Artist Interview:
Romson Regarde Bustillo
How did COVID-19 change, influence, or impact your work for this project?
The severity of COVID-19 and that it is a global epidemic was sinking in as I completed the piece “Together” which, by chance, was on the theme of “Fight and Treat Disease.” I was reminded of the very first humans who did not accept suffering or death resulting from a particular illness or injury as a foregone conclusion. Though near finished with this piece, I organically began to incorporate collage strips of “processing”—visual cues and signals related to the idea of gathering and working through incomplete evolving information to find solutions while also navigating a degree of fear.
Artist in Studio, 2018
Photo: James Harnois
What is inspiring you and your artistic practice at this moment?
A strong belief in our individual and collective ability to help move the human experience to a place befitting our potential intelligence and our capacity for compassion are things that bring me time and time again to the study and making of things. To perhaps make something that would contribute to that.
Title: Khadija of Rainier Valley
Media: Collagraph, 2018
Photo: Art and Soul Photography
Out of the four themes key to the foundation’s work, is there a theme that resonates the most with you and your art?
There’s a need for a realignment of opportunity distribution that ties in with these efforts that resonate with me. It’s doubtful if I would be here, doing what I do, if a line of ancestors had not taken on versions of these ideas in some form or another. My particular experience is that others, outside my immediate circle, also took the time to invest in my person—in my potential. That these four themes are best to approach as a collective “we” resonates with me. Related to this, the racial and economic reckoning we are going through here in the States as well as globally certainly permeates my work. As an interdisciplinary artist, the idea that good outcomes result from multiple contributions is foundational.
Title: Self Portrait
Media: Collagraph, 2018
Photo: Art and Soul Photography
What do you hope people experience in viewing your artwork?
Optimism. That there are paths we can choose.
Title: Spatial,
Location: Bali Purnati Residency, Bali, Indonesia, 2020
Photo: Romson Regarde Bustillo
Learn more about Romson and the other Artists featured in the exhibit.
