ANGEL BOLIGAN
R:Were were you born?
B:I was born in San Antonio de los Ba?os, a small town near to Havana, Cuba on May 10, 1965
R:What was your childhood like? Was there anything related to art?
B:My family was in the field and we lived happily in a small house which could directly contacted with nature. After 12 years we moved to town. During these 12 years I learned to live in and love nature, something I value greatly.
-During the time in the field there was really very little contact with the plastic arts, except the class we had in school (where they really stood out on whether other children) and sometimes an illustrated book I could get in my hands on which the artwork inspired me.
R:When did you start drawing?
B:When I was residing in the town I had more chances to visit museums, receive publications of cartoons and meet artists of this genre. San Antonio de los Ba?os in Cuba is known as La Villa del Humor since it is a town of cartoonists. The first exhibition of cartoon in Cuba was held here at the beginning of last century. Many leading cartoonists of the island lived here. In 1979 when I was 14 the the First International Museum of Humor in Latin America was opened in the town and afterwards it was combined with a biennial International Humor Contest which is still held to this day. All this excitement led me to approach this museum in 1980 with my folder of drawings. I went to their files and libraries frequently. In 1981 I was invited to participate in the realization of a collective mural at the 2nd International Biennial of Humor as a younger cartoonist. By the end of this year I held my first solo exhibition in the local gallery.
R:Have you ever been studying in an art school?
B:I attended a special course for 3 years in Havana, Cuba. It helped me to be a Professor of Plastic Arts in 1987.
R:Did you start to create cartoons by then?
B:Since 1980 I started to make cartoons as a young amateur, in 1983 I began to publish my drawings in the national press frequently.
R:We would like to know when did you decide to be an artist? Do you come from an artistic family?
B:Just in 1981 when I participated in the Biennial and made my 1st exhibition I knew my destiny was that, being a cartoonist, not coming from a family of artists, only from a village of artists.
R:What comments do your family and your friends have on your choice of "living on caroon"? To what degree do they support you?
B:My family helped me a lot. They were the ones who first took me to places of cultural and talk to the city's cultural director abouot my fondness of cartoon. Then the director gave me much support on what I needed for my development.
R:How did you build up your cartoon business?
B:My consistency and reliability on work helped me to found a space in Cuban press, winned awards and recognitions also opened many doors. In 1992 I decided to come to live in Mexico to receive the job offer from a national major newspaper.
R:How about the development of caroon in Mexico? Are there many professional cartoonists? How about them?
B:Mexican Cartoonists have always been a benchmark of quality among the artists of the region. The history of Mexican humor is very long and it has gained much respect in the local press. Perhaps the artists are too parochial in their subjects. Most of them do not usually participate in international competition and not become known to other countries. I don't have the exact number but there should be several hundred.
R:Which artists or works had effects on you when you formed your own style?
B:Sometimes an art critic is more accurate in finding influences of style in our drawings than ourselves, but I can comment that artists like David Levine, Steinberg, Topol and especially Mexicans HelioFlores Naranjo have played an important role to respect the caricature as an art and not as a minor art as is sometimes happen.
R:What is in your mind when you are drawing?
B:What I want to say, what message I want to express, the theme choosing and then tring to synthesize it into elements and lines so that their meaning is clear. This is accomplished by concentrating on what I mean.
R:How did you create the prized work in this competition? What inspired you?
B:I tried to say something about the magic that is not the first thing comeing to mind at all when we think of a magician. I tried to be a little different, to get out of the stereotype because I thought there must be many similarities. So I went the context of the Circus and magic act itself and the magician took to the streets with a joke playing with logic.
R:Which is your favourite in all your works?
B:Usually my favorite is the work I have just made, but my mind always change after a few days. So I think my favorite job has not been done.
R:What works are you creating now?
B:Almost daily drawing and maybe I'm doing another when you get this interview... these days I'm working for my newspaper in Mexico, El Universal, magazines and agencies with whom I collaborate and several international competitions.
R:Have you ever published your solo album? Do you have any idea on it?
B:I have only 2 small published humor books，no retrospect. One in Cuba and one in Mexico. I have done another on universal themes of Globalization, Internet, freedom, television, cellular phones, crisis, religion... everything that surrounds us today to citizens of this globalized planet. I like drawings without text so that I can be understood in every corner of the planet. But I do not have Publisher for publication.
R:Do you have any other insteresting?
B:I am interested in travel trough the country, to nature as often as I can, because now I live in Mexico City where I live with over 20 million people.
R:If you were not an artist, what would you want to do?
B:I admire creative people in general but feel envious of musicians, music composers. I would have liked to compose music or write songs ... Out of art I like nature, all related to plants and animals.
R:What do you want to talk to the persons who love your works?
B:I feel surprised everytime I get a mail from people who like my work from places as far as China, Iran, Turkey etc. It fills me with satisfaction and especially I feel more compromise with my work. I can only be grateful to all of them and try to do my best in every work.
R:Thank you very much for all your answers. We wish great success to your business! Thanks again!