“House Of Birds” Interview With David Lee Pereira & Marta Tesoro

With their duel exhibition “House Of Birds” opening this Thursday night, we sat down with Melbourne artists and illustrators, Marta Tesoro and David Lee Pereira for some spiritual enlightenment. +melbourne art review: Tell me a little bit about exhibition, it’s a joint exhibition, how did that come about? Marta: I have been displaying and selling my work at Pepper Cafe for a few months now, just without doing an actual opening as the stuff I was displaying has been seen elsewhere. David was thinking of displaying at Peppers too. There are some pieces we do that are similar to each other and we’re good friends , so I thought it would be a lot more fun if he and I teamed up to exhibit. Least we can drown our sorrows with dumplings if things don’t work out. (We tend to partake in a dumpling dinner often). +mar: So the exhibition is at Pepper cafe, can you tell me how you came to chose that venue and why? M: Well, I used to draw and do illustration work at Peppers over the last few years. As a freelancer, I work alone a lot and sometimes it’s nice to just draw in a warm atmosphere, where I can get good coffee, good food and cake! Then I spoke to Caitlin from Peppers about displaying some of my work. It was bandied around in the past but I thought I’d actually go for it some time last year. My work went on display and for sale but I never did an exhibition opening or anything. Though the work I was showing was too old for that. David mentioned to me that he was approached by Simon, who owned Peppers, about displaying his work at some point too. When I found out, I asked David if he wanted to do a joint exhibition with me and so here we are! +mar: Can you tell me a bit about your process in creating a piece: M: I tend to come up with an image in my head, do some rough sketches and straight onto the final. Sometimes, I skip the rough sketch process. It doesn’t always turn out how I see it in my mind but am generally pretty happy with the results. I also tend to pick up ideas simply by looking at other artists for inspiration. For the most part, I just draw whatever it is I feel like! +mar: How many works do you have in this new show? M: So far I have about 25 pieces. There’s still some time before the exhibition so I may pull out another one or two out of the hat. +mar: What is your next project that you are working on? M: I may be participating in another exhibition come April and I feel the urge to draw insects now. I have lots of ideas in my head but they tend to get whittled down depending on time, materials and inspiration at the time. +mar: The name of your show is “House Of Birds” can you tell me a little about how that name came about? David: Well Marta and I both use animals in our art for their physical form and spiritual value, we had discussed with each other what we would like to do for this exhibition, Marta doing portraits with bunnies and birds, and myself exploring birds and flowers. We decided that ‘House of Birds’ was appropriate and when you enter the exhibition you can see why, the house has been taken over by over 40 birds, if I’m not mistaken all of whom are Australian natives too. +mar: How else does your work relate with Marta’s? D: Even though our styles are very different from each other’s, seeing it all hung on the walls of Pepper, they compliment one another. I think our friendship helps with this connection, as we have been good friends for a few years now we both bounce our ideas off of each other and are very supportive. All of our work shows an appreciation of nature and animals and illustrate the relationship between the creatures you see and the emotions we feel. +mar: What would you say is one of the biggest challenges being a young creative in Melbourne and trying to exhibit? D: I think one of the hardest challenge being an artist is trying to find a balance between life, work and art. Being an emerging artist usually means that you have to work a day job to pay the bills and earn those pennies, and if you are serious about having a career in art you have to be willing to put the hours into your work as well as putting your art in the playing field. I think this is detrimental in the execution of an initial concept for an exhibition and affects the final result of what goes onto those walls when the deadline hits, it’s a constant a fight between the artist and Khronos. +mar: Who or what is your biggest inspiration at the moment? D: I recently worked in the studio of Michael Peck over at Paradise Hills and saw some of my favourite Melbourne photo realism painters working away, seeing their process’ and work evolve from under paintings to beautifully finished artworks on a wall has really driven me to push forward with my career as an artist. In regards to my work, I am exploring birds and the spirit world beyond what we can see; The other day I was lying on the grass with a good friend of mine talking about life and as i looked up at the sky a pigeon slowly flew down from above, past my face and danced in the air and landed beside me and as I watched this creatures dance I realised how graceful and elegant life is, they are the moments that inspire me most. +mar: What is your next project that you are working on? D: I have been working on a collection of oil paintings exploring the reincarnations of an instant. They are stills of a life that once lived and the flame that still burns. ‘etiam prognatus’, a life that is still… haha that is all I am willing to give away at this point as I plan on having my first completely solo exhibition towards the end of 2014 at Off the Kerb Gallery in Collingwood. You can RSVP to the event on Facebook here. You can see more of Marta’s work here. And here. You can like David on Facebook here. And see more of his work here.