He claims to have been drawing as long as he can remember. Thomé was born twenty-six years ago in Marilia, Brazil, a good five-hour drive from the cultural center and capital of São Paulo. When he was sixteen, he came to the US Midwestern town of Lorain, Ohio as an exchange student. Upon returning to Brazil, he bounced around, never staying in any one place too long.

When he turned twenty-one, he decided to get serious about his art and decided to return to the US. To San Francisco this time, where he attended California College of the Arts. By the beginning of 2002, he had headed below the equator once more, this time with bunch of art credits to transfer to the Centro Universitário Belas Artes.

An interview with Thiago Thomé by Royce Deans

 

 

 

 
Tell me a little about Belas Artes.

Centro Universitário Belas Artes is a very old art school in São Paulo. Belas Artes means Fine Arts and Centro Universitário means College.
Belas Artes was a good school, but it was going through a lot of changes when I got there. The curriculum was a bit confusing, and it took them a little while to work things out
.
My last year was the hardest one - I had to write a forty-page graduation essay. It was like a scientific project where you’re supposed to look into your own work and write about how it relates to the world around you. You’re also supposed to research and find out where your work fits and so forth. It’s like an artist’s scientific project, everything described thoroughly. And it’s something artists are not used to doing, you know - writing about your own work with such scientific interest. The final essay is supposed to have the same “weight” as your artwork and then you have to talk about it with a bunch of instructors, in front of a lot of people. Some artists invite their families, friends and the word gets around. So it’s like giving a speech, defending your artwork with all you got.

Before that, at CCA, I had very good instructors. I feel like I owe them a whole lot for putting up with me and teaching me so much. I say this because I often got into arguments about art while I was in college. Well, I still do, but now I'm no longer the clueless art student (which I never really was).
I had this one teacher, Franklin Williams, who was one of the instructors who was in charge of the painting studio. He broke my pencil while I was drawing from the model one day. He's known for this sort of crazy stunts, but I wasn't aware of that. He took the pencil out of my hand, broke it in half, threw it across the room and asked me, while laughing, "So, when are you going to really start doing something?" I went home and bought myself a canvas and started painting. I know this may sound like a boring made-up self-help story, but it really isn’t. We ended up becoming friends and I like to think of him as the one who helped me give birth to the painter I’m trying to be.
Kent Williams, the painter-illustrator, was a teacher there also, and his work impressed me very much. And I learned the very basics of painting from Barron Storey.

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...

How did you decide to go to CCA?

I found CCA while I was researching art colleges in the US. I found it in a college guide and I thought it was a good school. I read everything I could find about them. I also wanted to live somewhere warm, so I moved up to San Francisco. I think it was one of the best choices I made in my life so far…

I could come up with several ways to categorize your paintings, as I see your style and approach to your subjects as quite complex. How would you categorize your work?

I’m not sure how to answer this question. I was just talking about this today with the curator. We decided my work is contemporary. (Maybe for the lack of a better word?). How would you categorize it? And why?

 

Contemporary is indeed a broad category and I would tend to agree based on the initial reaction to the compositions and the interpretive way you position the characters in your paintings, but I see such a strong similarity to a few of the great post-impressionists. Degas for one, and closely followed by Matisse when I look at many of your figures. The facial expressions and body language hit on a few major highpoints. First, being fellow post-impressionist Lautrec, and second, I am seeing some of the characters of Daumier, and even a couple of the Dutch painters - Rembrandt and VanEyck. I might tend to classify your work as NeoPost-Impressionism. That classification would most certainly still be under the umbrella of contemporary. Does that make any sense to you and do you at all agree?

That does make sense to me. I see similarities in the way the post-impressionists built the figure’s bodies, like you said. I think I was involved with Degas’ paintings at a very young age, and that stayed with me. Matisse was a great colorist - one of the first true colorists. While I was beginning to learn how to paint [and I still am], I did study Matisse’s color scheme a lot, maybe that’s where the similarity comes from, you know, I spent so much time looking at his work.

As She Sits

 

(older work)

 I went to see the online version of your solo exhibition from school. I was very impressed and all the while being surprised at how your work has changed in the past year. It seems there was a definite shift in your artwork from the time you were in school to the present. Do you agree? And if so, to what might you attribute that shift?

I agree completely. I feel free now. Being in college was always sort of a difficult time to me, even though I had good instruction. There’s something about being inside institutions that sort of make me want to get out as soon as possible. I also think painting will evolve naturally. As I paint more and more, I’ll grow aware of how the medium works, how to play along with it and so forth.

How important is it that you are familiar with the workings of a particular medium?

I think it’s important to know the material you work with the best you can. There are many reasons, safety for example. And I think the more you get to know the medium you’re working with, the freer you are to explore the medium’s limits and slowly learn what it wants to do. I’m not saying oil paint has a will of its own, but sometimes you have to let it do what it wants to do. Basically, I think this knowledge allows you to move in several ways with whatever medium you choose.

What sort of atmosphere was there at school? Was there a lot of competition? Or was there a more nurturing of the creative spirit?

There was always competition. At CCA there were a bunch of us painters. But it was good competition. Back in Brazil, there wasn’t anyone else painting besides me, or no one that I heard of, while I was there. There was a lot of printmaking, and they had this sort of community, you know. They were always working together. I was the odd one back in Brazil. There aren’t a whole lot of painters here.

Now that you are out from under the protection of school and the title of art student for the past several months, how have you found the freedom and vulnerability of being out on your own?

I find it wonderful, really. I’m always going to be an art student, as far as studying materials, approaches and ideas goes. Now I may do whatever I think up and not be bound by college obligations.

