Drawings are louder than words Al Margen and his depressing illustrations about our time

— If you look at your drawings, they are almost always gloomy and dark. Do they reflect your state and perception of the world?

— Yes, surely my drawings reflect how I perceive the world. They might be gloomy and dark, but that's also related to the fact that I really like black and white images. I rarely use color in my drawings.

— How do you decide what the illustration will be about?

— Many ideas come out of nowhere. I don't know how to explain it well. Sometimes an idea appears that I find interesting and I work on it a lot inside my head before putting it on paper. It almost always happens that when ideas are put on paper, they don't turn out the way I had imagined them. And many end up in the trash can.

— Where did you learn to draw?

— I studied at the Carlos Morel School of Fine Arts, in Quilmes, which is the city where I live.

— I was really impressed by the illustration on education. And this impression is primarily related to how accurately you illustrated the education system in our country. Argentina and Ukraine are on different hemispheres, but their problems, at least in this area, are the same. Tell us the story behind this illustration.

— This illustration refers to the school where I studied in my adolescence. All students had to be dressed in uniform. And there was no room for creativity, quite the opposite. You had to repeat what the teacher said.

I am not an education specialist. But hopefully educational systems can be improved. And that they teach students to think, not to repeat from memory concepts that are then forgotten after a few days.

In any case, I think that even if the educational system is not good, you have to study. Learning is very important.

— What is your profession?

— I am a graphic designer.

— Which of your illustrations was the most difficult to come up with a visual solution for?

— I do not know. When one illustration doesn't work, I drop it and move on to another. It has happened to me that after a while I see the abandoned drawings again and I find a way to make the idea better captured. One of those cases was the drawing of the man sitting in front of the TV and the journalist's nose piercing his head. That drawing was abandoned for a couple of years until one day I saw it again and finished it.

— In which application do you draw and what do you use for this?

— The drawing is done by hand with pencil. Then I scan the drawing and use Adobe Photoshop to add textures to it.

— You are very successful in illustrating different stereotypes, patterns of people’s behavior, their values and actions... Where does this observation come from? Do you travel a lot?

— No, quite the opposite. I have never been outside of Argentina. I don't like to travel.

And I am surprised that someone from the other side of the planet is interested in my drawings. It is a mystery to me that people from different cultures look at my drawings and give them their interpretation.

— What does a person need to be happy?

— According to advertisements, to be happy you need things like cars, telephones, clothes, technology.

I believe that happiness is a state of mind. Can you be happy all the time? I do not think so. You can pretend to be happy all the time and show it on social media. But deep down we all know that this is a big lie.

— What artists are you inspired by?

— Many cartoonists inspire me and are a great influence on me.

Music also inspires me a lot to draw. I don't know anything about music and I don't want to learn. I just know that I really enjoy listening to music while drawing.

— Finish this interview with three words, please.

— Greetings to Ukrainians!

Interview: Sergey Gutakovsky

Translation: Angelina Petrova

Editor: Sergey Fomkin

2021