By Ivan Gomez
How long have you been an artist and how did you get started?
If my memories serve me correctly, I started telling people I was an artist at age 4. The reason I ever started being creative was watching my mother draw or sing. She is a great talent that initiated my interest in culture and the arts. We also had a large collection of VHS classic films at home that greatly contributed to my old soul, imagination and love for film. Art was also an escape from being rejected in school by teachers and students for being different. The only classes I really enjoyed were orchestra and art because it was a freer environment where everyone was just trying to learn a craft. It planted the seed of possibility in the world of art I would later revisit as my purpose.
What is your creative process like and how do you get inspired?
I cannot say that I have a specific process or template for my creations. However, I will say that my creativity thrives on being inspired. A painting idea of mine can start coming to me through hearing a song, remembering dreams, a movie (like ‘The Matrix’), memories, a conversation with someone, or more predominantly the experiences I have had with psychoactive plants such as Ayahuasca. I am a visual thinker, and if something can trigger a shape, image, or color in my mind, I like to start a basic sketch and later reference it for a painting. When I begin a painting, the only thing I remain focused on is what my message to the viewer is; and conveying that through the escapism I hope translates a deeper meaning to people. There are more rare times that I paint intuitively in the moment.
How has your style changed over the years?
Honestly, I did not actually have a style up until a year ago. Before then, I created drawings or paintings off a reference of other artistic styles, I found to be fun to practice. For the first 10 years of my life I absolutely loved comic book drawings (X-Men being my favorite), Dragon Ball Z, and Manga. For a long time, I struggled to develop my own style and felt insecure about it. I gave up art for a while because I let the opinions of others and society convince me that I needed to choose a “safe” endeavor (which was basically to have good credit and work in a cubicle). Ironically, this is what made me realize just how necessary it was for me to find my creative voice/style. The one thing preventing me from moving in that direction was my perception of myself that I needed to change through healing and self-realization. After traveling to Cusco, Peru and my healing experience there, I was then able to discover my style you see today. This is when I used my early inspirations and combined these elements with surrealism and mystical imagery.
How does creating art make you feel?
Creating my art makes me feel like I am a part of something bigger. I know my mission, and I know what I am passionate about at the end of the day. I truly believe in the strength of humanity, and the individual power we all hold as well as collectively. Seeing my art materialize from my imagination in hopes of planting seeds of pondering the unknown in people’s minds, is my way of spreading love. In a way, making art and utilizing my craft to communicate this also makes me feel like I am immortalizing myself and leaving that love here for the people who need it.
What role does the artist have in society?
I think the role us artist have in society is to present new ideas and ways of thinking to the masses. For humanity to keep evolving and learning how to expand our thinking, we need creative people from all walks of life who are willing to share their ideas. In our current world I think it is safe to say that a lot of people are ‘waking up’. We are waking up to the fact that our world is in desperate need for new solutions for the betterment of every sentient being and our planet. As much as our world leaders and society promotes division and a left-brain system that is exactly designed to disrupt the creative potential of humans; people are beginning to see that new ideas are vital. Of course this doesn’t only apply artist, but as artist who are willing to put our ingenuity into action, we must use that to cultivate creative cooperation in order for us to inspire and bring people together for a common cause.
What is your dream project?
Because I am someone who enjoys art, music, poetry, stories, and film; I think the ultimate project would be to direct an inspiring sci-fi film with the characters and worlds on my canvases. Since we are talking ‘dream project’ I would also have to include music composed by Hans Zimmer.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
“Be completely engaged with what you are doing… and instead of calling it work, realize it is play.” Said by: Alan Watts
Professionally, what is your goal?
One of my goals is to develop my LLC (Cyantific Creations) into a company that invites all sorts of creators into one collaborative effort to create and implement ideas for our future. Among other things, I would love to speak to kids around the world to help eradicate early feelings of self-doubt and animosity towards others and inspire them to focus on having compassion and becoming their best self. If my story unfolds to becomes enough to show future generations this, then I am happy with that as well.
