Interview by Jimon

1-Where did you grow up, and where do you live currently? I grew up in a small town just outside Santa Clara,  Cuba. And currently we are in an intermediate state. After living in a van for 6 months, we are deciding where to live next.

2-How would you describe Cesar Santos? I am a very active individual who lives every moment of life in the best possible way and through art.

3-Did you have any official training for art? Official as in a program run by the establishment. Yes I did. But I mainly did introspection training to bring my art forward.

4-How did you acquire your style? My style is a natural expression of art and its the result of looking for meaning as I express what I am feeling visually.

5-What is their origin of the characters in your paintings, do they model for you or are the purely from your imagination? The characters in my painting are taken from real people, I pose them sometimes, other times I capture the moment naturally.

6-How do you describe success as an artist? I’d describe success the moment life and art become one. That is when my life is so artistic that art blossoms from it.

7-What does Cesar Santos dream about? I don’t remember my dreams anymore, I used to though. Now I let my dreams play in the subconscious trusting they can serve as an invisible guide. I rather be awake now, the present state is the ultimate dream.

8-Tell us something about the art world that you want to see changed? I wouldn’t want to change anything about the art world. Any change should happen from within.

9-If a movie was to be made about your life, where would it ideally take place and who would be the actor playing your part? That would be up to the director of the movie to decide, he would be creating his own art. I am a painter, I wouldn’t know. Most likely I won’t watch it though, I haven’t watched a movie in many years, it’s not an art form that satisfy me.

10-When you are not painting where would someone find you? I am not painting right now. Or at home working.

11-If you weren’t an artist, what would you have liked to be? Hard to imagine! If I wasn’t an artist, I wouldn’t recognize myself to know what I would like to be. In this lifetime I am an artist. Apart from art, everything else I do I value equally.

12-Best advice you ever received in regards to your career as an artist? To learn about personal economics, how to apply economic reasoning so that I would have the freedom to work as I please.

13-Name three things you can’t live without in your studio? Love, tools and light

14-Do you have a person/place/thing that you visit for inspiration? Normally I let life surprise me with inspiration, regardless of the source. I don’t have a specific place, thing, or person to assure me inspiration.

15-If you could have dinner with three artists, living/dead who would be at your table? Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Caravaggio, Duchamp.

16- How would someone find you on social media? Instagram SantoCesart

17-Please name the first thing that comes to your mind while 14-reading the following:

Art= expression

Food=necessary

Sports=sweat

Politics=force

Poor=humiliated

God=difficult

Rich=relative

Luxury=personal

Sex=health

Picasso=brand

Religion=regional