1646 – Issue 4

1 8 Aside from my published work, I have kept up my live caricature work, often hired to draw at events in Spain and around the globe – quick caricatures at corporate events, trade fairs, private parties, weddings etc. I’m also hired as a visual practitioner (or graphic recorder) with the objective of visually representing key topics and complex data during conferences, presentations etc. Finally, from time to time I’m invited to teach art and organize workshops to students of all ages, from Primary children to Journalism students at University level (seminars about editorial cartoons in Journalism)…all adding variety which makes the career journey all the more exciting…as well as working on my own personal projects too when I have the time! What does a typical day for you look like, or is there such a thing? The pandemic hit the world of journalism as hard as any sector (at least in Spain), so my work as a daily cartoonist for a national newspaper at the time called ‘El Periódico’ was directly affected. No more budget for cartoonists so sadly it was ‘Adiós!’.Where as before my daily routine would have been sifting through the news to pull out the juiciest news story to inspire the cartoon, which would take the best part of the day to produce from start to finish, now I have no daily routine as such which has as a result made my artistic collaborative work even more varied than ever! I’m still involved with book illustration having illustrated a number of books in the last couple of years, as well as collaborating as a caricaturist for a Catalan newspaper called Ara. I also work as a voice-over artist, translator and freelance copywriter and recently have been hired to draw at many events which in general have fortunately bounced back since the pandemic. On a teaching level, I’m currently working with a number of schools in Barcelona educating Primary and Secondary year children about sustainability and the environment via art and creativity. Who, what or where inspires your work? For me there’s nothing more inspiring than Nature and the Natural World….organic and non-organic, land, sea, air, animals, plants…more than enough to inspire anyone (not only artists!). I love traveling and culture in all it’s forms, art obviously. Artists that inspire me – too many to mention! But for my cartoon work I have great admiration for Ralph Steadman and Gerald Scarfe, two of the world’s finest political cartoonists, who started out in the 1960s and are still drawing today – both a huge inspiration. I was lucky enough to meet Ralph Steadman here in Barcelona back in 2004 and we’ve remained in touch ever since (for me an unbelievable honour to meet one of my greatest heroes!) Other major artists who knock me out