Henrique Leal wants to take you in an awakening trip beyond any limitations through his art, with exploration of various expressive materials always linked to music and sound vibrations. A very interesting and insightful interview.
– From where do you seek and find your inspirations?
I seek my inspirations in experiences of my daily life; I use the little “glitches” that happen and I find it very interesting.
– Were there any personal experiences that influence your work or creativity?
All of my life was kind of an experience and a learning curve, that in the end I tried to express in the way I think and feel about many subjects. More recently I’ve exposed a project about “Duality”, which was a subject I was always confronted in my day by day routine in contact with other people and myself; trying to find the balance between the mind and the heart, absorbing positive and negative energies which create actions and emotions, and that is what fundamentally create a behaviour in the person and their personality.
The creating process required me to separate myself, my personality, from my personal physical body, so I could express exactly the way I was supposed to, with no filters.
Basically, I let myself be controlled by my higher self, so the ego doesn’t interfere in the process. The letting go experience is amazing! Just going with the flow in the creating
process.
– Is there something in your technique or workflow that you are looking to improve or simplify?
Besides money being my biggest barrier in limiting my creative process, I find myself trying to improve the anatomy of the human body because it’s the technique I’m somewhat missing, and the technological possibilities to realise my dream of combining the visual with music as to create something never seen before.
– Going through your projects, I’ve noticed that you had created them using different mediums. From photography and film, to traditional painting and digital art. In the end, how important is the medium? Will it change the concept or is it just for the artist to experiment with?
I can say I’ve experienced a lot of mediums so I could find myself, and that is somewhat the “journey” itself, which made me really happy to know that those mediums were necessary for my personal evolution and the way of using any means necessary
to achieve my goal of expressing emotions and concepts in different ways .
” The creating process required me to separate myself, my personality, from my personal physical body, so I could express exactly the way I was supposed to, with no filters. “
– You are based in the island of Madeira. How is the attitude of the public there towards arts in general? Does the general interest (high or low) really affects your concepts and creative flow?
From my personal point of view of the people I know, arts in general was not a thing for a long time. Happily we are beginning to see a change in people’s behaviour. They are looking for new kinds of artworks, and are being aware of this “lifestyle”, and I feel
I’m here to do my best in every way possible.
– What are you looking to raise awareness for through your art projects?
I’m looking to unveil the force/energy behind human life, enhance myself as a person and have the vision beyond the human eyes so I could help more people realise there is a higher purpose for all of us here in this dimension, helping out new generations to reach our most potential being. Let’s say I want to deconstruct the “matrix”.
– The main concepts identified by looking at your projects are, among others, self liberation and spirituality. Those are deep and powerful concepts, they are not just everyday issues. Are your art projects your own spiritual path?
Yes, I believe so. For many years I’ve felt those energies but I couldn’t say why or what, because everything was happening like a movie. It’s hard to explain or show to someone that is not ready to see it, even myself; I thought I was going crazy, so I looked forward to go deep in the “rabbit hole” to unveil what was hidden behind the veil. My curiosity was bigger than my survival instinct, so I kept going even with fear of the unknown.
When I found the “key”, I saw what I was looking for forward. I needed to let go and liberate myself so I could get aligned with my own purpose of existence.
That’s when I noticed that part of the fear of the unknown was due to religion because it is taught to us from a young age, and even though I’m not practicing it, it was involved in my subconscious mind. I now know that we have different brain waves and that’s when “theta” is in action, the most important phase of human life, because it is always in record mode, and thankfully now I can say I’m not a religious person but a spiritual one.
It’s not easy because in that moment you don’t know what’s real and what’s not real. That was when I realised the duality was involved; the self mechanism in our being is prepared for that, because our primal instinct is made for survival and our brain tricks us to always find the comfort zone. In other words, we are animals learning how to become humans.
– Some of your art pieces have some sort of a psychedelic vibe that leads to a trip of discovering something deeper. What do you want your audience (or even your self) to look for?
I look for justice, balance, freedom and self discovery by any means necessary, so i think the psychedelic vibe is self explanatory. My mystical artwork is sent through energies and emotions to the subconscious mind, so sometimes it’s easier to understand
than to explain it, it forces our “primal brain” to be working again.
– Do you intent to drive your audience to their limits?
I intend to drive my audience into questioning what’s beyond of our limited beliefs, the curiosity of the limitless life, to show them there is more to see and to feel, and with art it’s a way to reach to that point in real life.
– How do people react at your work?
I’m actually very impressed to know people are reacting very positive to my artwork and I’ m getting more exposed than I could ever think of, and besides that I’m happy to know the concepts are getting into people’s minds.
– What’s next for you? Any plans for future projects or exhibitions?
Sadly for now I don’t have any new exhibitions planned, but I have some new concepts and future projects that I’m working on. Let’s see if I could accomplish them in the life timeline.
Find more about Henrique’s work at his YouTube channel , Facebook page and Instagram page.
Also more information about his current work and exhibitions at his personal website – henriqueleal.art
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