u2019s the aspect I really enjoy. Pushing the practice, and doing different things.<\/p>\n

Doing the commercial side is a bit different. It pays the bills, obviously, but they want you to do the same thing over and over. I do really enjoy it but when I\u2019m not doing commercial projects, I try to push the practice. For instance, I\u2019m trying to develop some 3D work at the moment for a show in Tokyo. I\u2019m always trying to push it. I get bored so quickly anyway and I can\u2019t imagine doing the same thing over and over forever.<\/p>\n

\"Joe
Joe Cruz in his studio, by Lauren Maccabee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In an ideal world would you lose the commercial work?<\/h3>\n

Sometimes I think that.. but equally I think I\u2019d still like to do it. Obviously in an ideal world I\u2019d be Joe Cruz with the massive gallery shows, but even if that was the case, I\u2019d still want to push the commercial work into a more high-end context. I\u2019d like to do the high-end collaborations and pick and choose the brands I want to work with.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it\u2019s really fun to do a line of clothing, which you can\u2019t do if you\u2019re just focused on your own studio. I really like to see my work applied to different avenues. The only downside to the commercial aspect for me, is that you don\u2019t always get complete creative control \u2013 the client normally has something in their head that they want. Now that I\u2019m getting more and more established, I\u2019m much more up front with what I want, and with taking control of the final output. I try not to hand over work that I don\u2019t want used, as whatever gets used is a representation of me.<\/p>\n

So is your practice collaborative at all? Looking around the studio there\u2019s other people pottering about.<\/h3>\n

Not really, no! I sometimes work with photographers. A lot of the time I find and source photography myself but some of the time I work directly with photographers. And sometimes I work with graphic designers. I\u2019ve always liked posters and the history of poster art. I\u2019m always up for trying things.<\/p>\n

\"Joe
Joe Cruz’s studio, by Lauren Maccabee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Do the photographers ever get angry with you at all? As your work is about obscuring theirs.<\/h3>\n

Not really! Jack Davidson is one of the ones that I collaborate with most and he\u2019s doing really fantastic work in his own right. Something about his images grabbed me; there was one image in particular that I really liked and I just used it without his permission. I posted it up on Instagram and the reaction it got was really good. Then he said, \u2018That\u2019s my image, I love it, here\u2019s some more images!\u2019 So I’ve never had an issue using found photography. If I know who the people are, I\u2019ll credit them.<\/p>\n

\"Joe
Joe Cruz’s studio, by Lauren Maccabee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Are artists more afraid of taking people\u2019s imagery nowadays?<\/h3>\n

No, if anything, less! There\u2019s such an abundance of imagery out there \u2013 we\u2019re seeing so much stuff all the time. I think we\u2019re quite reckless with it. The copyright thing is such a grey area now, it’s not very linear. That\u2019s reflective of the culture though I guess, more than the work… that idea of making instant work. Because now, more and more, you\u2019re making the work for a screen rather than making it for a painting, because you can reach more people, so much quicker, doing it that way.<\/p>\n

Do you approach the work differently because of this?<\/h3>\n

It is slightly different because you can be a bit more\u2026 well everything is handmade, but you don\u2019t have to perfect the final work so much, as you would if you created a painting. All of my final works which I have over there [gestures], I scan them in and post them on Instagram.<\/p>\n

\"Joe
Joe Cruz in his studio, by Lauren Maccabee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Are you attached to the idea of mark-making from a painter\u2019s perspective? I ask because the mark-making seems very dynamic in your work.<\/h3>\n

Everything I use is cheap really \u2013 I use the cheapest printers. The only quality item that I actually use is the pastels themselves. More expensive pastels are richer and you get nice textures.\u00a0I like using rough and ready materials and creating something that\u2019s quite primitive really. I\u2019ve always been very interested in primitive art and creating something that\u2019s quite raw, I guess.<\/span><\/p>\n

I like using rough and ready materials and creating something that\u2019s quite primitive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To run with that – what are the inspirations that you find yourself coming back to? You mentioned primitive art and the Arabic influences from Seville, but what else inspires you?.<\/h3>\n

All sorts! Honestly, loads of different things. I\u2019ve always liked German Expressionism and African art… things like that. Artists like Max Beckmann, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and then obviously I love all the 20th Century masters. But then I also love all the Renaissance artists and Pop artists. Honestly, so many different things!<\/p>\n

Are you the sort of person who will have an obsession for a while and fixate on it?<\/h3>\n

Maybe, yeah. Who am I looking at at the moment\u2026 oh that\u2019s it… Cy Twombly! I\u2019d never really seen his work before and then my friend showed me his stuff. And you know when you\u2019re familiar with something but don\u2019t really delve deeper… it\u2019s brilliant! All the painting, the drawing, the photography and the sculptural work \u2013 I was really impressed by all the sculptural work.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I do fixate on an interest. The good thing is that I work at a university, so I get access to the library. It\u2019s nice when you set projects and you force yourself\u2026 because you have to teach a new subject\u2026 you force yourself to learn about a different period in art history, and by doing that you discover more art. So that\u2019s really important for me, to carry on discovering, otherwise it would feel stale \u2013 and I don\u2019t want that. I pick and choose little techniques from different ideas and that way it keeps it moving forwards.<\/p>\n

