Real Art with Jose D Torres

Meeting with Daniel at a friend’s kitchen table in Brooklyn, with his sketchbooks, novels about Picasso, and an assortment of plant’s we get a peek as to what a graduate from the School of Visual Arts life is like. Radiohead plays throughout our conversation, we speak candidly about the future, reflect on the past, and touch on his working technique, which could be misconstrued by an onlooker as procrastination. His vibrant work is experiential, immersing yourself in his world is the only way to view it.

Malik: Tell us about Jose Daniel Torres.

Jose: My name is Jose, but everyone calls me by my middle name Daniel, I was always into drawing and sketching little things when I was younger, but I would never really pursue it. I didn’t take any art classes in high school or anything like that, then once I got to college, I guess I just wanted to figure out what I wanted to do next.

What did you do for college?

I went to a community college for two years, just taking general classes you know. Then I took an art class. It was so therapeutic for me. I just kept with it, and I was getting better and better. Then it got to a point where it was like “Wow I could really do this”, I have some type of talent in this or I have a passion in this, so I just kept doing it. 

Were there any professors that echoed this in your head?

I feel like they would never say it directly, they would see me thinking about it and trying to analyze what’s in front of me. They say I had a passion for it, but they would never say it in front of me.

Would you say they egged you on?

Yeah it was like, let’s see what you have next. One drawing leads to another idea and leads to another, it’s never ending that’s why I have such a passion for it. To me it’s like I can’t see myself not being an artist, I have to make something, or I have to read about it. I don’t feel complete if I don’t do those things. I feel like I have no other purpose in this world, and it is just to make art. Once I did those two years back in Connecticut, that’s where I from, I [am at] SVA, it’s my last year. I am just ready…

To be done with it.

Yeah! Cause I feel like especially when I went to community college and I transferred over, not all the credits transferred over, so I had to take another year. Just like damn.

That’s what I’m in right now

So, you understand, we been doing this school shit for to fucking long. You just want to do what it is you got to do already, and just have it done. Same with being an artist you kind of take a risk. I do this cause I love it, I don’t care if I have to work a 9 to 5, I don’t care what I got to do. I love it so much that I’m willing to go through all the hardships all the B.S. whatever, it doesn’t even matter how long, it doesn’t even matter if it never comes. Having a big break or having a big show I don’t care about that I just want to make art. I be in my room at home making art all the time, the walls in my room I wish you could have seen it, they used to be dirty, before I repainted it, they were dirty with paint all over them. My parents would be pissed. I’m just excited for this last year to see where other opportunities open up to me. 

People put so much pressure thinking about after they graduate, you’re not scared for that.

Not really, I feel like it’s such a big question to ask art students too. It’s like “So what are you going to do next?”, more than half of them are like ‘damn what the fuck am I going to do next’. [laughs] They trying to think of it while they answering. To be honest I don’t have much planned, I know I want to travel. There are so many people who graduate and stop making work…

Or they just did it to get the degree

I don’t ever want to be that person. This has helped me in so many ways from just being artistic, it helped mentally and physically it surrounds my whole life.

How are you able to express your mental state in your work?

I would say like in a way to me doing art is a way there are different moment. I think maybe it’s a Pisces thing, cause I’m very fucking emotional. 

Do you know your rising and all the other stuff?

No, I actually don’t. (laughs) It just moments that I feel that, I could find something that inspires me like a color, fabric, or just a [pattern]. And ill just go off of that, and just whatever it is that I am feeling, cause im always in the mood to create. I just have to make something. And then I just start building it and then I start adding things that mean something to me in my life, or something that represents what’s going on in my mind, or things that interest me ill add that into my work. And somehow it builds a story all on its own. We begin to speak about the peace that he has between us, it’s a portrait of a friend that he is working on. Through him explain his process the layers that Jose creates are ones that can be made by everyone, but the connection is more that surface level idea for him. The use of flowers in this particular piece is to show the connotations that they have in our society. Process is unique to each artist, it’s the way your mind works and dictates the outcome of the work you produce. 

How does your process mirror the human experience?

