Name:

Josedgardo Granados

Craft:

Painter

Hobbies:

Swimming, reading, hiking, traveling

Hometown:

San Salvador, El Salvador

Website:

josedgranados.com

How did you get started working in your craft?

I have been obsessed with mark-making from the moment I first encountered a pencil. My parents put me in an art class in El Salvador when I was about eight or nine. I remember drawing still lifes and birds, being fascinated by the movement of light, the changing of color and the ability to capture life’s fleeting moments with one’s hands.

What was your professional journey before working in this field?

This has been my path since I was young. I went to art school in New York, studied painting and got representation by a gallery early on. Since then my life has changed and I’ve moved around, but my artistic practice has remained constant.

What do your days typically look like?

I wake up early, make an essential cup of coffee, and work in the studio for a few hours. Four days a week, I manage the WMV store for the Japanese fashion label visvim. The brand’s obsessive attention to detail, process, craftsmanship, and their incessant research and appreciation for ancient techniques, strongly resembles my own practice. Needless to say, I have a great affinity for the brand and their ethos. In the evening, I go back to the studio and generally work late. On days when I’m not at visvim, I am more or less in the studio non stop…sometimes working through the night.

What makes your pieces special?

They are pieces from deep within myself, informed by childhood experiences of war and my coming of age as a gay closeted immigrant. On the surface they appear obscure, highly reflective and superficial. Up close they reveal a pentimenti of images, multiple layers full of stories, thick with material and accrued labor. These layers, these histories; they are there to discover, very much like all of us. You have to get close and inquire in order to make a connection.

What is your future vision for your business?

I moved away for a couple of years to earn my MFA at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland. Since returning, I have been working in the studio, building a large and cohesive body of work. For a while, I was working on continuous commissions for several collectors, which was a great blessing. However, that did not allow for me to create several pieces to show conjointly, in order to produce a synergistic visual effect within a space. My focus now is on finishing this body of work and show it in the very near future.

What's your favorite thing about your work?

Its ability to connect and engage through visual language. When a work provides a fresh discursive dialogue, and a bridge is built between myself and a viewer, the work is complete.

What's the biggest challenge you face in your work?

Each piece takes several months to develop, and I have learned to keep the world at bay while in the studio, but that can be a challenge sometimes. Time to work and concentrate is crucial in order to continuously reconfigure a visual vernacular.

Who do you go to for professional advice, and what's the best advice they've given you?

I have been blessed to know great artists, mentors and patrons who have offered me advice and guidance throughout my career. I also count on my family, my partner and my friends as sounding boards for ideas. Early on in my artistic career, I remember being told, “Be true to yourself, know who you are, find your voice, and stick with it. Persist.”

What advice can you give to budding creatives and entrepreneurs in Santa Fe?

Santa Fe has a welcoming, supportive, and diverse creative community, full of entrepreneurial people who are passionate about their pursuits. Get out and meet them; get engaged.

When and why did you decide to move to Santa Fe?

An old job offered to transfer me here. I had visited once before and did not hesitate on the decision. I moved with the thought of staying for two years and explore the Southwest before moving back to New York. I am not done exploring, and New Mexico has not let go of me.

What makes Santa Fe special to you?

Being able to hit a trail in the mountains in almost no time is wonderful. Besides its easy access to nature, the proximity to Native American culture and history makes Santa Fe special to me. I admire the resilience of Pueblo nations which have largely managed to maintain their traditions and sense of community. The ancient connections between Puebloan and Mesoamerican cultures are of great interest. The thought that we have been trading and connected in this continent for at least a millennium is fascinating.

What is your favorite thing about this place?

I love the various philanthropic, artistic, research and cultural institutions in town. To have so many resources available -- a contemporary art institution like Site Santa Fe, and a world class Opera for example -- that is amazing for a town this size.

If you could change one thing about Santa Fe, what would it be?

A little less mañana and mas ahora. (I’m out of luck on trying to change that, gotta roll with it.)

What are you passionate about outside of your craft?

Access to a great education was pivotal to the development of my career. I would like to spend more time in Central America, helping and teaching creative problem solving to nurture innovative entrepreneurship.

At the end of the day, why do you do what you do?

I can’t help it. Art making is a celebration of life.

Josedgardo Granados, Painter