Sound Colour Vibration (Music | Art | Film)

Cuatro Caras de una Virtud (Four faces of a Virtue)

Energies in the context of art are constantly shifting, constantly becoming that new thing that the future will call standard one day. Painting is one medium that I have always marveled at from the ideas and realities that are implied with the art. No piece of painting is origin-less or future-less, there is always a moment before it and after that is to transpire and this becomes a huge canvas of thought when I analyze works. A new artist to the eyes of the Sound Colour Vibration who has taken this reality to very different worlds is Cristina Francov. Highly textured and otherworldly, her works speak a presence and timeline that seems to stretch into a past that goes much further back then her date of birth. At the heart of her pieces is an escape of her current realities and a stepping into the cosmic under side of art meditation. Sound Colour Vibration’s very own Valentina Camila Apparat led us to this artist and requesting her for our online art gallery Creator Wave with an interview was mandatory. Here is the results of these interactions. It is artists like this that are pushing the envelope and breathing new identities into the art world. Creator Wave Volume 37 with Cristina Francov.

-Erik Otis

You’re from Aguascalientes, Mexico, and the social and political atmosphere is heavier than ever. How do you apply your cultural, political, and social surroundings to your work and creative process?

Cristina Francov: It isn’t something crucial in my work because they are things on which I’m not immersed (by choice); just maybe, in the social, but more than taking influence my work, I look my work and other artist’s work to reach society. We like to touch upon the awakening of consciousness because we believe that the individual can never achieve improvement in its environment if it is not aware of what it needs, what it has and what contaminates. Also, try to throw ourselves to open paths and other spaces for emerging artists, to encourage support in the guild, send a message of unity that will benefit not just art, but many areas that might rise up our current fragmented social structure.

There seems to be a presence of fantasy in your work, along with an ethereal darkness as well. How would you characterize and describe the emotion behind your paintings and illustrations?

Cristina Francov: Sometimes the fantasy is just a reflection of personal cosmogony. This medium shows in a subtle way colloquial events of a world which is different and stranger every day, but has been tarnished by a regular and preconceived reality. There are ambiguities, light and dark, just when hunches are ambiguous too and we aren’t able to read them properly, there is love and fear, its opposite; it’s life. Within each absurd scene, there are handfuls of metaphorical reality. Not more than life itself embodied with personal symbols, messages from dreams whose meaning will always remain a mystery and, finally, is the constant journey to find a place within this universe.

There are some illustrations I saw in your portfolio with an abrupt application of nudity and artistic vulgarity. Would you say your work has a lot of emotion and commentary directed towards gender and sexuality in a social context?

Cristina Francov: Usually when work pictures with nudity, I have not weighed them in a manner that violates or tie stereotypes, or focusing in shooting a sexual context, but rather to serve as a human vessel, without gender, for a greater end. Except for a very few examples of a fertile woman who procreates both creatures and ideas, a Witch whose sexuality is a gift of nature. Some others (very few and rare ones) have an explicit content of sexual criticism, like “Caen los Reyes” (“Kings’ Fall”) in which I drew a social contention where men oppresses women psychologically with material wealth and she, directly, decreases herself in exchange for security and a false hope of love.

What role does the narrative play in your art and creative process?

Cristina Francov: Hard to define… I divide the attention upon telling a story and let the story be told by itself. The work that comes from someone, an artist in this case, will always come imbued with its hunches and philosophy, so once I’m ready to dream and awake unwillingly, I take what I saw and I add what I mean. As mentioned before, the subconscious and their messages are an imminent mystery, I feel that by adding my part of the story, both my subconscious and I are creating unique patterns.

Although art is an evolutionary process, what is it you try to preserve in each and every piece that enables you to maintain that signature authenticity?

Cristina Francov: I take the visions of my dreams and I propose them in a style that seems appropriate to my intuition and my part of the story, that’s a stamp of authenticity quite hard to breach. I feel I’m still polishing my style, I still experiment a lot, but taking care of some things: I try not to miss or overload anything, keeping on not to lose of sight that this is not about making a painting if you also take a photograph and vice versa, I like to keep that game. I try to always find a balance within the chaos that comes from a dream and the order of the message, because I don’t want to deviate attention on accidental or unnecessary adornments. Make eyes flow and let the characters visible to tell their part, like in a theater.

What I love about your photography is your emphasis and enhanced focus on color. Do you find there to be a particular emotional or meaningful dimension captured with color in photography, that’s not as evident in black and white photography?

Cristina Francov: Thank you. Would you enjoy a desaturated sunset in the same way that one in full color? Black and White photography is wonderful but for me, a little inappropriate for certain mental manifestations such the kind of art that portrays visions. Color plays a huge role in symbolic and physical aspects, seals harmony of poetry in each work. In “Temple of Ether,” the pale tones and texture, are a reflection of disturbed and suffocated mind, as a result of a mood with the same features; the color changes abruptly in later series because it speaks of nature, energy, macro and micro universe and its richness of correspondences.

I know you’re the youngest of a family with an inherent artistic and creative character. Was your family fully supportive of your decision to choose art as your career, rather than simply as a hobby or side creative venture?

Cristina Francov: It was tough at first, but now is different, they rely great hope in my person. We understood that we should not live lives that aren’t ours.

You’ve worked on numerous album covers. Are there any collaborations that we can look forward to in the future, and what are some of your dream collaborations that you’d love to be a part of in the future?

Cristina Francov: I love the work developed underground, and since genres like Ambient, Ritual, Drone, Experimental and alike are some of my favorites, it is my wish to offer my skills for many projects of this kind. Last year I was lucky to get in touch with a couple of leaders of my favorite projects, although nothing is certain about this, some collaborations have been considered for the future. Also some books, and a musical project of my own which involves visuals and plenty story telling.

Thank you so very much for the time you’ve shared with Sound Colour Vibration. We really appreciate and admire your work, and wish you all the best in your career. We look forward to seeing what you have in store for the future. Best of luck.

Cristina Francov: Good luck and success to you too and thanks so much for this.

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Creator Wave Vol 37: Cristina Francov

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4 de noviembre (november 4th)

11 de noviembre (november 11th)

Auto Inducido Rinco¦ün del Vientre (Self Induced Womb-Lair)

Caen los Reyes (Kings' Fall)

Hechizo (Spell)

La Discusio¦ün (The Discussion)

La loca Sofi¦üa (Sofia, the mad)

Malas Ciencias (Wretched Science)

Ora¦üculo de las Impresiones Erradas (Oracle of Wrong Impressions)

Nunca te voy a perdonar (I'll never forgive you)

Introspeccio¦ün Son¦âando (Introspection while dreaming)

El Banquete Magne¦ütico (The Magnetic Banquet)

Efectos del Cosmos (Effect of Cosmos)

De lo eterno y lo lu¦üdico (Of the eternal and the playful)

Consolamentum

Apo¦ücrifo (Apocryphal)

Tartaros

Concertando el Secreto del Silencio (Concealing the Secret of Silence)

El tri¦ügono de las lesiones (Injury triangle)