Pedro Evangelho’s visual and artistic identity can be found on event posters and book illustrations. The Azorean designer and illustrator currently has an exhibition at the Luís da Silva Ribeiro Public Library and Regional Archive called “Tourada no Prelo.” For Pedro Evangelho, this print project is “a showcase of the work I did in the printing workshops of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Porto.”

Correio dos Açores – What has been your career as an illustrator and designer? What works do you highlight?

Pedro Evangelho (designer and illustrator) – When I’m asked what I do, I like to think that drawing is a practice that cuts across all the disciplines I deal with. Drawing is an addiction, a necessity, and a pleasure, to paraphrase the architect Siza Vieira (pardon my cheeky “pretentiousness”). The fact is that I always remember drawing at every stage of my life. Adolescence is perhaps when children, who naturally express themselves by drawing, start having other interests. Well, I only continued down this path with some persistence. Some teachers motivated me, pats on the back here and there, and I went on to study Fine Arts in Porto, in Communication Design. There, I became much more aware of visual culture in a broader sense and began to organize my ideas. But it wasn’t just the hours of work that contributed to my development. In fact, I think the endless conversations with my colleagues and friends or a frank exchange of impressions in cafés have been more decisive for what I do.

As far as design and illustration are concerned, I found Porto to be a thriving art scene. My trips to exhibition openings or visits to independent bookshops proved to be fundamental references for things I came to do later on. At the moment, I can highlight a work that gave me great pleasure: the book “Hoje fiz um amigo,” published by Edições Araucária. The dialog between the editor, Blanca Martín-Calero, the designer, Zé Albergaria, the proofreader, Clara Vilar, and the printer, Norprint, was one of the most interesting things that has happened to me. Producing a book is a wonderful project, especially if you share it with cultured, cosmopolitan people with a romantic outlook on life. The biggest obstacles I encounter in the Azores are cynicism, lack of interest, and ignorance.

Explain the concept behind your exhibition “Tourada no Prelo”?

This exhibition displays my work in the printing workshops at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Porto. It’s a series of prints that explore different techniques and supports, from chalcography to linoleum. There is a general movement to recover and reactivate more vernacular means and tools (such as engraving, for example) and to abandon the increasingly frightening “fetishization” of digital. Inevitably, I came across this trend. This exhibition aims to reveal some of the procedural methodologies of the workshop context, shedding light on failures and successes, in a permanent search for good form. The theme of the prints deals with the question of affirming a Terceira identity, like Nemésio in his “Festa Redonda”. I chose the bull as a symbol and cult object, constantly present in the imagery of Terceira Island. “Bullfighting in print” because the parallels between Terceira’s bullfighting universe and printmaking are obvious: unpredictability, risk, and a democratic vocation, wanting to reach everyone horizontally. My wish with this exhibition is that the construction of a convinced Azoreanity also passes through here, through the graphic arts. I’m against a static idea of Azoreanness. In fact, I think it should be an elastic concept that requires the contribution of all cultural agents.

How do you define your work and your artistic identity? Are the Azores a source of inspiration for you as a creative?

First of all, I have a hard time defining myself as an artist, so I’m still wondering about a possible identity. Of course, I can’t remain indifferent to my space, the island of Terceira, and the Azores. But everything serves as a reference: the music I listen to, the books I read, the movies I watch, the bullfights I attend in the summer… so much. I’m always amazed by the veins drawn in the leaves of fig trees. My greatest “source”, if there is one, is the cultivation of permanent amazement. I really value my moments of idleness, of doing nothing. Drinking beer and sunbathing is also part of the creative process. I’m always cooking up ideas, and we’ll see what comes. I’d love to make a comic book and a short film.

José Henrique Andrade is a journalist for the newspaper Correio dos Açores-Natalino Viveiros, director.

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