Who is your favorite artist and why?
My favorite artist is Alex Grey. He is THE epitome of mystical visionary art, which is the realm in which I chose to embark on myself. His story is also very similar to mine, in terms of us both having chronic adolescent depression, which later as an adult lead to the world of psychedelics influencing a unique artistic translation of mysticism and the unknown within us.
What famous artist from history would you like to spend a day with and what would you do together?
It would be interesting to spend a day with Da Vinci. I do not know if I would consider myself a “Renaissance Woman”, but I am infatuated with such a mind like Leonardo Da Vinci’s. I would imagine watching him paint, write philosophical literature, or designing an invention would be more than enough to witness.
I saw some interesting books in your Instagram, do you have an essential philosophy that guides you in your creative expression?
For me, there is not one essential philosophy. The person I am today is heavily influenced on maintaining an inquisitive nature on just about any subject or existing philosophy combined. It keeps the creative window open for my art and my mind open to the vast amount of different narratives and perspectives. I do find the most intriguing knowledge to come from ancient civilizations, Hermeticism, Stoicism, Buddhism, Esoteric, Biblical texts, The Emerald Tablets, or from fascinating people like Graham Hancock, Terence Mckenna, Carl Young, Nikola Tesla, Alan Watts, Ram Dass, Rumi, Marcus Aurelius, and many more. It is only when I intersect the basic principles deriving from several cultural lenses with anomalies from the science of today that I can find a way to convey my expression.
I make each of my characters skin blue, red, purple, green, etc. is to not give my characters an identifiable race or ethnicity we recognize through regular skin tones. I prefer to give them these different colors to emphasize something other than a specific race, or flag, the human race.
Cyan Reyes
Art evokes a lot of emotions through color and composition. Can you tell us how you use color and composition to evoke emotion in your pieces?
They certainly do. I pay attention to how people feel or react to certain colors and marry that with the message behind each piece. I like to use these colors in a painting with the intent to make them all stand out from each other while letting the colors play in unison. One thing I’m not sure many people realize is that the reason I make each of my characters skin blue, red, purple, green, etc. is to not give my characters an identifiable race or ethnicity we recognize through regular skin tones. I prefer to give them these different colors to emphasize something other than a specific race, or flag, the human race. I want to highlight how we are all beautifully unique when we unapologetically emulate ourselves authentically regardless of what categories our environment tries to place us in.
What do you think about the Creative Community in Cleveland?
It is amazing to see this community come together in the pursuit of creativity and collaboration, because that is everything I stand behind. This last year or so was about healing and finding my style so I could later find other artist in my community to get to know and possibly collaborate with. Hopefully, that happens very soon.
Tell us about your experience with Julia de Burgos.
Julia De Burgos Cultural Art Center is an amazing platform for creative Latinos in Cleveland. They have been so supportive and provide opportunities for our voices to be heard as well as the black community. I will never forget that they were the first gallery to display my artwork.
What are your Latina roots?
My Latin roots are Puerto Rican. I was born in upstate New York and raised in Cleveland. I was never taught to speak fluent Spanish, but I still love everything about my culture. I want to contribute to putting Latinos on the map and display that just like anyone else we are much more than any stereo type.
What is a little-known fact you would like to share?
A little-known fact about me is that I have Alopecia Universalis. It is an auto immune disease that caused me to lose all my hair when I was 16 years old. (The reason all my characters are bald) Not a lot of people know this because I wear wigs and don’t talk about it much, but I also don’t want to hide it. Eventually, it would be nice to give back to adults and children suffering from the same ailment as me and hopefully use a future platform to reach out and teach them the importance of loving themselves and that they are not alone.
How can the audience contact you?
The best way to contact me is by email: cyantificcreations@gmail.com
Or direct message on Instagram: @cyantific_art
