Vibrant artworks, strong and bold lines, and influenced by a wide variety of art styles: meet Emsar. He’s a Dutch/Mexican painter working in Oaxaca, Mexico who recently entered the NFT space and is quickly making a name for himself. His art stands out and his style is extremely recognizable. Time to get to know him better.
Hi Emsar! When and where did your artistic career start?
My parents already encouraged me to look at art when I was a little kid, but it was not until the age of 24 that I got bitten by the art bug.
It started whilst I was studying at the University of Amsterdam trying to get my Master's Degree in Organic Chemistry. At the time I felt my passion for chemistry was slowly fading away. During one of my visits to the university's library I stumbled upon the art of Keith Haring, Warhol and MC Escher. Their bold, colourful and geometric artworks enchanted me that day.
What did you do after that?
Well, the passion I felt for their art pushed me to take the crucial decision to halt my studies (without my parent's consent) and accept this new challenge for myself. I decided to try and create a small work of art each day for a whole month, to see if becoming a visual artist was something I could learn and do.
That’s a bold move! How did it go?
I guess we can say; very well! It took me no more than that first month of trial and error to find out a painting technique I felt comfortable with, and then 10 years of creating works of art to develop my style, which is still an ongoing process.
Can you tell us something about that process?
One major element which helped me develop the way I create my art began when I started studying Art History, mainly painters, their work and their stories. As said before, I started my career looking at work created by Pop Art Movement artists.
When I was ready for something new, I made a jump back in time to look at Modern Art, then Post Impressionism, Impressionism, Realism and so on, until I got to the monumental figures and brilliant compositions of the pre-renaissance masters such as Giotto and Masaccio.
With every new artist I met, I set myself a new challenge in order to improve my own painting's theme, narrative, colour use, composition, light, mood, figures, landscape, details, etc
You’ve been painting for a long time. How did you get into NFTs?
It was thanks to my brother Reylarsdam. I remember him sharing the news, telling me that people were buying JPEGs and GIFs with this new technology on the Internet. He motivated and helped me understand the importance of NFTs and the community around them. When I lost my job as an online teacher due to the company filing bankruptcy, I started taking NFTs, the strength of the community, Twitter and my own self promotion more seriously. A blessing in disguise!
Learn more about Emsar right here.
