We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful MUCA. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with MUCA below.

Hi MUCA, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

On April 13, 2021, I had open heart surgery at the age of 37 due to a genetic heart condition called Loeys-Dietz Syndrome. While recovering from surgery, I created a series called 100 Hearts. Each day I created a different digital heart using manipulated photos as textures and mapping them to a 3D heart object. Each heart tells the story of an emotion or feeling I was experiencing on that given day and this project was the catalyst that launched my art career. It gave me the confidence to put myself out in the world by sharing such a raw experience with others.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a digital artist who uses advanced 3D modeling software to create complex imagery that deals with issues of obfuscation and being seen. My work is the translation of an emotional state, narrative or architectural space and is produced in a series. By creating virtual spaces and objects, I have complete control of an environment and can manipulate it in precise ways to tell a visual story. These three dimensional spaces are then collapsed (rendered) into a two dimensional output, blurring the boundary between real and digital.

I was trained as an architect and worked as an architectural visualization specialist for over 12 years. My art takes cues from the way pre-construction architectural spaces are shown. Through a series of drawings and visualizations, every detail of a project is shown as a digital twin before it’s built. The drawings and renderings aren’t the built work and the built work isn’t the imagery but there is a symbiotic relationship between the two and a deep understanding of the design when viewing everything as a collective whole. In the same way, the work I produce is done in a series (100 Hearts, J Series, Release Emotions, ICONS) where the end products reference each other and refer back to the conceptual whole. This conceptual whole is all housed under a macro environmental heading called the MUCAMEGAVERSE. This is a virtual memory palace, filled with rooms, hallways, objects and anything else that would exist in the real world. From these spaces, I create 2D art outputs that blur the boundary between digital and physical.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I’m all for NFTSs or any form of technology that pushes the boundaries of art and makes it more accessible to a wider, more diverse audience. This is the first time that digital art had a way of breaking into the mainstream, which I found to be exhilarating. There are a lot of negative aspects to NFTs but I find the blockchain underpinning, the community building and open accessibility to new ways of collecting all to be interesting.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

One example of my resilience that is probably common across all artists is dealing with constant rejection. You need to have a thick skin to be in this profession. I’m constantly applying to exhibitions, grants and residencies and I’m constantly getting rejected (some come through though!) but that’s fine and part of the process. Each time I apply to something, I learn something new about myself and my work. I didn’t go to art school, so learning the ropes has been a self taught endeavor. Also, when explaining my work to people, there is a lot of technological complexity that goes on behind the scenes and I’m always looking for ways to show or explain the work in a palatable manner.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mucamucamuca.com
• Instagram: @mucadeluca

Image Credits
For the artist photo please put this in the credit line – Photo by Redens Desrosiers @pharaohrex.