10 Questions with Marta Dominguez

Marta Domínguez is a software engineer and artist based in Spain. Although she paints and draws from an early age, it is with sculpture that she explores the themes that interest her most. Giacometti and El Greco have influenced her use of figurative forms. Being a self-made artist, she persisted in creating in different media. Later her technique matured into her bronze-looking artworks. Only recently, she has looked for recognition as a full artist. She is inspired by nature in her mountain studio, where she finds her models. She uses the nickname “unaingenieraqueesculpe”.

kaleido.art/card/MartaDominguez | @unaingenieraqueesculpe

COW / ALTER EGO | Project Description

Marta Dominguez puts beauty into her artworks. She casts an original light on animal sculptures. In the cow project, she seems to have entered the wild pastures, so she brings back the soul of cows that others had not been able to see. Her sculptures exhibit expressionistic and elongated sculptural shapes that can be regarded as vivid emotional portraits. Each one of them is an alter ego that captures a variety of states that resonate with universal human emotions. Love (Cow in Love). Interior dialogue (Happy thinking cow). Curtsy (The reverence cow) are some of them. She uses discarded paper with wired armature, acrylic, and stone. She sets up by making a few simple sketches on paper with a pencil. Then she lets her mind free. Her creative style is to let the hands flow over the paper paste. In between molding sessions, she fills her curiosity, observes nature, and reads literature. Her choice of materials responds to the necessity of simplification and reuse of materials. All her pieces are unique since no sculpture mold is used. This art project is part of her artistic research into how art can be used in public spaces such as workplaces as sculptures you can touch or as fine art prints that you can enjoy.

Curtsey BW, Glicee prints, 26x26 cm, 2023 © Marta Dominguez

INTERVIEW

First of all, tell us about your background. When did you realize you wanted to be an artist?

Being a self-taught artist, there was always this question about what art school could have taught me. By the time I took my first job (outside arts), I had prepared a portfolio selection with prints of my drawings and paintings and made a cold call to an established artist at his engraving studio in Madrid (Spain). He went through the prints with silent, approving facial movements. When he was done, he looked at me and asked: Why do you want to join my studio? I said: To be an artist. Picking my portfolio very carefully, he replied: You already excel at perspective, forms, and composition. I can not teach you anything, nor would any art school. He followed: On the contrary, I can see in these works the likeability with a topic that tells, that conveys a message; I've been trying to teach that idea to my apprentices. I will take your work to the next room for them to see what I meant in my lesson.
Portuguese writer Pessoa said that art was his way to be alone. Looking back, art become my way of being. It is part of who I am. You have to imagine a child just aged 10 producing ink drawings. Setting at her ease after school or during her summer vacation painting what she saw using ink, an unusual and challenging technique that admits no mistakes. You don't do that if you aren't passionate about it.

You are a self-taught artist, and as you mention in your bio, you only recently started promoting your work. What inspired you to pursue a career in the art field?

I pursued a different career as an engineer. Art and my artwork took a background role. I did not want to kill one side so that the other could live. And both works furthered. The lives of Renaissance artists are models of people making art and other jobs to make a living. So I never felt I was breaking any rules about what defines a person as an artist.

Cow in love, Sculpture-recycled paper-acrylic-stone, 2019 © Marta Dominguez

The reverence cow, Sculpture - recycled paper - acrylic - stone, 45x30x57 cm, 2022 © Marta Dominguez

You have worked and experienced different mediums and techniques throughout your training to become an artist. Why did you eventually choose sculpture specifically? What does it represent for you?

I did not pay attention to sculpture as a medium till an eye disease. That was when I started using my hands to model a paste that I personally make out of recycled newspapers. Miguel Angel and Leonardo had a rivalry about sculpture versus painting. That's an interesting discussion. I recommend reading The Agony and the Ecstasy (Irving Stone,1961) for a vivid fiction description. For me, the sculpture was not necessarily in a higher artistic ranking. I took it as a new medium to experiment with my artwork when the painting was no longer good for my eye condition. Indeed, most of my references come from painting. In the creative process, I use simple pencil sketches but not always. I work from memory: The translation from 2D onto 3D first and the elongation process of forms next.

How would you define yourself as an artist nowadays, and what is your personal aim?

