Location : Madrid, Spain
Profession / passion : Artist
Website : armandomesias.com
Instagram : @armandomesias

One Day is an ongoing project sparked by the Covid-19. In the days of isolation we would like to focus on what we do best; bringing people together. Read more about the project here.
We will be posting one new day of someones life every day until we run out of contributors. See our instagram stories to experience these peoples One Day in action.

A text, song or film that everyone should experience.
One Hundred Years of Solitude. Kind of a cliché, but should be a must for everyone as it obviously is for us Colombians.

What is the story behind your profession/ passion?
As long as I can remember I had a pencil in my hand, and drew on any paper or surface I could find. This kinda stuck over the years, throughout high school, design school, and art school. It was until just a couple of years that I definitely decided to bring all of that together and focus solely on my career as an artist.

How do you want people to react to your work / passion?
It’s really important for me that they feel free. That they do not feel any constraints as to what they ‘should’ or ‘should not’ read in my work. What really interests me is all of which I can’t control, i.e. what people get to feel.

How has the current situation affected how you work?
It’s new and uncertain, a lot of anxiety involved. I came to the realization that pursuing the same goals, achieving the same rhythm was suddenly pointless. So now, more so than ever, I’m trying to focus on the process and not on the results. Take it one step at a time and try to really be present in what I’m doing, just for the sake of it, and not thinking about where it will lead.

What is the most inspiring text you read recently?
I’m currently reading “The Double” (or The Duplicated Man) by Jose Saramago. There are themes of isolation, identity and purpose that really resonate with my work in general, but also with the current situation.

Your greatest achievement?
This might be a trick question because achievements are relative to expectations, and these tend to shift constantly. However I do feel there’s a before and after I decided to focus on my personal work. It was something I had been pursuing my whole life but whatever reason didn’t feel ready to do. It was truly liberating and enlightening, and I’m thankful for it every day.

Define what beauty means to you.
The pursuit of the truth.

Describe a smell that brings back memories to you.
Industrial glue. It brings me back to my father’s shoe workshops, and to long night building models during university years. And more recently to my studio, that I so long to be in. Never really thought about that connection.

Your best trait?
Trying to see more than what meets the eye in everything. At least is the one I try to develop most.

What traits do you treasure in other people?
Passion. For whatever it is the choose to do in life.

Your most treasured possession?
An old picture of my parents I keep in my house. But even that will eventually fade away.

What was the most defining moment in your life?
Moving to London from Bogotá.

Who do you miss?
The boiling heat and never ending summer of my hometown Cali, Colombia. And I don’t even like hot weather.

How was your spiritual and religious upbringing and how did it shape you?
There were a lot of social givens during my upbringing. Most of them didn’t really resonate with me and presented more questions than answers. I grew up in a very Catholic society and it took most of my childhood to confront that reality on my own. But it lead me to be attentive and reflective of the givens I was presented later on in life.

When was the last time you learned something new and what was it?
Right now I’m learning to cook new stuff everyday. It’s been really helpful in keeping my hands dirty, which is probably one of the things I miss the most of not being able to go to my studio every day.

Have you actively chosen to live in the city/town you live in?
I just recently moved to Madrid from Barcelona with my wife. We lived there for about 6 years and were ready for a change. Everything has been really unexpected and exciting, and even now, 5 months in we still feel like we haven’t quite arrived yet.

How do you relax?
Cooking, reading, having a drink.

If you were forced to sit still for one month straight without pursuing your current
profession, how would you spend your time?
Probably cooking actually. It feels very analogous to art making. You’re just throwing stuff around and transforming it into something that didn’t exist before in order to have a pleasant sensorial experience, whilst facilitating human connection.

What does freedom mean to you?
Being in the now. Not thinking about the limitations of the future, or the predispositions of the past.

Do you have any regrets in life?
I think regrets are pointless. They’re a needless weight to carry around.

Should calm come from within or be facilitated by the environment?
I agree with Buddha on this one. Disturbance, disappointment and suffering come from expectations. Only through detachment may we achieve true calm.

Marcel Proust said nothing exists within itself. Are we brought to life by way of contrast?
I think we do come to existence by ourselves (Avicenna, Descartes) but are unable to find purpose by ourselves. “No man is an island”(John Donne)

Lastly, how do wish to see this current situation have a positive impact on our lives?
I really hope it helps us realize the most important things in our daily lives. We live in a constant rush, ruled by abstract and imagined needs and goals. What’s happening has urged us to stop and take a look at ourselves. To contemplate the purpose and meaning in our daily actions. I hope we get to learn something from that.

One Day : Armando Mesías - Artist