Interview with 3D street painting artist César Paredes from Lima, Peru 2013

We recently learned of César Paredes, a 3D street painting artist in Peru creating fine street paintings.  Here is our interview with César and photos of his work to share with our readers at Blog Now on streetpainting.tv.


Where are you from originally?

Hi, I´m César Paredes and I am originally from Peru. I am 28 years old.

Where do you live now?

I live in Lima, the capital city in the province of Lima, specifically in the district of Santiago de Surco.

What is your occupation?

I am currently a university student. I work to create art projects and eventually work as an assistant for audiovisual production.

What do you call street painting in Peru? (In the UK it is called screeeving, in Australia it is called pavement art)

In Peru it is little known but may be called as in Australia, pavement art. In Peru I haven´t heard of any painters on pavement.

How many years have you been street painting?

Usually I do not paint in the streets. I have painted on the floor of 2 shopping centers on behalf of an advertising agency in 2009 in the month of November. I paint since 2006 on the ground; I started painting on a support role in an auxiliary space in my house.

I’ve made art since I was 10 years old, I studied at the Art Museum of Lima, and then when I was 22 years old I entered to the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Lima and studied Art there as a profession career for 4 years.

How did you first get interested in this art form?

In 2006 I got an email, a ppt file with images of Julian Beever. It had been sent by a relative living in the U.S. who eventually carries the art of oil on canvas paintings. Seeing that kind of 3D painting on the pavement, made me investigate the technique and doing my own paintings, I started with a bucket and in 2007 I did a painting on canvas or 3D anamorphosis.

How did you learn to create 3-D street paintings?

I am self-taught, with some support from a professor of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, lots of support from a partner and also a relative who is an architect.

Is street painting popular in Peru?

As I said before street painting is very little known but mural painting is quiet well known in Lima and provinces, made with spray and air compressors, with various themes. A fellow artist from the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Lima makes murals with graffiti art and social issues and Andean identity in Ayacucho, a province in Peru.

Are there any other street painters in your area or are you the only one?

I am the first 3D artist on pavement in Peru, recognized by the media, and the only one for now. There so, I was selected by an international advertising agency.

Do you usually work alone or with other artists?

I usually work with one or 2 artists led by me in 3D technical issue. The last painting I made a week ago, I did it by myself.

How often do you street paint?    

In one year I made 4 3D pavement paintings: a pre-production workshop in March 2009, two paintings in malls in November 2009 and a pre-production in my particular area in March 2010.

In what countries have you street painted?

I've only painted in Peru, and haven´t had the joy of painting in other countries, I would love to do it in one of the festivals organized in the USA. 

Do you have a favorite subject or theme in your street paintings? 

My favorite is the pre-Hispanic cultures that currently occupy ground Peru: Cuzco, Inca culture in the year 1400; Culture Chimú, Chan chan in the year 1100.

What is your approach to starting your street paintings?

My freehand sketches are in pencil, then I use watercolor on cardboard stretched to proceed to give color and a photomontage for pre-visualization. That was the creative process of my previous works.

I certainly used a grid, but for the last painting on pavement did not use it, I have found a new method that works better for me.

How long does it take you to create a 3D street painting?

It takes 4 days, working from 4 to 5 hours a day.

  

What is the most difficult aspect of street painting?

For 3D painting, at the beginning, it was difficult to understand the law of reverse perspective and re-educate my perception of space. When painting over a parking lot, my fingers bled after 3 days of constant painting, apart from physical fatigue, the satisfaction of seeing my work finished and the people interacting with it, clears all difficulties.

What do you enjoy most about street painting?

The interaction and interest of the people to be photographed with my painting is totally rewarding. Approximately 1800 people were photographed with 2 of my paintings at 6 days of exposure.

  

What is your favorite street painting you have worked on to date?

The “ruins of Chan Chan” is an original interpretation of the most recognizable symbols of Chimú culture and they are located in northern Peru at Trujillo department.

  

How do you feel about the ephemeral quality of the art form?

I always like to keep my paintings and see how a painting is fading causes me some grief, but it is the law of life for painting made directly on the pavement. Therefore it is important to make a record video and to take photographs.

I still keep 2 of my paintings works. I use an auxiliary support like the paper used for upholstering wall.

What are your views on street painting as a contemporary art form?

I know that Madonnari tradition is many centuries old, and painting in 3D art or anamorphosis is the product of Renaissance studies. In France it was made a giant anamorphic work in 1998, which plotted a rugby player. Perhaps the novelty now is the spectacular size that pavement 3D works could be.

The contemporary record is also made by video cameras or photographs, which do not have the same capacity of the human eye; the limitation makes the focal point a truly unique. We know that our view not capture depth if we use only one eye.

The 3D pavement paint seems to me a proposal according to the century of communications, web TV plus 2.0 or 3.0 version and all existing social networks. It's great to be able to capture over 100 still photos of a process and then join them by adding background music and sending it to the virtual world in search of long life and connect with more viewers.

 

Do you see this art form growing in South America…where do you see it going in the future?

I don´t find 3D pavement art widespread in South America. Julian Beever had to come to Argentina in 2008 to spread this art. I know a Brazilian artist who made a purely advertising production for a brand of beer. My sister brought a postcard from Chile with a photograph of 3D painting wall, anonymous. Someone from Chile, wrote me asking me about technical and production costs, but only for advertising purposes, also someone from Spain asked me about this technique, with artistic research purposes.

I don´t know others exponents in South America, I would like to share this art with more people who do the same, but if they exist I don´t know them or they are not disseminated in the media that I use on the web or on TV.  Apparently we are very few 3D pavement artists in South America.

In the future I would like to make giant paintings, strengthening the identity of the viewers of my country and bring to the eyes of the world the art and Peruvian prehispanic symbolism.