Artist Spotlight: LEMUS (José Lemus)
LEMUS (Jose Lemus) is a draftsman, interdisciplinary artist and educator. He channels his experiences and creativity into deep and surreal pieces of art that have been exhibited in California and Philadelphia. LEMUS is also invested in the Latinx community in South Philadelphia as an art facilitator.
How do your background and heritage influence the themes and feelings that you explore in your art?
I think it sort of gives me a ground to be able to explore the art, especially the way I create it in the moment. I sort of connect with my own Latin roots, which is Mexican roots. So I look at a lot of that pre-Hispanic imagery...I'm trying to create work that still does a continuous line of how the art of my ancestors would have been continuing without the interruption of the conquest of the place.
LEMUS planning out a piece.
What is your ideation process when you begin a new piece?
A lot of it is with material experimentation. I'm a draftsman, so my work is done via drawing...Right now, I'm working with Grana cochinilla, cochineal in English. It’s a little insect that has been used for millennia, especially in Mexico. But I'm using it as a medium to draw...I take sort of inspiration for that and and creating my work.
How do you decide what symbols to use and what they represent?
I think I leave it a lot to interpretation...In the moment of creation, I see a shape or figure in a way that represents a symbol, and that that would be my own take...When I present the works to the public then they visually see something there personally...They bend themselves from an idea and symbol for themselves.
Which artists, art movements, or cultural traditions inspire your art?
One of the key things that I still use is using the styles of art like Mannerism and Surrealism, which have always been part of my practice. I continue using is the idea of using the human figure in a weird way, that it could be molded in a weird way to express an idea.
You work both as a community-based artist and in studio practice. How do these two different modes affect each other?
I do have a community practice with the Latino community here in South Philly...Within my own personal work, it's a lot more I would say darker in tone and not very easy to digest...It still feeds into my creative process. Whatever I've learned either here at MoA or my previous job working with the community and then analyze it and then sort of filter it into my creative practice.
What do you hope viewers take away when they see your work, and is there a particular message you try to invoke?
I always try to do is create outside this box of being stereotyped...I'm trying to push that idea of anyone that's a creative to break that mold of being stereotyped or created within the stereotype system...You have freedom to express further beyond a stereotype of art. Art doesn't have a limit just because of one group or the other. It should be free with whatever you want to do.
“You have freedom to express further beyond a stereotype of art. Art doesn’t have a limit just because of one group or the other. It should be free with whatever you want to do.”
What is awe-inspiring to you?
I think the freedom to create. I think not having limits, because once you create freely, ideas flow better...That's big, you know, and every day it's just an enlightenment and a learn.