I've got a story about my first sculpture works that partly explains the route I took with sculpture. My early works were 16 cm height figures. During a business trip in Germany, I showed some pictures to a German colleague. I was sure he would give an honest opinion on any topic. So did he. "They look great, but there is nothing grandiose or special about them." I laughed at the idea of myself as an academic sculpture artist. Since then, I've been critical of myself in finding my unique style.

Interior dialogue, Glicee prints, 26x26 cm, 2023 © Marta Dominguez

Let's talk about your COW / ALTER EGO project. How did you come up with this concept? And what messages do you want to convey?

Last year I set my first solo exhibition. I showed a retrospective from 2009-2021. It showed human female and male figures, and, of course, there were the cows. By instinct, I picked Cow in Love for the event cover. I had several pictures of the artwork, but I chose an unusual perspective this time. Then an amazing thing happened. Why haven't I seen that in-love facial expression before? My early interest for this cow was a walking cow. I was reading a book by Uruguayan poet Ida Vitale. I took the cow's name from a poem in the book. The new passport photo style brought new messages to the walking cow of the other various emotions that come with love: jealousy, impatience, and caring. In my next cow, the interest was a cow head chewing. I haven't thought of the deep-thinking expression at the time. It came after once again. When I set my eye on the final sculpture with a camera. One of the last cows so far is a cow unfolding her leg to stand. That last one has for me a blend of the mixed feeling around human curtsey: the determination, yet sometimes uncomfortable feeling. In the cow / alter ego project, each one has her own personality. I think that is why it resonates with the public so well.

You mention being inspired by Giacometti and El Greco. Where in your work can we see their influence?

There was a time when I made regular visits to Barcelona. I came across Giacometti's sculpture by chance. I mean the figurative slender and very tall works, not his abstract works. I incorporated the elongation process into my works, although I never totally gave up on the realistic. My expressive sculptural works navigate between Greco's painting of spiritualism and Giacometti's form core reduction.

Happy thinking cow, Sculpture - recycled paper - acrylic - stone, 32x25x30 cm, 2021 © Marta Dominguez

Nature seems to be another great source of inspiration, and you mention having a studio in the mountains. How do you incorporate it into your practice?

Nature is, for me, like entering a different dimension. Unlike big cities, it helps me break from the time constraints to regain the freedom of mind that my creative process requires. I am inspired by the changing colors of the seasons, not to forget that I find my most precious models so far in the wild pastures. My studio is in the mountains of Gredos, near the source of river Tormes (Avila). Granite stones, glacial lagoons, and incredible people.

How do you promote your work? And what do you think about the art community and market?

Artist promotion is an important part of being an artist. As an artist, I set my eyes to see. That is a process that needs freedom so that creativity can flourish. As a business, art needs to find a narrative so that it reaches the public. The idea of art collectives and art movements is part of the art business. I've found that none of the rhetoric of the art business usually helps the artist to create, but it does help to sell. Art creation and the art business are two different worlds that need each other. This is the most difficult part to cope with as an independent artist. Art power resides in its capacity to be true. A masterpiece is true. But history is full of broke art masters who wish not or could not understand the business cogs.

Is there anything else you would like to achieve career-wise? Do you have any projects you have been meaning to start?

I do promotion way after I've finished an artwork. I bit like writers or filmmakers. The work with the prints of the cow/alter ego project is part of what my artist side would define as promotion. I stop promotion when I enclose myself in my studio for creativity. That I will do in a couple of weeks for the rest of the summer season. In Autumn, I will resume the prints project with the outcome of my work at the studio.

Finally, where can our readers find your works next? Do you have any upcoming exhibitions or publications?

I'm happy to share that one of my cow sculptures will be exhibited in a collective show in Pamplona (exhibition dates: July 8-August 8, 2023). Also, my aim is to further my personal investigation of the use of art in hospitals and workplaces. This is part of an ambitious research process around art and creativity and its impact on non-artist people.

Artist’s Talk

Al-Tiba9 Interviews is a promotional platform for artists to articulate their vision and engage them with our diverse readership through a published art dialogue. The artists are interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj, the founder & curator of Al-Tiba9, to highlight their artistic careers and introduce them to the international contemporary art scene across our vast network of museums, galleries, art professionals, art dealers, collectors, and art lovers across the globe.

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