We recently connected with Alec Dempster and have shared our conversation below.
Alec , appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
It would be impossible for me to determine the most meaningful project I have worked on. I try to undertake each project with renewed enthusiasm and curiosity. Projects acquire meaning over time. Some more than others and i am also influenced by which projects other people find meaningful . For the past few years I have worked mostly as an illustrator and there is always a lot of meaning inherent to the projects I am given the challenge of visualizing. Some collaborations are more meaningful and this is usually when it is an ongoing partnership. For example, I have created images for three projects by pianist David Virelles and a fourth one is in the works. Because he is such a creative musician constantly pushing the boundaries of his own practice it encourages me to follow suite. Some projects acquire meaning over time. For example, in 2006 I did a series of thirty portraits of musicians, singers and dancers whom I began interviewing in 1999 in rural Veracruz. The goal was to publish a book of the images and words but this took about twenty years to materialize. I meant a lot to me to finally present the book in the region where they reside. We were able to give the participants copies and we gave books to the families of the ones who passed away before it was published. It goes without saying that this was also a collaborative project. I have to thank poet and scholar Raúl Eduardo González who helped me to revise all the interviews. We have worked on many projects together as well as making music.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I began drawing at an early age and did some printmaking in art classes as a child. My enthusiasm was supported at home as well as at the high school I attended in Toronto which had a good art department. The best thing about it was the fourth floor. An enormous room surrounded by windows with a high ceiling and completely devoted to life drawing. My auntie Honey Dempster was a brilliant portrait painter and when my paternal grandfather retired he painted landscapes wherever he went. My mother has also become a prolific painter in retirement. Looking back, two things seemed to have pushed me towards printmaking and art in general. A discarded book from the public library I was gifted of the work of Antonio Frasconi called ‘Against the Grain’ and the first time I returned to Mexico I saw an exhibition of prints by contemporaries of Rufino Tamayo. I must also mention Carlos Pellicer López, the Mexican painter and family who also happens to be my godfather. He was influential in my returning to Mexico more than twenty five years ago. Music has also been part of my life and I have at times juggled both visual art and music making. Establishing myself in Mexico in 1997 really marks the beginning of my professional career. I moved around a bit before settling in Xalapa, Veracruz for ten years. It is there that I did the work I am best known for which combines documentation of folklore, printmaking and performance of traditional music called son jarocho. I also did quite a lot of painting back then. In 2009 I moved back to Toronto for a few years where I devoted more time to music with my group ‘Café Con Pan’ but also began to write and work more as an illustrator. I have continued along the illustration path since moving to Mexico City six years ago. This is where I have finally been able to set up my own printmaking studio and collaborate on a diversity of illustration projects with little space in between to do personal projects. It is something I do not lament at all. I thrive on the challenges that each new collaboration entails.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of my creative journey has been the opportunity to collaborate with poets and musicians. I have also gained immense joy bridging a variety of disciplines in my own work. During the past twenty years I have worked primarily as an illustrator of books but also creating album art and educational tools. The challenge of numerous projects with poets, musicians and editors has given me access worlds I would never had encountered. For example, books of poetry in me’phaa by Hubert Matiuwaa , who resides in the mountains of Guerrero or a series of albums by cutting edge Cuban pianist David Virelles. Even thought there are moments of frustration and doubt, the process of dialogue through the creation of sketches until a satisfactory image or images are arrived is something I enjoy immensely. In terms of bridging disciplines, I have a profound interest in music, oral history and popular literature which I have managed to condense into book projects as well as my educational ‘lotería’ games. This has been very satisfying.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
The foremost goal along the way has been to embark on every new project with a desire not to repeat myself and in spite of deadlines and other pressures not produce something that I am not completely confident in. Admittedly, over the years I have acquired a technical and aesthetic vocabulary but there is always room for even a small innovation. For example, I have just finished creating the capital letters for an alphabet on the theme of typography and the printing arts. As a series, the prints are an exploration of the variety of textures that can be carved into the linoleum with each image containing something a little bit different. I am not sure what I have discovered but it will inform any future prints I make. As an illustrator there is also an urge to make any commission as original as possible while still being true to the particular topic entrusted to me. Sometimes, that requires trying a new medium. For example, for the three album covers I have done for David Virelles I have used three different printmaking techniques ( woodblock, linoleum and drypoint) Fortunately, I have almost always been given quite a free reign as an illustrator.
Contact Info:
- Website: [email protected]
- Instagram: alecdempsterart
- Facebook: alecdempsterart
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alecdempster