 

Dancing 1 of 4

The Letter

 

Tell me about any other artists that you have admired over the years.

Edgar Degas was the first artist I came to study and admire, while I still was very young. I was drawn to his lines, portraits, use of color and unusual compositions. I used to spend hours just looking at reproductions of his paintings in books, papers and whatever I could get my hands on. I still love his work. Then I saw a painting by Kent Williams [at CCA] and that did change my life. It was a full-body, life-size self-portrait of him kneeling down on some sort of river, or lagoon. It reminded me of Caravaggio, more like a contemporary Caravaggio. I went and looked at it every day, for as long as it was possible. Later, I discovered Egon Schiele, Odd Nerdrum and Jenny Saville.

When did you know that you wanted to be a painter?

I knew I wanted to be a painter when I first held a brush on my hands and stood in front of a blank canvas. That happened when I was around twelve, if I’m not mistaken. I’m not good with precise dates and I often forget names, but that’s when I knew I had to paint.

Envious

 

Rag

 Were you encouraged from an early age in your artwork?

I was always encouraged, even though father used to ask me if I thought I had what it takes to become an artist. I guess I’ll find out when I’m very old.

Your style is so developed. I am curious as to how you approach starting a new painting. Explain if you can where your ideas come from?

My ideas come from everywhere. I know this is hardly a good answer, but always I keep a sketchbook with me and I’m always drawing people on the street, inside trains, cafés and places like that. I often change what’s in front of me to suit what I want. I’ve studied human anatomy for quite some time and that helped me a great deal, since my main subject is the human body. I was thinking about this and I think I paint figures because I really want to know how I look like.

 

Do you use live models?

Sometimes I go to other artists’ studio and we pay a professional model to pose for us, but I mostly draw people everywhere. I prefer the fast line drawing then the more elaborate one. It gives me more room to play with the drawing later on.

The people in your paintings express so much feeling and emotion while assuming some impossible arm positions. How important is anatomy to you and how do you decide when to bend it to suit your purposes?

This question is rather difficult. I could respond telling you that bending anatomy comes as a compositional tool. But that is just almost correct. I enjoy the power I get to have over the painted figure, and I use it because I believe it’s possible to communicate in a thousand different ways constructing awkward anatomy.

What is your daily schedule? How do you decide what you will be working on each day?

I’m a full-time painter, you know. And I work on several pieces at once. Drawings, small paintings, big paintings - t’s a never-ending progression of work. Inspiration is a cute story, but to me it doesn’t count at all. I basically make four hundred bad paintings before making a good one. I’m hoping this proportion will shift as I grow older.

The King

 

Sycophant

 In your mind, when you critique your own paintings; What makes one good while the others are considered bad?

I think it starts with the drawing. I have to make a good drawing first, using pencil and charcoal, then I seal it and paint on top, not really paying too much attention to contour lines or any details, just sort of throw the paint around. When that’s done, I immediately know whether I have the possibility of transforming it in a good painting or if it’s just a mess that I’ll have to deal with.

After the painting is done, I suppose the ones I work hardest on are the best ones. Sometimes I just lose interest. I still get this urges to just paint, you know, and I don’t really want to go through a lot of sketches and color studies to create a fair painting. Well, you know how it goes; it’s always a painful process. I’m hardly ever pleased with the result of a painting, but I think there a few good ones.

As a painting is progressing or emerging before you are there those moments that you are surprised and encouraged that this may be a good painting?

Yes, definitely. That feeling makes all worth it. Right now I’m working on a piece, and I’m currently very encouraged - but I’ll have to wait and see how it goes.

 

Describe your studio.

My studio is rather big. I have a few plants and big windows. A friend and I rented this place only four months ago, and I’m not sure how long it will last. It has three large rooms (one for each and a common one), a small yard and one old beat up bathroom. I’m currently seeking a place to live and I might just make room for my studio there. I’m still not sure what I want to do.

It’s good to get out and go to your studio, but it’s also good to have a proper place to work where you live. I’m still deciding. Having a studio has been good so far.

How have you come to work with the palette of colors that you use?

I’m trying to get a fair coordination between my hands and my mind. The colors I use are the colors I “see” in my head. Hopefully that didn’t sound too mystical. I could also blame it a little on Mr. Edgar Degas’ colors. I love his color choices. Do you see relation between my colors and his colors? The paintings start out with vibrant bold colors and I dim them as the painting develops.

(the artist's studio)

 

The Show

I most definitely see the similarity in colors between your work and those of Mr, Degas.

Do you use black paint or do you mix other colors to make your blacks?

I mix different colors to get the blacks I want. But I’m not ashamed to say that I do use plain black whenever I feel like it suits my paintings. I think you just have to be careful when using black paint; you can lose painting depth very quickly with it.

You are comfortable working in many mediums, where are you finding yourself spending the most time lately?

Lately I’ve been working mostly in oils. I have this exhibit coming up and I still have one painting to finish. There will be seven paintings [oil on canvas] and four mixed media drawings. Oils are my favorite medium.

 

You have a show coming up in November. What are you doing to get ready for it?

I’ve been talking to the curator a lot and making practical arrangements for the exhibit. We have been discussing about my work and about the art scene. I’m trying to get a better understanding of it all. This will be my first exhibit as an artist, rather then being an art student, so I’m very curious… I wonder if anything will be different.

Best of luck on this, what is sure to be a landmark experience in your on going life as a painter.

Thank you for this, it’s been a pleasure. I’ll send you the news.

A Fool's Aftermath Theater

 

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The End

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