‘Nature

I have always been inclined to live in a place that is surrounded for the most part by nature instead of considering any large dense city. The sun, the palm trees, the colors, the beach of Miami have been my home since 1999. To discover the rising sun in the morning horizon, to contemplate the quiet or turbulent sea waves at any time of the day, or the ubiquitous swaying palm trees, or to get lost in the dreamy colors of the city’s sunsets, not only inspires me but keeps me thankful at all times.

There is another place that feeds my soul, Cali-Colombia, the city where I was born and lived my childhood. A city that lies next to an enormous cordillera, full of trees and rivers, birds and flowers; an idyllic place for a heart that flees from the seasons and simply loves the hot, constant, and bare tropical weather. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic I ended up staying for a long period of time in Cali which led to the finding of that beautiful insect that marked the beginning of Dots and Lines World. Thankful.

Connection

To have lived in Colombia, Germany, Italy, and Miami, to have studied Business Management, Interior Design, and Photography, to have shared with so many cultures in a profound way, to travel on a regular basis to the Middle East, Europe and throughout the Americas, have led me to connect with fantastic people over time. To learn about their life stories, dreams, and worlds, has always been a major source of inspiration.

In the creation of Dots and Lines World, I envision a ‘dot’ as a person, and a ‘line’ as a story, an experience, an event, or a dream. Every person has countless stories, that make them who they are, inspire them, and lead them to become a better version of themselves. Some of these stories connect each of us with one another, but also connect us to ourselves, to our past, our future, and make us who we are. We are all connected, with everyone, with everything.

Repetition

I love art. To create. To feel inspired. To live full of passion. Happy. To laugh out loud. Once I went to a theatre play, a comedy that made me laugh so much that I went back to watch it again. Each time I would bring more people and I would repeat all the laughter, I knew beforehand what was going to happen so I would start laughing in advance and people would watch me. I went seven times to watch the same theatre play. Repetition. When I hear a song that I like I set it to repeat itself and I just listen to the same song for days or weeks until I learn it and then I keep repeating it; the same happens to me in terms of restaurants, activities, hangout spots, etc. I think it has to do with Family, the familiarity that is developed with repetition. I come from a warm, loving, respectful, humane, and present family.

My first drawings/paintings as a teenager, always involved repetition. I would repeat all these abstract tiny figures and would paint each of them very close to the other and at the end there would be a larger abstract painting formed by hundreds of tiny figures. It is actually the same way I currently repeat thousands of dots and lines as I am creating Dots and Lines World.

Meditation

To free ourselves from all mental noises, to focus on one thought, to be present, to have all our energy directed to one single purpose, is exactly what happens when I am working on any piece. I get fully immersed in the world of Dots and Lines and I stayed there until the piece starts taking shape and then I remain there in that deep meditation energized by my eagerness to see the piece’s development.

To observe the finished piece is another kind of meditation, one that makes my psyche fly and flow through all the universes, paths, forms, and figures that manifest themselves in that moment of observation. Each piece makes me lose track of time, both when making it or when staring at it at the end. I lose myself there, I stay there, I find myself there, I rest there, I meditate there.

The Atom, the Universe, and the Secret

By looking at the conformation of all worlds, from the atomic one through the Universe itself, their representations are made of dots and lines. Dots and lines are timeless, they are basic, solid, strong shapes that transcend history because of their simplicity. In Dots and Lines World our imagination is set free when observing a piece.

 
Dots and Lines World carries also a language that is embedded in each piece. As a teenager I enjoyed making up alphabets which I would use to write secret letters; they are nowadays incomprehensible texts because there was no formula to the alphabet other than the substitute figurine for each letter. Dots and Lines World language does have a formula, a mathematical one, but it’s a secret.

‘Together we are infinite’

This is the motto of Dots and Lines World. It refers to how a dot or a line are not more than a simple dot or a line on their own, however when combined many of them together as in any of my compositions they form an infinite world of interpretations. The same way, we as individuals on our own, are limited to our own talent but when joined together with more people, other talents, we can pursue bigger actions and inspire more hearts.

-Pipe Yanguas