'Art is a magical endeavor': Carlos Estevez comes back to explore the hidden lines of Savannah

In 2015, Carlos Estevez was on his way to an artist residency in Charlotte, N.C., when he stopped in Savannah. Some of his friends, local architects, encouraged him to see for himself downtown’s well-planned layout and design. Estevez had enough time to explore Forsyth Park and a few adjacent squares.

But the brief visit made a lasting impression: a few years later he completed, “Savannah,” a large format, oil and watercolor pencil work depicting an aerial view interpretation of the historic district’s precise geometry. Estevez vowed one day he would return.

And this month, thanks to curators at Sulfur Studios, Miami-based, acclaimed Cuban visual artist, Carlos Estevez, heads back to Savannah as part of Sulfur’s On::View Artist Residency Program.

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From Wednesday through Nov. 5, Estevez focuses on creating a body of work called, “Cities of the Mind,” in which he’ll study “urbanism and the history of local architecture to understand the socio-political roots of human settlements, their implications from the past and their projection to the future.”

Having grown up in Cuba, Estevez is quick to point out how having access to less can actually foster more creativity.

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“Cuba is like another planet. It’s an island geographically and politically isolated,” said Estevez. “Things move slowly, which allows for a lot of time to be with yourself, and being alone lends itself to observing the people, places and nature around you. Cuba also taught me to be inventive and creative with supplies, since I didn’t have many. Limitation became the inspiration of invention. I had to be creative to be creative, does that make sense?”

Estevez lucked out when he was 11-years-old, accompanying a friend who had signed up for an art school entrance exam. There was space for Estevez to take the test, too, and he spent a few hours drawing a required still life arrangement plus a landscape of his choice. Though his friend wasn’t selected, Estevez was, and the chance opportunity altered the course of his life.

“Destiny put art in my path,” recalled Estevez. “All that time as a child drawing, being creative, using my imagination to make things from whatever was around, unknowingly helped me get into the special middle school. When you go with innocence, not knowing any sense of benefit, sometimes that can open doors. For that test, I did what I’d been doing. It was all I knew.”

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After middle school, Estevez was accepted into an art academy high school and then went on to graduate from the University of Arts of Cuba. In the past 30 years, his talent and rigorous training have landed him top notch, international residencies in London, Paris, New York, Boston, Charlotte, and now, Savannah.

In his work Estevez seeks to “reveal the invisible realm to the spirit that lies hidden beneath the visible world.” And he achieves this by incorporating symbols, lines, dots and circles to create pieces in which elegant geometries both undergird as architecture and swirl above as constellations. The patterns further give rise to a sense of order commanding the seeming machinations of chaos within.

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“I’m fascinated by symbols, they are universal,” mused Estvez. “Circles are important because across cultures, they represent the infinite, cycles going and moving forward, coming back again. In technical schematics, often with many circles, I’m looking for metaphors that I can translate into colors and shapes and overlay onto the human experience. This process I am describing it is itself a circle and principle of creation. What we create is based on what and how we choose to observe the things around us.”

Estevez will be in the ON::VIEW studio Saturdays during his residency from noon until 5 p.m. with his artist talk taking place Oct, 22 at 2 p.m. His residency concludes Nov. 4 with the unveiling of his works created in Savannah.

“Art is a magical endeavor,” said Estevez, “Art and its magic will connect me with the people of Savannah and their stories. What I create will be documenting my encounter, and I am excited to discover how my experiences will influence what I create, how new people, their stories and culture will become symbols and metaphor in my work. We are all universes on our own, through art I seek to find the hidden spirituality uniting us all.”

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah GA art galleries: Carlos Estevez at Sulfur Studios