My paintings show a passion to tell stories. My visual experience is based on experiences in comics, cartoons and caricatures.

My interest for motion and plasticity often leads me to paint subjects that include characters. It is stimulating to see how my early comic book heroes can now translate emotions in their transformations as life-sized characters in big paintings.

I also like to work on landscape paintings. In that way, my plein air watercolors give me an opportunity to stay in touch with nature. They are explorations of light and nature and  serve as studies for larger-scale paintings.

About Don Diego

During childhood, I was given the best gift: a paper and a pencil.

Just enough to begin my artistic adventure!

I am an artist of Argentine background and currently residing in Quebec. My first connection with art began through the creation of comic strips. Matching image with text is something that I enjoyed doing since early childhood, and this desire to tell stories through image sequences brought me to Cinar, an audiovisual company. I joined a team whose purpose was to create cartoon animated series. The task was hand-drawn, without all the modern technological tools. In the same period, I became interested in street caricature art. Amplifying the trait in order to portray individualized human uniqueness allowed me to improve my drawing skills. But I felt the need to learn historical and theoretical grounds to bring more consistency to my artistic practice.I renrolled at Concordia University where I obtained a BA in Fine Arts. Through this new insight and solid practice, I felt ready to undertake the creation of my own stories with images. Since then, I have shown my work in several exhibiting centers.

My inspirations

Ironically, my biggest motivation to become an artist was all the bullying that I suffered from childhood. The shame stored an enormous energy ball that transformed into the fuel for my creation.  Before the combination of bullying and admiration of my talent,  I realized I had nothing to lose with my creation, and the road to expression was free of complexes. There was a fun and avenging quality in art.  As I found refuge there,  the desire to be original was made manifest.  

I have always liked to draw from a young age. But a real inspiration came from a year during adolescence in my country of origin Argentina. The attendance of a college during a year provided a stimulating context. An intriguing course aroused my curiosity about literature. The discovery of this hidden treasure was complemented with my amazement at my uncle's vast culture. I also met a classmate whose artistic talent blew me away.

My exotic year became a fantastical experience. The fellow student came from a family of artists. I was amazed by the whole enchanted world stemming from his imagination, which decorated the walls of the same school I was attending. His murals were a continuity of his popular comic book characters.

There was a contrast between the enthralling stay in Argentina and my general humor. Although  I was shy and having sad moments, this was also the time where I had a life experience: In the city of Buenos Aires I was attending incredible periodic outdoor festive gatherings. This dream feeling was superimposed by the admiration of my schoolmate's prodigy. I became filled with the eagerness to recreate the same experience through my art.

However I then experienced a period of uncertainty with the refusal of cartoon programs.These disappointments on top of other stressful moments overwhelmed me. And for a while, I questioned my talent as an artist. 

Fortunately, my pathway at University took a happy turn when I met a Chinese student. It turns out she lived in my neighborhood.  she shared an apartment with her mother who also had the reputation of being a professional artist. These neighbors played a crucial role in my artistic career and in my skill development. They had a strong academic background, which they revealed through their textbooks and their plaster sculptures. Their motto was the development of the sens of observation. I learned that if my goal was to follow the steps of old masters, I should start having a disciplined practice.

In that way, the mother invited me to join her for several outdoor watercolor sessions. I benefited from her comments on paintings of landscapes, still lives, as well as on portraits and live model drawings.

I then completed my professional training by following the Fine Arts program at Concordia University. At the same time, I experienced street caricature to challenge my shyness. The profession was fabulous.  Direct interaction with people flourished in my self-esteem and in my personal confidence.

I have also overcome a lot my shyness and frustrations through literary expression and reading :  keeping a journal, writing art projects, preparing exhibitions and preparing course material. There are no words to describe how much freedom this gave me !

My story

DIEGO MORALES

Lives and works in Montréal

BIOGRAPHY

b. 1978

EDUCATION \ RECOGNITION

2019, Teacher at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts

2015, Teacher at la Maison des arts de Laval

2003, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022, Galerie Erga, Montréal, Qc

2019, Galerie POPOP, le Belgo, Montréal, Qc :  Emergency Call to Aristotle !!! 

2016, Centre culturel Pauline Julien, Trois-Rivières, Qc

2015, Maison des arts de Laval, Laval, Qc

2012, Ateliers les tiroirs, Montréal, Qc

2009-2010, Centre culturel Simon Bolivar, Montréal, Qc

2008, Bibliothèque Claude-Henri Grignon, Longueuil, Qc

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2020, Shield of Athena annual art auction, Montréal, Qc

2019, Shield of Athena annual art auction, Montréal, Qc

2017, Signatures Show, Shaw Center, Ottawa, On

2015, Draw me a mountain, les amis de la montagne, Maison Smith, Montréal, Qc

2015, Salonesque, MAI, Montréal, Qc

2014, Exposition, Regroupement arts et culture Rosemont-Petite-Patrie, Montréal Qc

2014, SIDIM, Place Bonaventure, Montréal Qc

2014, Pixels, Raw natural born artists, Théâtre Rialto, Montréal Qc

2013, Parle-moi d’amour, Galerie les Impatients, Montréal Qc

2012, Square Foot, Galerie AWOL, Toronto On

2012, Parle-moi d’amour, Galerie les Impatients, Montréal Qc

2010, Club des petits déjeuners du Québec, Artothèque,  Montréal Qc

2006-2007, Parle-moi d’amour, Galerie les Impatients, Montréal Qc

2000, Le bogue sous l’oeil des jeunes amateurs créateurs, Galerie Pos-Art, Montréal Qc

1999, Galerie Pos-Art, Montréal Qc

JOURNAL ARTICLES

2013, L'art qui ramène à la vie, Journal Métro, (Véga to demoiselle) emblematic painting for Parle-moi d'amour exhibition, Montréal Qc

PERMANENT COLLECTIONS

Ville de Laval

Testimonials

'This workshop led me to take the time, in fact time for myself, while having fun discovering a new way of creating. Diego is always attentive to the needs of the participants and his knowledge has led me to reflect on my creative process. Thank you for this beautiful exchange!'

-Chantal Séguin (about the course Painting from sculpted model)

'It is the spontaneous gestures and bright colors that attract me in Diego's work. His interpretation of reality borders with abstraction, and his palette of colors is boldly deployed in his works. In a landscape of South America "Canyon Colca", as well as in a scene with musicians in Argentina "Las manos de mi madre (study)", the roses and yellows are used in a way that makes me feel the heat of the place. The result is convincing. Diego is an artist of great talent, and his works are vibrant of truth.'                

-Diane Lamontagne

'This artist ....Discovered this fabulous artist Don Diego, yesterday at the Galerie PoPop of Belgo (Espace 444) where he exhibits until March 3rd! First time that an artist explains me in a big way! He is full of talent! I loved his watercolors that      I could appreciate on the spot. And he showed me several of these works (watercolor, acrylic, charcoal) on his tablet. Wow!  But his current show: '' Emergency Call to ARISTOTLE !!! '' is very different!  A series of hideous creatures that surround an immense painting that I will put in a future post.'   

-Josy Ida Schwartz   ( Montreal, February 2019 )