The Q&A: Miguel Pang Ly
Q: Originally from Cambodia and China, what are some of your favorite things about living and working in Barcelona?
A: Both my parents are refugees from Cambodia and China. I was born in Barcelona, the city where I live now. It’s a comfortable city, a place where you have everything you could possibly need. But I like to travel to other places from time to time. It changes my routine and it’s a way of refreshing the look of my art, and of slowing things down.
Q: Do you keep a sketchbook?
A: I keep a sketchbook as an intimate place where I can deposit my thoughts as they come, doodle without any prejudice and explore without any predeteremined objective. It’s a nice backup to my studio practice—also something to take with me when I go drawing on location (which I often do).
A: What is the balance between art you create on paper versus in the computer?
A: I prefer working directly with my materials (watercolor, ink and other manual media) because it seems to me the most direct way to materialize what’s on my mind.
Q: What is the most important item in your studio?
A: The most important item in my studio are the watercolour box and my brushes.
Q: How do you know when the art is finished?
A: I usually visualize the illustrations in my mind before drawing them, and although sometimes I may not get the whole picture, I know the sensation I want to express. Knowing that the art is finished is more like a feeling that all the pieces of a puzzle have fallen into place.
Q: What was your favorite book as a child?
A: My favorite book as a child is Le Petit Nicholas (The Chronicles of Little Nicholas) by Sempé.
Q: What is the best book you’ve recently read?
A: The best book I´ve recently read is The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov.
Q: If you had to choose one medium to work in for an entire year, eliminating all others, what medium would you choose?
A: Ink.
Q: What elements of daily life exert the most influence on your work practice?
A: Walking or changing my place of work. Doing anything that is unrelated to work—living is essential to growth as an artist. For me life has to be intermingled with art.
Q: What was [Thunderbolt} the painting or drawing or film or otherwise that most affected your approach to art?
A: The Cave of Forgotten dreams, a film by Werner Herzog that explores the Chauvet cave paintings, in France, from around 32,000 years ago. It’s surprising to imagine, as Herzog does in his film, the stories that were told with these paintings and how much of the symbology that appears in these caves are still relevant today. They remain as a mystery, but are for me the starting point of storytelling and illustration.
Q: Who was the teacher or mentor or visiting artist who most influenced you early in your training or career?
A: The most influential teachers I´ve had are Pep Montserrat and Arnal Ballester, illustrators and teachers of the Massana school of Barcelona, with whom I had the luck to study.
Q: What would be your last supper?
A: Some Cambodian dish made by my mum.
I´m Miguel Pang Ly, an illustrator born in Barcelona of Cambodian and Chinese parents. My main interest is to explore the depths of a story & the unconscious through the illustrations. Some of clients are SM, A buen paso, Windsor&Newton, Blind books, Mov Palavers. Prizes include: American illustration (2015, 2013), Latin American Illustracion (2016, 2015, 2013) Bologna Children´s Book Fair (2014), Premio Nazionale delle Arti 2012 per il design della comunicazione, Junceda Prize (2016).
Website: http://www.miguelpang.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miguelpangly/