For each piece, as I go there, I begin to stylize whatever design or whatever hand movement, I’m very big on mixed media, so I would start off with a pencil as the first layer, then I add another layer of color pencil, then marker, and acrylic. In a sense this is how I am with people, I’m very layered there are several layers to a person, you can’t figure out a person from one conversation or through their Instagram. How I am with my friends and how I am with my family is completely different then how I would be with the professor. 

The process for Jose is pretty experimental we began to talk about pen and how he used to really enjoy pen and that was a medium that he felt really comfortable in.  I feel like he truly leads to work speak for itself he begins to speak about composition, what colors work with what, and while I do it I'm experimenting with all the mediums for him he doesn't really have a plan when he's going into our peace he wants the peace to be able to come to life for itself. He speaks on looking back and reworking work that he thought was finished at one point, but it wasn't. 

Can you speak to me on your sweaters?

I remember you messaged me one time about the sweaters, that blue sweater was the first. those are when I was at my Community College, I thought it was so cool, I thought I was the shit, I’m creating something new. When I made that I really thought I was Picasso or some shit. They came out really nice and I really liked it and once i got to art school and I started to learn about all these different art movements and how all these artists just experimented experimented experimented and that's how we feel about I'm going about it.  I feel like with Instagram that everything has to be so structured or it has to be this way or has to be that way. Prior to Instagram they don't care about all this hype shit, and people were free to experiment.

Do you wish that hype would die down?

Hell yeah, I can't even tell what's real or not anymore! I'm getting manipulated by this bullshit Whether I want to or not it's affecting me. Even to music it could be a Bullshit song and I'll still like it. I'm just questioning myself like “why do I even like this.” Music inspires me a lot, I’m always listening to something. 

What are you listening to right now? 

Radiohead, I never gave it a chance and I just decided to download it. I never listen to rock music and Radiohead was one of those bands that everyone talked about all the time, so I just decided to download (In Rainbows) and I fell in love with the first song. This is what I’ve been missing out on. Sometimes I just download music, don’t listen to it, and just shuffle it to have that “Oh Shit, I actually like this.” And I’m always talking about music, If there's one thing I'm comfortable talking about it's about music 'cause when I’m not drawing and not stuck on my 9:00 or five not doing some ******** I'm writing but that's every once in a blue moon when I don't feel like art is doing enough for me it's easier for me to get words on the paper than it is to make these marks. sometimes I'll get inspired by lyrics and I'll just be able to relate to that artist in that moment. To me music is like my personal diary in a way, all my music is like a very personal diary, I don’t have to write it, it’s already there I just have to find it and relisten to that song and I’m back in that moment. 

What’s a song that brings back a good memory?

The May song feels so good, I could tell you the specific moment. I had just got out of work my boy just hit me up, He's like what you doing and I'm like I just got off, he comes to pick me up, we light a J, and we just roll through the city (Stanford), it’s a big but small city. This song came on and I was so content with life, I was so happy, I’m here with my boy, listening to music, smoking a J with the windows down beautiful weather. And then there are songs like Migos “Handsome and Wealth” and I just remember that song going to a house party and I’m like 18 or 19 years old! The first time I really got introduced to music I was with my older cousin Hernán who’s ten years older than me, I would go to his house mind you he had just came to this country and he would try to play 50 cent and this was way back, and I’m just there like why are you doing this to me. I was so used to listening to Disney Channel music, and my dad wouldn’t let me play anything crazy. I tried to play DMX in the house, and he was just like “What are you listening to”, out of everybody I chose DMX. It was bad enough I was sagging my pants; I had a basketball jersey; I was trying to emulate DMX. It got to a point where my dad switched the radio to Hot 97, and he just looked at me with understanding. You would never know that music inspired me to do certain things in my work. 

How do your parents feel about you being an artist?

They are really supportive, my mom is just worried, but my dad put pressure on me to be an artist, ever since I was little. Just the other day he pulled out a Naruto drawing I did when I was in seventh grade. He kept it, and it just shows that he believes in me, I wish I believed in myself that much. My mom she’s just thinking about after, and there are millions of ways to make money, and I can’t see myself doing anything else. She just wants me to figure life out but that’s all parents. They just say if you got a direction just stay in that direction. 

