part 2 of interview

JB – We know that the human face captivates you.  What has portraiture meant for you as an artist?      

JV – Nothing is more fascinating and ordinary than the human face and body.  Certainly, I started with my own face, but even as I did so, I realized that I’m part of a given culture in a specific time and place.  So, I could say that portraits, or better still, self-portraits have been and continue to be the starting and ending point of an exploration of the larger subject of identity in my work.  This exploration takes place at two levels simultaneously: the formal and the conceptual.

At a formal level, my interest in the human form, transparency, and symbols has led me to search beyond the obvious, disregarding physical attributes to explore the idea of personal identity in the context of my cultural roots.  The likeness, as a concept, has its limits in a portrait.  Therefore, my self-portraits are something more emblematic than the mere representation of an individual – a sort of spiritual and emotional x-ray.  I don’t seek a “discourse” or narrative or have any political agenda.

I try to envision a human being, beyond labels of nationality, race or gender and I never forget that when I refer to “identity,” I mean from my inner center outwards, not from the external to the internal.  This concept of inside/outside is of great importance in the visual arts.

JB – There is also a sense of landscape in its most subjective meaning.  At times there is  a tendency to abstraction that is almost gestura, then at other times, something that strikes me as a sort of impressionism.  In exploring faces, are you searching for an expression of the face of everything?

JV – Yes, I guess I am.  Landscapes are invariably part of what is “outside” and I have no doubt that, in one way or another, they shape what is “inside.”  Within the context of the Caribbean, my “landscapes” are, as you point out, another face I take on, internalizing and exploring them from a geographical as well as emotional point of view.

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