Jose Manuel Peñalver Leon (España)

I live half in love with my environment and all that surrounds me and with

 my job (more so in those moments when things are going better), I describe this

 sensations as a kind of bohemianism, sometimes calm, sometimes impassioned.

I finish and sign a picture when it gives me a sensation that I consider

important, whether for its beauty or for its strangeness.

I see Murcia as a city of yellow lights and I feel this city as I 

suppose the first bohemians felt it. The figure of the artist, the 

gallery owner, the muse and the art critic, the collector and the 

journalist all exist, because I have lived them all. I am astonished by what remains of the agricultural lands, the light, the university 

building, the bookshops, the Malecón, the "bando", the Rex (cinema), the 

"Zig-Zag", the multiplexes and all that impressive look of electric 

energy when going down the motorway along the mountain pass by the 

castle and so on, so torth.

I am an artist because I can remember painting {making art} since I was

5. I earn my living teaching in my art studio and selling pictures. I 

aspire to leave pictures which help people to fall in love with life for 

its beauty, strangeness or general interest. I think that a good artist 

is as important to society as an artesan furniture-maker, or a good 

cook, when they refine their work to the point where it becomes a 

passion, I suppose that the same happens in all professions, that a 

refined sensitivity becomes a pleasure from which transcendent 

sensations emanate that make life worthwhile. I want my pictures

be worthy, like a good wine, a good perfume or a good film, and I try to

sell every picture when I feel that I would personally want to buy it out of its 

interest to me. To this extent I feel honest with my job.

I love computing, and I write computer programs in Basic with Darkbasic 

and Div, I like popular cinema, silent film, the music of Philip Glass, 

Wim Mertens, Nyman, John Cage and Mozart (the first three in that 

order). I love documentaries on astronomy, my favourite series was 

"Cosmos". I am fan of Doom, Tomb Raider, Creatures 1,2 and 3, and the 

artificial life simulators, a good few with which I am familiar can be 

found for free on the Internet. I am interested in three-dimensional 

world simulations, and I think that we are living through a revolution in 

terms of Information Technology expression. There are television 

programmes that I consider to be real works of art (the latest American 

McGee’s Alice, for example) and I think we are not taking full advantage 

of the expressive possibilities of this medium.

In my opinion, nobody is disgraceful or not worthwhile. I feel that 

if I had infinite time, I would like to get to know everybody.

I consider people to be a luxury, and often everybody seems to me quite 

glamorous. The way things work fascinates me, how friendship works, and 

how sometimes love exists and sometimes it does not; I think that if we

 don’t lose our heads and spoil things, we could reach agreements to 

improve as a species. I aspire to learn how to help other people, and I 

will spend my life trying to learn how to live and let live.

I have faith in the existence of art, because I know that expression is

important to quality of life (people pay millions for a flat with sea 

views, or for a good suit, and I am sure that it is possible to acutely 

appreciate the difference). I believe that we leave an imprint on all 

man-made object and that this forms a legible human code {A bed 

carefully shaped, with well chosen wood, which is treated well, prepared 

for relaxation, will make this relaxation much more worthwhile}. If 

these efforts reach an impassioned level {a transcendent level} and the

object has been refined in its treatment, we will feel this expression and

 it  becomes an objet d'art. It occurs to me now that every action is 

etched into material in a precise way.

One of the strangest things I have found lately is the curious

similarity between some of the principles of quantum physics and 

theories of perception applied to art.

Sometimes, in works of art, you find just by chance previously unknown 

sensations, and you learn something new. In fact, one of the reasons why I

 like art so much is to discover new sensations.

I have mainly been taught art by masters, friends, teachers, 

conversations, books, films, by viewing a lot of works of art and 

paintings, and by daubing on many canvases. I am fully committed to the 

process of learning, constantly evolving and seeing possibilities. I 

know that if I can, I will dedicate my entire life to learning this 

trade and this vocation.