My work speaks of my development as a person and my relationship to the world, which for me is directly related. You see things as you are and think, and you create your own vision of reality. I try to understand all of this and to grow and improve it. My tools are humour, irony (although with an underlying tenderness) and curiosity.
Sometimes I come up with very clear ideas, and even how they should look. On other occasions, I start improvising, collaging together individual drawings: scenes, characters or other ideas start to come together. The action itself always helps you. In the scarves, I sometimes create patterns from a series of drawings already made, including ‘Cesárea, creo’, ‘Mujeres que caen mal’, ‘Perdona Munch’. I have another line of scarves which are the Travel Diaries scarves, made from drawings in notebooks that I always carry with me. And other times, I start improvising with loose illustrations that guide me to create a narrative.
Mostly I draw on paper. I like to use old paper, which gives the work an extra ‘soul’. I use pencil, watercolour, ink, acrylic... Now I'm testing on ceramics, which is a material I discovered three years ago, thanks to a residency at EKWC. I'm also testing on fabric. The truth is that I am very curious and I love to experiment and learn all the time.
I think the most important thing is to listen to myself and to discern what my voice is from the amalgam of voices, images and ideas that surround us. Staying true to what I feel and discovering what I can contribute.
For me, to continue to make work with expression and meaning; to go through whatever medium is the goal itself, to continue learning by doing is important to me. I would love to do more residencies: they give you the time and the space to try, to fail, to develop, to learn…
Apart from the graphic or illustration work, with the scarves I had the opportunity to collaborate with Son Moragues, creating an exclusive piece for them, with drawings of their farm and their experiences.
Cruz Ugarte's scarves and illustrations can be found on her website or via blasa.org.
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