Interview with artist and illustrator Munino

Jimena Elías-Munino is an artist and illustrator that goes under the artistic name Munino. She’s 21 and in addition to be pursuing the fine arts career, she’s a street art performer. She will be telling us here a little bit about the things that inspire her.

What made you decide to study art? do you remember a particular artist or illustrator that inspired you on that moment?

I come from a school with an artistic specialty and I’ve been drawing and painting since I have memory. I finally decided to study art since it was something that was already in my veins, and chose to make a living from art for the rest of my life. Art passionates me, gives me joy, gives me what I need, seduces me, infects me, makes me fall in love. Back in that moment (and still today), Andy Warhol seduced me with their pop images, their bright colors and its way of understanding art. He was the one that inspired me to finally take the decision of studying art.

What’s the development of your artwork?

My artwork tries to express what I feel, what motivates me, what I like, things that I see. My images simply display what I like today and maybe tomorrow it will be something else. They are mainly developed under a Street art, Pop art and japanese art. I conjugate these poetics and squeeze them until I’ve exhausted them.

Where do you find inspiration for your works?

There’s a lot of artists that inspires me, some of them well known and others that I found on the streets. I’m inspired by anything that attracts me visually. An artist that attracts me a lot today is Takashi Murakami (also, Murakami’s microsite at Guggenheim), called the japanese Andy Warhol. He’s an artist that completely wraps my personal interests, between traditional and contemporary japanese art and the northamerican pop art.

Anything else you would like to add?

As of today, I’m driven by strong and focused interests when I create my artworks. However, I won’t let down in the future new proposals and ways leading me to develop other aesthetics.

You can see more artwork by Munino at her blog or at Munino’s Flickr.