Gerardo Castro

Mar 4

Newburgh, New York

How would you describe your work?

My work explores the multiplicity of the Afro-Caribbean experience by addressing issues of colonization, queer religiosity, politics of identity, and gender. I create constellations of colorful, elaborate, glittery, figurative paintings that are spiritually charged, mystical, at times coquettish, embellished, and elaborate that suggests Magic Realism, Santeria shrines, a Quinceañera celebration, religious icons, and Latin album cover art. My works are in sense icons or doorways to the sacred. When you look at an icon, it is meant to make you aware that you are in the presence of someone sacred.

Perhaps it is re-connecting to my history - to my roots, the blending of the spirit and physical world, ritual and transformation that will be the definitive description to the essence of my art.

What inspires you?

I’m inspired by many things because I find inspiration to be intuitive and accidental at times and it can happen anytime and everywhere, but you must be “open to the experience”, which suggests that those who are more open to inspiration are more likely to experience it. We are just antennas and transistors to the unseen. I appreciate everything that manifests itself. What we see is only the surface reality. I’m inspired by anything that gives me goosebumps.

Can you speak about your process?

I have a ritual. Every time I start a new piece, I clean my studio. My studio is a sacred space - my private sanctuary where I cherish the time to sit and reflect. Ritual is always dripping in symbolism. I don’t paint on an easel; I paint and do all my works on paper on the floor. On the floor, I am more at ease. I am interested in using the process of art making to change how I see and relate to the world. My artistic voice and feelings are Caribbean and that is something that flows from my subconscious and can be evidenced in the presence of my colorful art pieces. The human figure has always been front and center in my work. I’m a loyal oil painter and my mixed media paintings are mostly oil with some collage elements sprinkled though out. Once I lay out the composition and paint the human figure, I begin to play with the collage elements. I gather my materials (mostly wallpaper samples) in piles according to colors and patterns I feel drawn to at that moment. Then, I start cutting pieces and recutting, and assembling the different parts, without glue first, trying out different compositions. I’m constantly moving pieces of paper around, trying to find images that work with or against each other.

Regarding my Fire & Indigo pieces, I also call them mark-making as Spirit calling. I use Fire to heat steel, branding irons, and gunpowder and symbolically burn a silhouette of my body onto the paper. This “body” of work bears no portrait like resemblance to me - it is not mimicry, what is created is the building up and layering of images in which the ritual of using Fire is a powerful symbolic gesture referencing the bodies magical transformation. The transformation on paper transcends process even further with the application of Indigo, a mystical color running through the work that ties it all together and references implications indigo harvesting manifested during the slave trade and beyond. I lay thin washes of indigo dye and indigo oil paint over the figures. Indigo is associated in many cultures with magical and spiritual rituals - symbolic of inner mind, the intuition, and the vast consciousness.

In all my works’ process is a trial-and-error thing; often more about seeing and feeling (intuitive) than doing, transforming the ordinary to the extraordinary. It’s the work that tells me where to start and when to stop.

How did you become interested in art?

I always knew from a very young age that I was an artist. I was raised in a family of cultural workers – musicians, singers, carpenters, and seamstresses. Music created an imaginary world that stimulated my creativity.

Looking back, I consciously thought that I was an artist when I was eight years old. As a kid, during the 70’s, the Crayola 64 box, arrayed in orderly tier, with the built-in sharpener bewitched me - it cast a spell on me. We were by no measure monetarily wealthy and with six kids in the family, we got the box of eight. But for my ninth birthday my mom gifted me the Crayola 64, a few new coloring books, and a paper pad bought at our local Woolworths department store. When I unwrapped the box, I was in such an emotional state that I got goosebumps – my mother made me a glass of chocolate milk. The colors and the smell of the crayons to this day bring me back to my childhood - a defining moment that colored the path on my “yellow” brick road to the arts.

Do you have any favorite artists, movies, or books?

Some people say, it’s the first one that pops into your mind but then they’ve never been in my mind. I don’t think that it’s possible to have only one favorite anything and besides my tastes gradually changed over time, but the following have always been at the top of my favorites.

Artists: Francis Bacon, Diego Rivera, Lucian Freud, Ana Mendieta, Nick Cave, Daniel Lind-Ramos, Diamanda Galás, and the stunning works by the notorious, controversial, revolutionary painter Caravaggio. Caravaggio’s elevation of the mundane and degenerate deeply speaks to me.

Movies: Alfred Hitchcock’s – “Vertigo,” Billy Wilder’s – “Some Like it Hot,” Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” and Julian Schnabel’s “Before Night Falls” the acclaimed memoir of queer Cuban author Reinaldo Arenas. I also love many films by Pedro Almodóvar and without a doubt John Waters the eternally controversial director who embraces and celebrates everything nonconformist, and his long creative collaboration with Divine – perfection.

“The Wizard of Oz” – one of the life-changing lessons that may seem subtle until the end of the movie is “you don’t need anyone to validate your worth” you already have what it takes to succeed. You have the power. “Daughters of the Dust” by a brilliant film-maker Julie Dash. The colors, the Orishas, indigo, cinematography, Geechee dialect, and the costumes are all so vivid.

Books: “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez; Toni Morrison’s “Song of Solomon”; Piri Thomas’, “Down These Mean Streets” and Robert Farris Thompson’s “Flash of the Spirit: African & Afro-American Art & Philosophy.”

What advice do you have for younger artists?

Don’t ever settle for a way of life created by those who don’t honor your soul and cherish your existence. Conforming to someone else’s idea about what you should be doing is going to lead you to a place of mediocrity. Rejection is unavoidable and many times it’s a blessing in disguise because rejection removes the roadblocks so you can find your true path. Be curious. Take risks. Make time for yourself. Follow the rules when you’re learning, but not as an “artist.” Don’t be afraid of failure but be terrified of regret. It’s healthy to make work that disrupts and questions and shows alternative narratives. That’s what an artist should do.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

You learn more about yourself when things go wrong (when life gets challenging) because then you start to reassess your priorities.

Art often has a far deeper meaning than most people realize.