Bárbara’s illustrations are outstanding. Coming across her work on the world wide web, I was intrigued by her drawing, with its cheerful mix of colourful lines and textures. Bárbara Moura graduated in Film at the National Film School of Portugal and then moved to London where she did her MA Applied Imagination in The Creative Industries at Central Saint Martins. The main connection between her subjects is herself, as she believes we are our own biggest case of study. Her illustrations focus on emotional experiences personalised by characters that are essentially self-portraits.
KALTBLUT: When did you start drawing?
Bárbara: I started drawing really young. I think the earliest ones date 4 or 5 years old.
KALTBLUT: What is your artistic background?
Bárbara: Since very early I was looking for things I liked to do so I attended a lot of workshops for children. Lately when I went to arts high school I started to draw more as the course was structured so we had a lot of drawing classes. But I did a little bit of everything, theatre, dance, chess. Then I went to film school, and it was only after I finished my BA that drawing definitely stopped being a hobby and took on the leading role.
KALTBLUT: What is your favourite Medium to use?
Bárbara: Although I lately also do a lot of digital drawing, pen on paper is still my favourite medium.
KALTBLUT: What inspires you the most ?
Bárbara: Most of the times it’s poetry. And music. And studies on magick and the occult.
Then painting, specially artists that worked a lot on self-portraiture and scientific and medical drawings.
KALTBLUT: Looking at your work, there is an alternation between sexuality, death, and also something a little bit mystic.. Is this your vision of life?
Bárbara: Ahaha that makes it rather dark. No, not necessarily. My work focuses a lot on the concept of polarities and basic human instincts, so yes, death and mysticism are intrinsic subjects to it as in understanding what we don’t understand about human existence. I am a little bit obsessed with all that is not visible and apparently not controlled. The sphere where by some mighty reason everything gets connected so miraculously perfect and at the same time so chaotic.
KALTBLUT: Some of your drawings look like little observational studies …
Bárbara: They are. I think the difference is I’m not at all interested in representing what I see just as I see it. I could say what I try to do is to represent what I see the way I feel it. The important factor for me is the ‘dramatic’ component that is added to this observational study. It’s never neutral. A lot of my illustrations focus on my emotional experiences or thoughts, and they are mostly personalised by characters that are self-portraits.
KALTBLUT: When did you move to London and why?
Bárbara: I move to London slightly more than 3 years ago to do my MA course. Felt I needed to get out of my comfort zone and things were looking pretty hopeless in Lisbon.
KALTBLUT: How will you describe the art scene in Lisbon?
Bárbara: There are definitely as anywhere else a lot of talented people, and people who really wanna do stuff despite the difficulties that culture is facing in our country and heroically stick to their guns. It really makes me sad to see how the country underrates art and its artists. There’s little support to artists and it still seems to be an absence of awareness of the unmeasurable value artists have in defining a country’s identity.
KALTBLUT: What are you working on at the moment?
Bárbara:I am finishing some illustrations for a book of healthy feminist poetry that is gonna be published soon with the aim of supporting several women’s charities. I’m thinking about starting a zine as well, and there might be an exhibition coming up soon. Apart from that just the regular quest for knowledge.
Interview by Nicolas Simoneau
Contact:
babs.moura@gmail.com
www.godandthedevil.tumblr.com
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