An interview with: Daniel Barreto

Astral speak with Mexican multi-disciplinary artist @danielbarretoes 

"I make paintings and drawings that open onto a world adjacent to ours. Each work stages a distinct environment, most often within nature, where flora holds attention and time feels slightly displaced... Landscapes across Mexico inform this sense of place, but the aim is a terrain that is both grounded and open. I layer translucent acrylic and embed soft pastel so forms hover between apparition and fact... Each painting functions as a careful note from a neighboring realm, recorded by a witness who does not claim certainty." - www.dbarreto.com/artist-statement

Read on below for the full interview...

How are you, and how is life lately?

In a personal sense, life has been going well. Creatively, I feel that I have moved into a new stream of consciousness in my work. The last time I experienced something this significant was around 2018, when I began using color in a much more intuitive and meaningful way and truly understood its emotional language. At the same time, I think many of us are carrying a certain heaviness because of the current state of the world and the actions of people in positions of power. That atmosphere has made me feel an even stronger need to create, and especially to create work that can lift people emotionally, even if only for a moment.

Lately I have also been very captivated by the idea of unknown phenomena, by things that science cannot fully explain. I believe deeply in that realm of mystery. I think that at least once in a person’s life, something dreamlike or unexplainable presents itself to them, whether they recognize it or not. Many of my subjects revolve around orbs and unexplained presences. What I experienced myself was a close encounter in 2009. I first saw a blue plasma-like object in the distance, and then later a small green cylinder came so close to me and a friend that we felt we could have touched it. We did not. We ran away after it disappeared. That experience stayed with me deeply, and I think it may actually be one of the reasons I became an artist. In that moment I felt very clearly that we as human beings know almost nothing. At the same time, I knew I did not want to spend the rest of my life in an office job.

What was it like growing up with both parents as painters, and could you tell us about what it was like also growing up in Guadalajara?

I should clarify that only my mother was a painter. My grandfather also painted, more as a serious hobby, and he was very talented, especially with anatomical drawings. On my father’s side, my grandmother was a pianist, so there was creativity in different forms throughout the family. I was born in Guadalajara, but much of my childhood was actually spent in Puerto Vallarta, on the Pacific coast. It was a beautiful place to grow up. The quality of the air, the closeness to the ocean, and the ability to go snorkeling on weekends all shaped me in a profound way. My mother also always encouraged my creative side and made sure I was involved in art classes from an early age. Later, when we moved back to Guadalajara, the transition was difficult. Going from a coastal town to a city felt like a real loss. More than anything, I felt that I had lost something very special, a kind of childhood bond with the sea and with that slower, more open rhythm of life.

What are the key ideas and themes that inspire your art the most and why?

The themes that inspire my work most are mystery, strange phenomena, relationships, emotion, and nature. I am drawn to what exists just beyond explanation, whether that is something cosmic, psychological, or deeply human. I have always been interested in the tension between wonder and uncertainty, and in the way intimate emotions can coexist with something vast and unknown.

Do you consider there to be a mystical element to your creative process?

Yes, I do think there is a mystical element to my creative process. When I am fully immersed in making something, I enter a very particular state that feels both peaceful and intense at once. It feels like a kind of certainty, as if I am doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing in that moment. Sometimes it feels as though I am being guided by a current of intuition or knowledge, and that my role is simply to pay attention and follow it. That state is not always present, but I have learned not to fear that. I do believe that the strongest work comes when I am connected to a calmer and more open state of mind, whether one wants to call that Zen, divine energy, presence, or simply deep alignment.

We’d love to hear more about your experiences with lucid dreaming and the book The Yoga of Dreams, if you could tell us more about what this means to you?

The Yoga of Dreams has been a very important book for me. During a period when I practiced its exercises seriously, I lucid dreamed almost every day for about a year. More than anything, what fascinated me was that it did not feel like a novelty or a trick. It felt therapeutic, transformative, and deeply revealing. Lucid dreaming helped me let go of certain emotions and fears, and it opened a space where consciousness felt much more fluid. Dreams have influenced my visual language in direct ways. Certain atmospheres, images, and emotional intensities from dreams have made their way into my work and continue to live there. What interests me most is the idea that dreaming is not separate from life, but another dimension of consciousness that can teach us a great deal about who we are.

Are there any particular books, films, artists, or thinkers that you hold close to your heart who have shaped how you look at the world?

There are many, and they come from very different places. In music, Laura Marling and Leonard Cohen have meant a great deal to me because of the depth and poetic quality of their writing. In animation and film, I deeply admire the world of Suzan Pitt, and Richard Linklater’s Waking Life left a lasting impression on me. In literature and thought, writers such as Oscar Wilde, Haruki Murakami, Albert Camus, and Kandinsky have stayed with me. Visually, I feel close to artists like Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Isamu Noguchi, Alice Rahon, Moonassi, and Nick Cave in his sculptural work. I am drawn to artists and thinkers who make space for mystery, inner life, and transformation.

What does Spirituality mean to you?

To me, spirituality means taking care of yourself and others. It means being present and trying to live with awareness rather than moving through life unconsciously. It also means having a sense of purpose, something that makes you want to get out of bed and fully inhabit your life. For me, spirituality is not only about belief. It is about attention, care, responsibility, and the way we choose to move through the world.

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Discover more of Daniel Barreto via:

• Instagram

• Website 

- Astral Magazine