artist interview - elena hormiga

Elena Hormiga is a Spanish illustrator who spends her days drawing rather dream-like scenes - if your dreams involve cog-filled rainclouds, violin-playing puppets and creatures sporting oranges as hats, that is. We're quite enamoured with her quirky world, so we threw a few questions about style, illustration and past lives her way.


What is your name and how old are you?
 My name is Elena Hormiga and I was born about 10 years ago.
Before that, I was another person with another name, but one night I suffered a kind of weird Kafkaesque metamorphosis, and the next day I woke up transformed into an ant. My name, Hormiga, means "ant" in Spanish. Now, here I am, with six legs attached to my thorax.

How did you get started with this medium? I guess illustration always took part of my life somehow. But the turning point was to realise that I wanted to make a living on it. One day I printed some business cards. They said: 'elenahormiga.es, ilustradora.' This was just the link to my portfolio, but it also means: "Elena Hormiga is an illustrator". Then it all began.



Please describe the space where you do most of your creation – whether it's your art studio or kitchen bench! During the last few months I have been travelling a lot, forcing myself to have an itinerant studio. This means having to get used to moving with only a few things, and being able to focus on work anywhere. Now I'm back in Madrid, and I love my neighbourhood Malasaña, but I still enjoy working in parks, cafes, museums or friends' houses. I just need light and some plants or trees in view.

Is there a running theme to the work you create, or do you just make whatever comes to mind? 
I think that although the way I work is very casual and spontaneous, there is a common link in all my work, that emerges from the creative process. When I create, I usually play with surrealist techniques and this leads me to casual metaphors, double meanings, visual riddles, dreamlike scenes and lots of irony and humour.



What makes your work unique and truly your own? Perhaps this sense of humour that I mention above. No matter if it's a children's book, a label of a bottle of wine or the cover of a book, the sense of humour is always there. It probably has to do with my way of seeing things.

Tell us a little about your creative process. When I'm creating a new illustration I like to let my mind free of thoughts. I try to keep this process as a spontaneous game, writing and doodling simple ideas in my notebook and then connecting concepts randomly. It is a fun and intuitive process.



How has your style changed over time? I could say that I'm going towards simplicity. When you're younger you feel some need to prove your skills, and try and experiment different styles. But I think that at some point you start to feel confident in your own natural language. This is, in my case, the simplest possible. I work now with only two or three colours, and I draw simple and primitive forms, giving more importance to the metaphorical concept.

Do you think people need to understand the artist's intention to appreciate the art?
 I think sometimes people need reasons just to express their feelings about art, because otherwise they can't explain what is happening inside them. Understanding the artist's intention is a way to make sense of it, but it's not necessary if the art speaks to you directly.

Are there any other mediums that you'd like to experiment with?
 I like everything that has to do with using your hands.



What do you doodle when you are daydreaming? 
I enjoy a lot making up crazy faces, funny masks, absurd bodies... for example, I really have fun swapping the head of an animal with the body of another. It's just a silly game but it makes me laugh.

What other budding artists do you love? 
There are many wonderful illustrators in Spain. I'm a big fan of Isidro Ferrer, Pablo Amargo, Arnal Ballester among others.

What would you be doing if you weren't making art?
 I wish I had been a musician. I can't play any musical instrument and I'm too lazy to learn, but the thing is I need music so much in my life and it makes me so happy, that I enjoy fantasising about that idea.



Where can we see more of your work? elenahormiga.es, behance.net/elenahormiga or on Instagram @elenahormiga