Here’s what they had to say about getting inspired and creating:
I would describe my art as minimalist. I have a background in architecture and interior design that inform the way I create… Clear, neutral and precise.
Through my art, I want to bring people to a free and freeing world, I do this with depictions of naked characters. To me, the creative process becomes superfluous when it comes to deciding if I put someone in a skirt, or pants, or a dress. It takes away from the intended message I want to convey (which is still open to interpretation).
At times controversial and provocative, my drawings are made with the intention of charming the viewer by their beauty, creativity, and subtlety, all while confronting them to the human condition.
What is inspiring you right now?
I am very inspired by nomadic lifestyles (from California to Australia) that orbit my interests of skateboarding, surfing and travelling.
I am also inspired by sharing my vision of modern topics like sexuality, feminism, equality, the environment, culture, politics and more. I want to be part of a new breed of artists that feel the need to live consciously. I believe art is a tool that can be extremely powerful and can communicate ideas, which is something I always want to do with my platform.
What is your creative process?
My process is mostly about spending time with myself. I need to think, to get lost in my ideas and let them take me. I’m a lone wolf and the only way I can be productive is with some alone time.
I also love to listen to music, mostly from the 60s and 80s, to read and to watch documentaries. I also like to challenge myself to start with a sentence that I heard or read or came up with, and let it translate into my art. I like to think of my art as stories and poems without words.
The paintings that I make are inspired by patterns—the universal patterns in nature, and patterns in the form of design, textiles, and architecture. They’re often mental landscapes and interior spaces that are informed by my current emotional states as well as a personal symbology that I’ve developed over the past decade. I guess you could describe my work as often abstract, with elements of surrealism and illustration.
What messages do you convey with your art?
I like the idea of my viewers having multiple experiences as their eyes shift between the foreground and backgrounds of my paintings. I paint a lot of pattern layers and areas with a skewed perspective, so I love the idea of people seeing more than the initial read as they take it all in. Like looking at clouds, everyone has their unique experience of what they might see, and it reflects or draws out aspects of their subconscious mind. The messages that need to be conveyed would be unique to each individual.
What is inspiring you right now?
I find inspiration everywhere and travelling often inspires me. With COVID-19, I’ve been getting inspired by a lot of the local artists in Vancouver that I’m getting to know. There are quite a few artists that have come to my attention ever since the Vancouver Mural Festival started a few years ago.
What is your creative process?
The creative process begins outside of the studio. I like to go for walks and mentally or photographically collect moments of textures/patterns, and compositions to get inspired. It’s a little like collecting visual data or making field notes. I like to look into interior design stores or thrift shops for inspiration on how patterns are used in design. When I’m ready to work, I will often browse and get my feet wet by looking at art blogs and Instagram. It’s mostly my justified version of curated procrastination. When it comes down to getting the pencil onto paper, I’ll often employ stylistic constraints (aka. rules) as a means to draw out what’s in the backlog in my head. Like, I might only use angled lines with a few chosen squiggles as a guideline, start drawing without questioning, and see where it takes me.
Franco Égalité is an illustrator and artist living and working in Montreal, Canada. Raised by his single mother, he learned to hold a pen and trace a line before walking on his own two feet. He knows how to walk now, and yet hasn’t stopped tracing his line. The sensual and captivating drawings of Franco E. take us into a world where the body plays and exposes itself freely. The bright colours highlight the curves and expressions of these inviting and fiery characters, and although their creator expresses being influenced by cubism and the aesthetic concept of Japanese Ma, one is caught in this vibrant graphic universe. In this way, a range of emotions and ideas is offered to the viewer, free to get caught up in his sublimated bodies.
Talk to us about your creative process.
I put it like this “It’s a process where I do the most to keep the least and say the essential.” But that’s just a proper way to say that it’s super eclectic and non-linear. To make a clean and precise painting, I realized that I first need to make a mess. It usually starts from a napkin doodle or even a drawing on my hand that I bring to my computer, where it gets cleaned up, to then cycle back to a side table doodle and finally appear on canvas or a wall.
What is inspiring you right now?
I’m inspired by the three most basic and important things: The human experience (being a human on earth), nature, and light. I will very rarely draw something from my imagination because these three things are part of everyone’s reality, and yet keep me amazed. I guess I paint to understand and remember my vision or perspective on reality. So whatever plays a part in it, at the moment, becomes a source of inspiration to me.
At the heart of what I do, there is a need for authenticity, creativity and love. I create with a goal to inspire, nourish the spirit and reinterpret concepts with a sense of humour and shamelessness. I work in the space of minimalism in my illustrations because I like that this lets the viewer have their own interpretation.
The revolution starts from within.
What is inspiring you right now?
Others. My connection to people is something that truly fascinates me, but that I also find difficult. In the other you have a blind spot, you have to forget judgment and learn to coexist. I’m also inspired by human potential and humour. I like that once we can laugh, perspectives change and every softens.
I’m also very inspired by Beuys’ concept of social sculpture. It shapes the way I see the potential for art to change society. By connecting with our creativity, we unlock our imagination, and “imagination is the highest form of research”.
What is your creative process?
To move, to dance, to breathe, to look, to learn from nature and others. I also look within, meditate and strive to constantly grow as a human.
In essence, I try to consume what feels good for the spirit, the body, the heart, and put that on the page.