Pigeon Magazine: We've been huge fans for a while now and I know we've chatted or exchanged emojis here and there over the years, so now we'd love to REALLY dig in finally! So to start it all off, we'll keep it simple and see where things go.
Where are you from originally?
Carmen Gómez: I was born and raised in a port city called Puerto de Sagunto in Valencia, Spain. Currently, I live in a small mountain village not too far from there.
Pigeon Magazine: How long would you say you've been an artist or how long would you say you have considered yourself an artist?
Carmen Gómez: I started drawing consistently around 2014. For me, the concept of being an `artist´ has many layers. Since I was a child, I´ve always considered myself a creative person with a deep passion for drawing and painting.
However, that title is something that fluctuates along with my own life evolution; at this point, I´d say I feel like an artist at times.
Pigeon Magazine: When did you realize you wanted to be an artist and what was it that helped you make that realization?
Carmen Gómez: In reality, I made the conscious decision to throw myself back into this just last year.
Right before the pandemic, I was on the verge of making the leap and becoming a 100% full time artist, but the global crisis and a very serious family health issue forced me to put everything aside, and I stopped drawing for almost four years.
So, in a way, I found myself back at square one.
However I see it as a wonderful opportunity to refresh my themes, explore new ways of creating, and, in that sense, it keeps you feeling very alive.
Last year, I decided it was time to truly commit to my creative work, dedicating many more hours and energy to it.
Pigeon Magazine: I see you mostly have drawings throughout your social media accounts? Are they pencil? And why just one color mostly?
Carmen Gómez: Yes, they are pencil drawings. Over the last few months I’ve been focusing heavily on drawing, using mostly mechanical pencils of all possible leads. Right now, it’s more of a logistical choice: I don't have a place to paint yet due to recent move, and I feel very comfortable drawing and developing new ideas in this format for the time being. I know I’ll get back to oil painting very soon.
Pigeon Magazine: Is art your main form of income?
Carmen Gómez: No, art is not currently my main source of income, it was before the pandemic as I said earlier. At that time, almost all of my work consisted of oil portraits, and they were actually well received. Currently I balance my creative side with my professional career in another field; this gives me the freedom to draw exactly what I want and enjoy the entire process without financial pressure while I fuel this fresh start.
Pigeon Magazine: Who was it that supported you or introduced you to "art" or drawing? Was it family? A friend? Or yourself?
Carmen Gómez: My father was the true catalyst for my love of art; he used to paint, and I would sit next to him, which somehow left a deep mark on me.
The paints, the canvases, the quiet space he entered, the frustration, and the subsequent joy of making something he truly liked.
Pigeon Magazine: Aside from truly being an inspiration to you, how would you say he supported you?
Carmen Gómez: He supported me by celebrating everything I did and making sure I always had paper and pencils at hand. He would share his materials with me and watch me draw with an enthusiasm that made me feel like what I was doing truly mattered.
As an adult, the support has come mainly from my own determination. Art requires a lot of self-discipline—learning how to manage your own community and believing in your work even when nobody else sees it.
Pigeon Magazine: Having anyone show support is always amazing, but having a family member who truly shows it and shares it is somehow more special. What was the most meaningful part of that support?
Carmen Gómez: The most meaningful part is how my father's enthusiasm transformed into my own discipline.
He taught me to love the process, and that love is what gives me the strength today to keep drawing every day, even through the tough moments. Knowing there is someone who will always love what you do acts as an invisible safety net—one that, without you even realizing it, protects you from the rejection that is so common in this world.
Pigeon Magazine: The creative world, hell, the world at large is a very cut-throat place. Especially these days. A lot of artists or creatives in general usually have something they're working towards… What are your goals or what is your agenda, if any, in this artistic pursuit?
Carmen Gómez: I always have two goals.
First, to stay true to what I want to do and not get carried away by trends, even if nobody understands it or if my work gets misinterpreted.
This is difficult with social media, which has somewhat distorted that, and I admit I fall into that trap myself sometimes.
My second goal is to generate a regular income that allows me to make a living from my art in a modest but authentic way.
Pigeon Magazine: You mentioned "another field," what field? And how does your professional career provide for your creative endeavors?
Carmen Gómez: I work in the administrative field, speaking very generically. It's diametrically opposed to art, and yet, it helps me in several artistic facets. It has given me the skills to organize myself, keep track of deadlines, shipments, and emails.
I also have very good flexibility with my hours, which is ideal for drawing late into the night, and it gives me the financial freedom I need.
Could everything be a lot more bohemian? Sure. Would I like it to be? Of course, but we all know what adult life requires financially, and for me, as of today, it works because there is a balance.
Spain, amidst the pandemic between 2019 – 2022. There's a stay-at-home order with a strict curfew policy that only allows people to leave their home for certain periods throughout the day to gather groceries or walk their pets. Doomscrolling through an endless void of images and video further becomes a past time for most people that are restrained to their homes or apartments. Some began to bake breads, tend to their garden, or try something they've put off until they "have more time." During this time the artists truly shined. Less meetings, no obligations outside of the home, and time enough to read, draw, paint, meditate, or just focus!
Carmen Gómez harkened back to re-discovering pencils. She created an almost comic book like realism on the page. Highly stylized and yet containing a very real and very human quality to every piece. Using everything from photos of herself to images pulled from just about anywhere as reference and inspiration for her next take.
We came across Carmen's amazing and oh so consistent works in 2019 and absolutely fell in love. Now, we've taken some time to reach out to the Valencia based artist to dig beyond the beautiful work and see just what makes her tick.
