The art of
Mateo
Dineen
Mateo Dineen, a homegrown artist from San Francisco, nowadays
based in Berlin, paints with panache. His little monsters come to
life and you almost want to meet them. Mateo creates his artwork by
starting off with a sketch on paper inspired by wandering around on
flea markets and finding unusuals objects that he integrates in his
work. Together with his co-creator Johan Potma (a Dutch artist also
based in Berlin) he started Zozoville Gallery where they exhibit all
their cute personified monsters.
The art of Mateo Dineen is comical and has some kind of absurdism in itself, but when you really focus on the art you can almost
identify yourself with it, as if they are reproductions of real life.
The art makes you laugh, evokes emotions and you feel the energy.
Also it invites to investigate the fantasy world of Mateo Dineen. Is
it fantasy or are these cute creatures actual illustrations of modern
society or even the thoughts and inside world of Mateo Dineen?
Time for an in depth interview with this inspiring artist!
Blow me © Mateo Dineen
43
How do you spend your working day? As I read you
are not a morning type of person?
No, I am not a morning person. But since my son
was born 2 years ago, I’ve been forced to rise with the
sun/son. Waking earlier is still kinda tough at times,
but I’m getting used to it.
My working day looks different almost every day.
At the moment I’m about to open up a new gallery in
Berlin, so I’ve been spending almost all of my free time
there doing renovations and planning the grand opening party. After that gallery is up and running, I hope
to get back to painting some monsters.
How come you started painting monsters? Is this to
escape reality or an undefined urge to reproduce day
to day life from a different angle easier for your audience to relate to?
As a kid I recall thinking it was more fun to draw
monsters because I didn’t have anyone telling me “You
drew it wrong”. If it was 100% my own creation, then
it was 100% right. It was liberating.
Then as I got older and honed my abilities, I decided
to explore the world of my monsters through the perspective of my adult life. This naturally led to monsters
dealing with the mundane bits of life that we all deal
with. At first I was worried that using monsters in my
art might alienate people from it, but thankfully it
seems there are a number of weird folks out there who,
like me, appreciate a monster or two in their artwork.
What’s your message underneath? If there is any ...
I don’t have a manifesto or an over-arching message that I’m trying to spread. But if there was I suppose it would be something like, “Don’t loose that sense of wonder”. The world is full of mysteries and
weirdness, there’s no excuse to be jaded about life.
Can you describe how your paintings come to life?
Most of my paintings start out as a sketch. When I
draw, I often try to let go of conscious control of where the line is going. I try to turn off judgement and I’ll
just let it flow and watch what comes. Some of my best
44
ideas happen this way. After doing a bit of that, I’ll
start controlling the line a bit more and explore various themes that are on my mind. I’ll take some of the
shapes that I discovered during the free-flowing sketching and try to incorporate it into something that
makes a bit more sense.
I have pages and pages of sketches done this way.
I review my sketches, new and old, and look for images
and characters that are compelling. Often I’ll find wonderful little sketches that I barely remember making,
and probably didn’t even think too much about at the
time. Looking at older pages of sketches is kinda like
seeing the drawings for the first time, and that way I’m
better able to assess if they “work” or not.
As I read, you love flea markets and are a fan of antiques. How does this define your work and how do
you integrate these objects in your work?
Yes, I’m a big fan of going through flea markets in
search of interesting old objects to put in my gallery,
and of course I’m always on the lookout for items that
could serve as the surface for my next painting. Box
lids, cabinet doors, and vintage frames are all things
that can become the basis for a new painting.
Who was and/or is your biggest inspiration? Has
this changed over the years and evolved your work?
As a kid I was greatly influenced by the children’s
book illustrator Shel Silverstein. I always loved his
poems and drawings. During art school I remember
seeing the work of Joe Sorren and being very impressed.
There are countless other artists, visual and otherwise, who continue to inspire. Inspiration is all around.
It’s just a question of tapping into that sense of wonder.
You work together with Dutch artist John Potma and
together have Zozoville Gallery. As you have the same
art style, is it not difficult to work together? And how
did you come up with the name Zozoville?
Johan and I are constantly amazed by the parallels
that we see in our lives. Our artwork was similar even
before we met, and it evolved to be even more similar
Out of Body Experience © Mateo Dineen
after sharing a studio and gallery. We often arrive
at the same conclusions and ideas, even when we
haven’t been discussing these things directly. It’s
sometimes even a bit spooky. We joke sometimes
that we’re brothers from another mother. And like
brothers we sometimes don’t see eye to eye. But we
have a strong friendship and a healthy business
partnership, and we’ve always been able to work
through our differences.
The name Zozoville was born one afternoon in
a cafe. We took turns pulling random words out of
a paper bag and slammed them together to make
new words. Zozoville was one of those words and
I think it fits our world very well. It has come to
represent the village where our monsters live.
How do you see the future? Do you have any specific goals or any kind of vision/mission with
your artwork?
I rely mainly on tarot cards and fortune cookies
in order to have a clear sense of what will happen
in the future. I’m drawn to the incredible accuracy
of these methods. Otherwise I take each day as it
comes.
Why did you chose Berlin as your home base for
creating your art. Is is easier to become an artist
there or maybe more inspiring?
Berlin sort of chose me. I met a German girl in
San Francisco, fell in love, and followed her to the
other side of the world. She wanted to live in Berlin
and I said, ok. As luck would have it, I did indeed
find it to be a great place to make art. The cost of
living was cheap, which is crucial for artists trying
to get a start. The people in the city were inspiring,
and also quite receptive to my art. So after a fairly
short time I felt very much at home here.
In closing, ever planning on starting an exhibition or even gallery in Amsterdam?
No plans to start a gallery there, but who knows!
But I’m always open to having an exhibition in the
great city of Amsterdam!
Work in Progress © Mateo Dineen
Plein Air Bear © Mateo Dineen