\"Joe
Joe Cruz in his studio, by Lauren Maccabee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In terms of discovering the found images you work with \u2013 what\u2019s the process behind this?<\/h3>\n

More and more now, it\u2019s by using Tumblr and Instagram. It might be that I see a wider image and then crop into a tiny part of it \u2013 focusing on little aspects of images.<\/p>\n

I also go through waves of using different techniques. I could go through a wave of using ink, or chalk, or doing cut-outs. Then within each technique there\u2019ll be a structure that works with those sort of images, so I know what to look for, and can start finding images that are composed in a particular way. Then again, sometimes I\u2019m just looking at stuff that resonates with me and my interests. It\u2019s a bit of both. It\u2019s balance between the two; finding a structured image with something I’m looking for, which also grabs me by the gut.<\/p>\n

\"Original
Original artwork, by Joe Cruz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What role does colour play in your work?<\/h3>\n

I suppose I do have an emotional relationship with colour. I wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m super into colour or anything like that [gestures towards outfit which is entirely black]. But it is an emotional relationship, it\u2019s all about how I\u2019m feeling. For example, I might find an image that resonates with something that\u2019s happening in my personal life, and I\u2019ll respond to it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost like therapy. I find it reflective afterwards. And I understand more about myself after I\u2019ve made the work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The nice thing about the work is that it\u2019s almost like therapy. I find it reflective afterwards. And I understand more about myself after I\u2019ve made the work.\u00a0Which is why I\u2019m not like, \u2018Oh I\u2019m going to make this piece of work about this.\u2019 It is more like approaching it as therapy \u2013 just to get my energy and emotions out. Then you look back and go, \u2018Oh that sort of explains that.\u2019 It\u2019s a really nice thing to have.<\/p>\n

\"Joe
Joe Cruz in his studio, by Lauren Maccabee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How did you first establish a consistent aesthetic?<\/h3>\n

Well, at uni, I always had very different aesthetic interests and my inspirations were completely different to other people in the class, so I sort of went off on my own tangent. Like I said, a lot of classic poster art, German Expressionism, all sorts of different things really. I started to work with more printmaking and I really liked bold mark-making; I used to transfer that all onto a screen (silkscreen). So I\u2019d have the image, some text written onto it and different marks. I wouldn\u2019t be very structured with my screen-printing, I\u2019d have a bunch of stuff on top of my screen and it\u2019d be proper messy \u2013 that\u2019s how I developed that way of working.<\/p>\n

Then when I left uni, I didn\u2019t have access to any way of screen-printing, it was so expensive. It could be \u00a3400 for a 3 layer screen-print, for the quantities I wanted to do. So I started to draw directly onto newspapers, and then I bought a really cheap old photocopier and started to work directly onto the photocopies. It\u2019s got a similar aesthetic. If not even better really, because it\u2019s so much more immediate. Rather than drawing onto tracing paper and putting it on a screen, I\u2019m drawing directly onto it. It either works or it doesn\u2019t, and it\u2019s immediate, you know straight away, there\u2019s no fiddling around.<\/p>\n

\"Joe
Joe Cruz’s studio, by Lauren Maccabee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You mentioned earlier that being athletic fed into your work, is fashion also something that\u2019s always been present?<\/h3>\n

My nan used to own a factory in North London making garments for Vivienne Westwood and Aquascutum and all those sorts of brands. So I\u2019ve always been interested in fashion. When I first came out of uni I tried to create a \u2018fashion brand\u2019; I did like a line of scarves and stuff like that. I just set myself a project straight away.<\/p>\n

What was that called?<\/h3>\n

It was a Joe Cruz collection basically. I did like four or five silk scarves, which I\u2019ve still got. I thought I\u2019d set up my own fashion brand but it was so expensive to do it. I\u2019ve done a lot of fashion collaborations off the back of it though. But now, more and more, I\u2019m becoming comfortable with talking to a few of my clients who are fashion companies. I\u2019d like to do more garments \u2013 more scarves, tapestries and things like that. It\u2019s nice to see your work out in the world. I\u2019d like to wear my work, but it\u2019s colourful and I would never wear, like, a massive colourful design on a t-shirt, so it would have to be more like a pattern design, or creating a logo or motif… or it could be in the lining of a garment. Just applying it in a way that I would want to wear.<\/p>\n

Sounds like your scarves were the perfect example!<\/h3>\n

Yeah the scarves were great. It\u2019s just a canvas anyway. I think with the scarf you can keep it as a pure artwork, whereas with a blazer or a coat you have to be much more subtle. Like I say, I\u2019m interested in wearing what I produce and so far that hasn\u2019t really come about because the fashion companies want something super colourful. It\u2019s all getting there… all the things I want to do!<\/p>\n

What would your dream project be?<\/h3>\n

Dream project\u2026 Maybe just doing a couture fashion collaboration… and all the models\u2019 makeup is done in my style of artwork too.<\/p>\n\"joe-cruz-studio-london\"\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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