José Lopez Marcos

“I was born in Spain in 1968, but immediately after that my parents moved to Switzerland, where I spent part of my childhood. Since then I have no stop moving my home and my studio throughout the world. Because of that I have always thought that having lived in different countries and continents has given me the opportunity to experience very distinct cultures which have highly influenced my ability as an artist.”

According to my parents, at the tender age of three, they caught me decorating their bedroom walls with a lot of drawings, it was a spectacular beginning as an artist and also my first large scale work. Unfortunately, our landlord did not agree and my parents had to paint over all of my drawings, maybe I was too ambitious… or not. Since then, I have not stopped developing my talent as an artist.

I have never taken any formal training in art because I have never needed it; a multitude of books about art has helped me to develop my skills as an artist. Having said that, I really think that along with my innate talent hard work is the key to succeed. As an artist I have a simple and efective rule of thumb “If you want to become a great master, you have to create a lot works, as much as you can and even when you are tired of doing it, do not stop creating.” I am not a great master yet, but every day I am closer to achieving it.

As a Western artist I am the heir to a rich cultural tradition. Although this is a great value it is not enough to me. I feel an irresistable need to know futher about other art movements all over the world. That feeling drove myself to live and travel throughout South Asia. It was just at that time when the ancient ceramic tradition developed in the Far Easter, caught all my being. I took advantage of that exciting time to learn deeply about those ancestral ceramic techniques from China to Japan. Time later, I moved my home-studio to Mexico where exploring those great pre-Columbian ceramic arts. I was lucky of meeting Professor Alberto Diaz de Cossio, one of the most important Master Ceramicist in Latin America. Along with him in his experimental ceramic workshop, I learned every single ceramic technique from traditional handbuilding techniques to chemistry.

Every piece of knowlege I learned around the world put myseft in the doorway to the endless ceramic art. It was hard work of experimentation, with different mediums and techniques in order to reach in each and every piece a WORK OF ART. Since then, I have created a big deal of pieces, and I have not stopped to experiment with new clays and glazes in order to drive my work forward with new creative ways.