Today we’d like to introduce you to Diana Laura Duran Moreno.
Hi Diana Laura, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My artistic artwork began to form mids 2018, I was born in 1996 on the 12th of January so, I am relatively a young artist with 26 years old.
I have an interest for art expression since I have memory, my father was the one who registered my artistic development keeping the drawings that I made when I was five and six years old. Even though I am sure I began to draw long before that.
I consider childhood immensely important for an artist because childhood is pure in all senses, Consciousness is very active, and happiness manifests barrierless. Remembering this when I have deep creative blocks helps me to remember my inner states back then, and why I began to draw in the first place.
Going back a little further in time, I entered the Art and Design career at the Autonomous University of Mexico in 2014 after failing to enter the National School of Music of the same university. At the end, I realized that choosing a music career would have been a mistake, because my nature has always been being a painter, however, I practice professional singing so as not to forget the secret passion for music within me.
It did not take so long until I began to follow my “bliss” like Joseph Campbell would say. I started copying my favorite female artists: Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo. Today, I paraphrase others, like Johffra Boschart, Ernst Fuch, William Blake and Konstantin Kalinovich. I guess that I was not very conscious of this depuration of my style, which people in general appreciate very much. I believe that anyone who attempts a certain originality in her or his art should not look for it, in my way of seeing this phenomenon, it’s the Ego who always wants to stand out at everything and yet, is hopelessly limited. This Ego conjures us to a tiny and tight painful box. Spirituality on the other hand, is desinterested, wide and loving, one must always bet for this state in any realm of life, even in ambition.
I believe that the key that has taken me until this point of my life has been an exhaustive search of perfectionism, Clarissa Pinkola Estés in her book “Wowen who run with the wolves”, talks about two kinds: the first one, is to “pretend to have everything under control”, which lead us to suffering because we enmascared who we truly are, on the other hand, “being perfect in our most loved vocation” leads us to a true realization. Every time I work on my art, I observe a significant advancement in my technique because I put too much attention in every detail, I want it to be perfect. It is necessary to lose myself in my art, in its worlds, I seek the condensation of their physic laws, clarity in portrayed objects, and mystic animals and humans with their own shadows and lights. I want my work to seem like windows to another world and not to be made by human hands.
Finally, I have been influenced for a long time by the art of the medieval ages, which in all aspects I believe it’s “Art of the Light”, now, I feel that I am getting closer towards a creative world of my own.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Really the most difficult thing to do is choosing the exciting and dangerous way, that kind of election the protagonist has to make in order to surpass him or herself. Sometimes, there’ll be encouragement from sages or support in friends, that’s how I really feel actually,
I came to the realization that there is always some kind of pain in the soul, a certain insatisfaction, could be in family, relationships, economics or other parts of life; we are always struggling. So, when I find myself discouraged, sad, unwell, I remember people that had told me they love my work, and those who have felt something seeing my art in social media. Having this in mind, I am convinced that an artist should cure people’s hearts, we must advocate towards a spiritual liberation, because we are currently living in a confusing world. We artists must serve our own divinity and in doing so, we serve the others, sharing it, through a visual piece of art that is aware of itself.
The most beautiful thing is that, by following my bliss, I have been taken to strong confrontations with my “egos”, this bliss has taught me to look for a depuration of my creative light that lays inside me, through fighting this “egos”, is how I can walk on a path of spiritual awareness.
I believe that looking for a job because of money is fine at some point, but to look for your own purpose and find your passion represents the dark and exciting path of Life. My passion is to know myself, learn being present; if you change your persona, you change the world somehow. I find it very intriguing how in my astral chart there are the elements of earth and air so strongly present, It is true that I have toxic attachments but also have inspiring beautiful ideas, this is to know the Mind and Spirit I believe.
Finally, I like to think that the public that most like my work are those who are in search for their true nature and luminous being, those who are not happy with this world and want to change it with kindness and conscious loving acts towards their fellow human beings, sometimes could be harsh to fight against cruelty, but the history of humankind has not always been smooth, and it shouldn’t. I hope that in the future, we realize that we must librate our wars inside rather than in the outside.
Without temptation, there is no virtue, without darkness, no light and without ignorance, there is no wisdom at all.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a surrealist visual artist, but more so, I consider myself as an illustrator, a portrayer of worlds of magical realms, I am a huge fan of Joseph Campbell’s work, so my art is hugely influenced by myths and esoteric art.
I learned to develop works of art with only graphite on paper, I feel this technique very unique because there are not so many artists whose work involves only graphite. Sometimes, I like to put colour into these monochrome works, this can be seen in my recent work, “The Rituals of Mithra” where the graphite melts naturally and appears as luminous as the yellow face of Mithra, which resembles the sun, this piece took me around four months, so I spend a lot of hours in my studio, trying to figuring out how would it be to make the perfect artwork, I guess Mithra is the result of this search.
There have been a few solo expositions of my work through the city of Mexico, but the one I am most happy and dreamy about is the one that happened at “Women Museum”, located at the Historic Center of the city of Mexico, because the sculptures of Leonora Carrington were exhibing at the same place. I felt fulfilled, for my work to be side by side of this great artist, who I admire a lot.
People had told me, that they feel touched and mesmerized seeing my work, I suppose art lovers in Mexico are looking for a new era of surrealism, as Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, Leonor Fini, Sofia Bassi and many other talented women artists from the last century. I hope that in the future we can cultivate an art that is essential for the times we are going through, like those made by Johffra Boschart, Leonardo Da Vinci or William Blake, I also see this in musicians of this era like Aurora and Tamino. I am most fond of classical music, most intensely Bach, Tchaikovsky, Olafur Arnalds, Joep Beving and Djivan Gaspayan.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
What matters most to me is being connected with Consciousness.
I know from experience, that when I lose myself in all the thoughts that I have through the day I tend to be chaotic and feel low. Many people see this through a scientific method, but I sense this problem utterly religious.
If there is a place where other human beings notice the importance of this and live around this important purpose, the integration with the Whole, then I would gladly like to join them, maybe I am talking about monasteries, but I know this is kind of a silly thought, I do not know if I have the necessary to give myself fully to this transcendental enterprise, because as I see the creative force within me, I also see the dark parts of me which I am terrified, terrified of living in the darkness, of not feeling life at all, only seeing the clock how it marks the hours and how the time goes and goes.
Is the beauty of the chaotic times we are currently living, the only way of creating light is through the darkness, as I have mentioned before. I know virtues are not made in heaven, but in our own hell, and as long as we walk consciously through these sacred fires, then we can make the purest soul forms out of ourselves.
Pricing:
- Per Artwork, A4 size: $450 (standard price)
- Per Artwork, A3 size: $900 (standard price)
- Series of 3 illustrations for editorial: $1,150
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Photographs by Andres Duran Moreno, beloved brother.
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