Carlos Rosales-Silva
New York, NY
@migwa

INTERVIEW WITH CARLOS ROSALES-SILVA AND LAURA DAY WEBB
NEW YORK, NY, USA

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to be an artist?

I was born and raised on the border of the United States and Mexico, the border of New Mexico and Texas, and the border of the United States and the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, which are lands of the Tigua Idigenous people, in a city named El Paso, Texas. My family are from what is now Northern Mexico spanning to what is now Southern New Mexico, but most have been in the general area for a long time before the current borders were drawn.

I was only casually interested in art growing up, like most kids, but I grew up in a family of intensely creative people. My grandmother was a songwriter and choir leader, my mother and uncles were all musicians, crafts people, and builders, and my grandfather was an ingenious welder who would make the most beautiful and intricate steel fences, swing sets, etc on his days off. At some point we took a trip to visit my Great Uncle, a poet, in San Antonio, Texas. Up until that point I had known some artists in the neighborhood in El Paso, Texas where I grew up, muralists and graffiti writers, but not well enough to understand what an arts community looked like. My Great Uncle Trino was living a full fledged artist’s life in a house with so much art on the wall, musicians playing, just this big beautiful community and that really sparked a curiosity of what a life in the arts actually meant. When I got to high school, by chance, I happened to be in a school district for an arts magnet school that had a fully functioning printmaking studio and that’s where I started learning how to be an artist in earnest. Luckily for me I had so much to draw on from my family and the area that I grew up in, which has a really intense colonial history that is still unfolding.

What is your approach to starting a new work?

Everything in my studio starts as a drawing. I spend at least an hour daily making quick decisive drawings that sometimes translate to collages or paintings on paper. From there I decide if an idea can be translated to a panel, or if a shape can become a shaped panel. When I am home in Texas I spend time drawing and photographing landscape and architecture, which then collapse into more abstract drawings when I am in the studio.

Do you listen to music when you are working and what do you listen to?

I am often listening to Sonidera Cumbia music in the studio

What role does your studio space play in your practice?

Studio spaces come and go, and the work expands or contracts depending on the space I am occupying. This was one of the more important lessons I learned in the last decade. There is always a way to make work, sometimes it just has to fit in the space you are able to work in.

Are there any elements or objects in your studio setup that have special significance to you and your practice?

I have two palette knives that I have been using for years now. They are so crusty and covered in paint and material but my process has evolved around them and are now irreplaceable. I have not been able to find the same shape or size that they are.

What are you working on now?

I am always working on new paintings! I am also working on some 10 ft tall collages that I am making out of vinyl banner material. They are not digital, I am cutting and gluing giant shapes and colors. They are going to be for an exhibition in the fall and will be on the outside of the building.

How did you come about your current studio? Any interesting, funny, dramatic, inspiring stories to share?

My current studio is on the fifth floor of a building in Brooklyn, NY that was going to become a nightclub until the pandemic hit. It is a really lovely space, huge windows and views of the city.

Carlos Rosales-Silva: Studio Visit