In 1964, I finish my studies at the Escuela Superior de B. Artes de San Fernando [San Fernando School of Fine Arts], in calle Alcalá 13, where the work ideology tried to guide us to the hard but dreamlike task of being artists.  The practical side of these teachings started at College. I work on landscapes and portraits for a bit more than a year, then I get married and after a break I resume my activities in 1979, at the age of 39. Therefore, I am an estranged artist from my generation, like so many others who decided to face the hard task of giving birth and raise children, in my case, four of them. At present, this is my most satisfying creation. Nowadays, due to birth control measures, couples sacrifice family, especially women, because society has not yet assumed that children are meant to be part of its health and development, and therefore they are everyone’s task. I paint until 1988 and then I realize that I am constrained by the pictorial art, so I start to introduce elements that go beyond painting. I use old original photographs and all the required materials and, in 1990, when I am awarded the Ciudad de Alcalá first prize [Alcalá de Henares] for a work which can be considered a sculpture, I begin a new phase where objects prevail and boxes are characteristic. Later on, around 1995, I work with enlarged photographs so that my works are not conditioned by their original size, and in 1996, I start to develop several themes, each under a single title adding the corresponding order number, to the best of my abilities. Some of these series are: “El Universo es cuadrado” [The Universe is Square], “La Gran Guerra…” [The Great War…], or “No Me Abandones” [Don’t Abandon Me].
I turn my passion into a career, since you must assume that if you want to follow your instinct and your heart, you will most likely get a weak support, a large amount of expenses and works piled up which can be difficult to store. Therefore, you endure it as a necessary luxury, covering expenses by other means, except when the commercial art world bets on an artist because of his characteristics and circumstances and they are considered profitable for their economic and professional interests. There are exceptional cases, however, when someone bets by following his heart, such as José Manuel does. Retirements clearly show everyday how difficult is to resist, when you find yourself wondering about a name that does not appear anymore and has given up.
As a woman, in addition to the general difficulties, specific ones are added, mostly because we get engaged in human factors such as children, illnesses, personal sacrifices, etc., with a greater sense of responsibility, and all this comes at the expense of time and availability. What should be considered a virtue, reflected in the artwork, turns into an obstacle. The focus should be on the results. I could carry on talking about this topic but these problems certainly exist in all the professions, and they get worse in more competitive fields because of the limited financial resources available, as in our case. I have got this far, no-one knows what tomorrow may bring.

Pilar Lara