The Walk in Artist / ENGLISH

From the Blog http://www.zoommalasana.com/176/
Thanks to Sena Çakıroğlu, Journalist

Illustrators Home Visit For Drawing

Recently, more than hundreds of Madrileños and now curious inhabitants of Malasaña are overcoming the shame of exposure of their privacy.

‘Don’t talk to the strangers’, ‘Look through the peephole before you open the door’…Forget all the things your mum advised. Now, it’s time to welcome these strangers at your house. In 2010, four Venezuelan illustrators launched the project ‘Dibujo a Domicilio’, a project for the favor of the passion of art. The initiator of the project Daniela Guglielmetti born in Caracas, Chile and nurtured her drawing skills in a university of Venezuela, started off with the idea of drawing people only for her simple pleasure.
The problem was that she had no place to do that. But it was until some close  friends agreed to open their doors to her. Then some other friend heard about it and then the other friend.   The concept of working ‘house-to-house’ grew like a snowball in due course of time.  And it is free of charge!
This non-profit project attracted more illustrators that is craving for some pure art experience. With the addition of three male illustrators ,  the team was completed. 
They went viral creating a blog (www.dibujoadomicilio.blogspot.com) and a group on Facebook so that anyone who wish to open their houses could find them.

Although it is free session of drawing a portray, there are still some conditions the team strictly decided on. ‘’Generally, the person is nervous or remote. We want a good drawing experience  for both parties. So,  making a toast, having tapas and conversation are necessity and best way to break the ice before we start’’ said Daniela. One session of drawing consists of 5 poses, each pose takes 10-15 minutes which makes it 3 hours in total. ‘’We work long hours so we need some ‘fuel’ to keep going’’ Daniela added waggishly.
But before it all started, launching the project in Madrid wasn’t an easy feat.’ ‘In Venezuela, people are more than willing to have you at their houses. Here, it was opposite. People were reluctant at first’’ she said. Indeed, life in Madrid is outside and naturally activities take place outside. This kind of a house activity was considered strange. But once someone experienced, it quickly spread out. ‘’People do rely on word of mouth. That really helped us.’ said Daniela.

 The intimacy of being at home

Although it was a necessity to find a place to work, for Daniela it was in fact was the initial idea the work she wanted to make. ‘’People feel more relaxed in their privacy. They reveal more about themselves than they are in public. You feel the aura of intimacy and this sneaks in our drawings as well’’ said Daniela.
Now the person is a natural model, she/he is free to be creative. A pose in the hottub, an intimate position in the bed with the partner, or a simple portrait of family sitting in the couch. The illustrators sometimes witness a private conversation between the couples or parents. ‘’We were drawing a mother and a daughter who was adolescent. They were looking at each other’s eyes. Then for the first time, the mother asked her if she had sex with her boyfriend. ’’ said Daniela.
But not all the experiences are as they expected. They had some visits that they just wanted to quit and leave...
On the other hand, the reactions of the people have been good. ‘I felt like a model’, ‘I never felt this special before’, ‘I saw 5 different version of myself from 5 different artists in different positions,shades, and looks.’’
‘’We visited 107 houses so far’’
Now, two and a half years after the project, they  are still evolving. They began drawing friends, followed by “friends of friends” and ended up drawing the desired so-called customers. They have 1,447 followers on Facebook now.
‘’We visited 107 houses so far and overall made 2400 drawings’’ said Daniela. The whole team hopes to remain the essence of the work and are determined enough not to give up for fiscal reasons. ”We want people to support our project
It is free experience unless you want to be portrayed with the original work, in which case you should contact the illustrator and agree on a price. So if you want to get out of comfort zone to have this unique drawing experience, Tuesdays are the days, remember…