What’s this Picasso book you have here?

This is just something that I’m reading right now. Ive been trying to read a lot more. Reading is so beneficial I recently finish a book called “Hunger” by Knut Hamsum. It took me so long to finish it. What I really appreciated was the use of sensory words. Life is truly unexpected; anything can happen at any moment. With this Picaso book, it’s crazy to see his progression and it inspires me to find my own voice. 

How would you say you relate to Picasso?

I feel like his way of thinking was that his art mattered, way before he got famous. That’s the stage I am in right now, I feel like this is my purpose. He had so much hardship from sleeping on peoples couches to friends dying. That’s what I really like about art, it’s a little bit like the lottery but just gambling with your life. You it’s just ya life, nothing big [laughs] I get excited making art, because I don’t know the reaction people would have to it. 

What do you have coming up?

Im going to Columbia in December (Before Covid) and staying there for a month. The last time I was there I had to do all the touristy stuff, see family and all of that. This one I want to make as much art as possible. I’m from there I only lived there until I was two and then we moved to Connecticut and been there ever since. I’m ready to just sit down and let my environment speak to me, because Colombia is so beautiful. It was probably the same for him (Picaso) theres a reason why he left Spain to go to Paris, that’s where he felt inspired and there where it was all poppin’, and he got to meet all these different artist that he was able to feed off of. I feel like everyone is original and you have to find the way you approach it. 

How do you get in the Mind Set to approach a new piece?

It honestly starts the day before. I just sit and think about it, maybe others will think that im thinking about it to much, but im just thinking about the steps that I have to make. But once I put it on the canvas it all might change, but that preparation time really gives the approach, and dictates how I will spend my time on it. 

To regular people this might sound like procrastination.

Exactly, my friend Carly visited me and she’s like “You’re not doing anything.” It may look like I’m just on my phone, but I’m thinking about it, I’m really thinking about it! The best feeling is when you’re done with a painting. It just feels like you had all this built up energy and this is how I was able to release it, into something tangible, almost like a weight being lifted off of your shoulders.  

How have you been able to fit your other love, Soccer, into your life?

Before art, Soccer was such an important role. But now that I’m able to reflect, that was like making art but through my body. There are different ways that you can shoot the ball, dribble, or run to me stylistically that’s what I like about sports, you are all doing the same thing but just slightly different than the other person. I wish that I could put more of that physicality into my art, maybe not in small pieces but in a large piece you can get a big feeling, and it just reminds me of moving and doing something physical. I want people to see the intentionality of what I am doing. My brother plays soccer now, and my dad puts more pressure on him. I wonder if the roles were reversed if he would put pressure on me with the art and laid back with the sports, how would that change. It’s one thing to do something because you’re really good, and another to do it because you really love it, and he’s a shy kid, the complete opposite of me. 

What has college done for you?

I really enjoy being at school, we each get our own studio. Were in this big building and there are hundreds of artists all just trying to make art. And I put my competitiveness from soccer into my art. I have a studio mate, and we would bounce off of each other’s energy and try to one up each other every time we made something. Almost like (Georges) Braque and Picasso it was a competitive but friendly thing. We would be there until 3 AM eating, painting, going outside to get air because you can feel like you’re trapped in a cage, you’ve been in there for hours on end and you’re just in there trying to make art or not even making art because you’re not in the mood to do that, just waiting for inspiration to hit, and then the passion comes in and you just have to work it out in my head. College has given me those memories of being in a space with my close friend. 

How do you feel tangibility plays a role in the world we live in that is, so screen based?

I feel like Instagram is awesome, that you’re able to put your work out there for the whole world, but you’re never going to get that experience like if you were to go to someone’s studio or visit a museum, you could see it right in your face. The space around it, for instance in a museum when a painting is hanged it is on these white walls, but if you were to see it in studio you get the whole experience of how that artist is working, a broken light, brick walls, that painting becomes a part of the environment and vice versa. That’s something that I would like to put in my work, I want my process to be shown in the art, sometimes I’ll leave remnants of thoughts on the canvas.