“We don’t think about asking little bread from the baker”
- He has welcomed us at home and although he says no, he gives the feeling of having entered the house of an artist, a nice and pleasant feeling. Arrate Rodríguez Martín is a renter who lives in Hendaia, and he says he's not an artist, no illustrator, no ceramist, no collage, but he does everything. He says that the time to leave the illustration in the background should end, because as the image feeds the text also feeds the image.
"I'm an illustrator but not just," he says. I want a lot of things, and I do a
lot of things. It is a very difficult question or I find it difficult to give a specific answer. I usually answer one or the other as I'm asked. Being a freelance is very tired. When there's no work we look for work, and many times we get a lot of work in the short term.
In 2018, while reading The Things We Lost in the Fire, by Mariana Enríquez, I decided to delve into the illustration and dedicate my profession to it. Since then I have tried to do so. Now, for example, I just finished an illustrated album with Maialen Lujanbio in the thread of what was Rosa Valverde. When we talk about illustration, we think especially of children's literature, but there's also work in the adult world.
He's also made booksters. As you do film
posters and put them in the houses, I do those based on books. I know it's hard to find someone who's caused me a sensation similar to what a book affected me. But not impossible. And when you get it, it's pretty. The fundamental thing is to share love for the book.
So you do a lot of things. It is not fair to say that I am just an illustrator. I've also started making ceramics. I found the time and tool for my meditation. Plus, I decided to do some useful things. At the moment I have sold very little creativity, but a few days ago a girl wrote to me telling me to have breakfast every day in an object that
bought me and made me an incredible illusion. That's magic to me.
"How many have told me in exchange for the promotion of creating an image. I have finally come to say that I cannot pay for promotion on the market. It's a very heavy struggle."
How did you get here? I studied Fine Arts in
Bilbao and then went to Barcelona to study Creative Illustration. I was not clear where to go, but I would say that I had been right in plenary. Some trades are very specific and ours is not. Ours can be very broad and varied. I like to feel free in the election and happy with the result. Both in illustration and in imagery is not fixed and we live in a world full of images, or we fill it with images. In my opinion, the role of the illustrator is to represent the world in a way and create referents. I create images with my own vision.
What is your vision? I'm a 
feminist, but I don't do the feminist illustration. I try to make a feminist lifestyle appear.
How many times have you been asked to work in October? Many times. Well, too many times. How many of you told me in exchange for the promotion of creating an image? I have finally come to say, “I can’t pay for promotion on the market.” It's a very heavy struggle. I have had a lot of debate on this. I would say that with the refusal I
managed to get people not to ask for besutruk. I would say you don't think about it. I got tough saying I had to start negative. Respecting myself and my work, because in the end it is my profession. I can't do anything else.
I have worked every day, more hours than on a normal day. And I recognize that, although I usually think: “Let’s see when they respect us.” We can't think of asking little bread from the baker. People get tough when we make comparisons, but they do.
Do you have experience abroad? I know especially Mexico. And here, at least, art moves a lot more. People who lead a life similar
to ours, have the habit of buying art, for example, buying typical copies or small collections and putting them at home. We also call it the third world! That they live much more precarious there? Yes. Do you need two or three jobs to lead a fairly normal life? Also. But they have great respect for work. Also to the artist's work. And that October request is not developed as here.
What do you need in the creative process? I have to be
quiet to paint. Act without pressure and without urgency. To draw or do something else, perhaps the prey does not attack me so much, while to paint I need calm. I have to combine concentration and quiet. However, I am constantly thinking. In the shower, for example, I don't work, but I reflect on one solution or another. The balance between time and trust makes the creative process easier for me.
Are
there tricks when catching prey? Experimentation works for me. If I talk about acrylics, I'm worth taking waxes. The production of illustrated albums is very enriching as a professional and as a person, but very laborious and hardly brings anything economically. But the balance must also be found there. Because, in short, compensation is not just economic, right? You also have to learn how to relativize time. But haste is never a good friend.
Bilbao centre
I was clear I wanted to study, but I wasn't clear what. Psychology, translation, English philology -- there was everything. The San Sebastian school seemed “very gray.” He came to Bilbao and fell in love with the Faculty of Fine Arts. “I saw everything pink and bright. The last thing I had on the list became the first.” He soon fell in love with the “dirt of Bilbao”. “It seemed that I walked five hours away from my house by train. Bilbao is something else. Other people, buildings… I want nature, there is nothing more to see my house, but I am a citizen,” he says in the kitchen of a house full of plants, with coffee in hand.
