The Jester Art Expo – October with Lucia Moreno

Last week we kicked off The Jester Art Expo, a monthly art exposition in our book-sharing spot in Aurora.

The first invited artist was Lucia Moreno (@l_m_spiegelberg), a 22-year-old MOA student from Madrid. Her beautiful paintings will be exposed until the end of October. Last week, Moreno came to the first “Lunch with the artist”, to tell us about her and her art, and chat with some new-found fans. Here is what she told us:  

Tell us a bit about yourself and your artistry. When did you start painting big? 

My father is a painter, and since I was a child, I have been going to art school. During the first lockdown of Covid I decided to start painting in big canvases. My paintings are conceptual and very visual, I like to represent random stuff that goes on in my mind.  

What about your creative process? 

I come up with ideas from my imagination, I usually have an image of what I want to paint. Then I force myself to make some sketches even though I don’t like them, but it’s needed to paint in big format. Usually once I start painting it changes a lot from the initial idea.

Big paintings take me around 4 or 5 months, even though there are periods when I don’t do anything and others when I am locked up in my room for three days straight to paint.  

What inspires you? 

It is something that I trained a lot; I was always paint things from my imagination. There are periods where I paint less because I don’t have inspiration, but I try to not get frustrated about it and do other stuff.  

Alfredo Montaña is a Spanish artist that paints these weird portraits that I find very inspiring. I also use Twitter to find random inspiration!

Do you make series of paintings? And have you ever done an exhibit before? 

Yes, I do series. I am trying to do collections because at times I think my paintings are super random and trying to give them some coherence. This is my fourth exhibition! I find them quite stressful but here I am again hahaha. 

How do you balance painting with your student life? 

I am a huge procrastinator. I usually start painting and then I study last minute. It can be quite a toxic relationship. As I grew up, I became more chaotic, unfortunately. 

Do you consider being a full-time artist? 

When I was a teenager I really wanted to be a painter, but I was conflicted with the idea of selling my art, I just wanted to paint for myself.

I then decided to study Biology, and now I am here in Organic Agriculture, which might not give me so much money anyway… Maybe at the end I will just dedicate my time to my art, who knows? 

Lastly, do you sell any of your art? How can our readers get one of your paintings in their hands?? 

Yes, you can find me on Instagram (@l_m_spiegelberg). I sell the big paintings and more affordable prints of them. Hit me up!