Maria Rubio | Outside Visions | April 2008 Tupac| Maria Rubio | 2007 | Maria Rubio __________________________________________________________________________ Though she is a well known figure in Jersey arts scene the first time we saw artist and thinker Maria Rubio’s work was at Dujuana Sharese’s |Cypher Movement| in Jersey City.  She was the featured visual artist during the poetry set and managed to sell out all of the work she created in that 2 hour period! Marking history in the series as the first artist to do so.  Her work is fresh and it is gentle – mainly because she seeks to gently cradle and nurture the best and most visionary aspects of hip-hop, blues and soul.  Born in Spain living in the United States – she is truly in her work, her theory and practice trying to meet the space where community longing, art, commerce and rebirth reside. REBORN is pleased to present VISIONARY Maria Rubio. This interview was conducted August 2007 by e-mail. NEXT SHOW "There is Love and Nothing else/ Hay Amor y Nada Mas", Artists Karina & Maria Rubio.  City Hall 280 Grove Street  Jersey City, NJ April 4 - April 30, 2008 LINKS Myspace Page: http://www.myspace.com/empresdesigns   Webpage: www.empresdesign.com ___________________________________________________________________________ | MARIA RUBIO ___________________________________________________________________________ "I always feel that I need to get my work out there to remind people about their souls." - Maria Rubio Noelle Lorraine Williams: Extensively, you use hip-hop motifs in your work? Why do you engage hip-hop motifs? What do they represent to you? Maria Rubio: Yes, I do incorporate hip-hop motifs in my work, mainly because hip-hop music inspires me to express myself to the world.  I think that one of the reasons I feel so connected to hip-hop is because it enhances whatever it is that I am feeling.  When I listen to hip-hop I feel a sense of security, because the hip-hop artist that influence and inspire me are either rapping about things that either my close friends or I have been through.  Listening to hip-hop music gives me a certain freedom to do my artwork, because I feel that hip-hop has no barriers, it is music "outside the box," and it inspires me to take my artwork to the next level, and not worry about what other people might think of it. Noelle Lorraine Williams: In what ways do you feel that hip-hop and its icons have altered the way that we look at community, wealth and citizenship? Maria Rubio: In my opinion, hip-hop has broken many rules, such as informing the world about the troubles that minorities have to live with day by day, and another is putting a spot light to the violence that people live with and the government tries to hide. I also feel that lately up and coming hip-hop artists are not really portraying hip-hop and it original purpose, which was to speak about what matters and create a sense of urgency of the negative things that are happening in the community.  Now all I see is the typical bling bling, and rhymes that are sending certain messages towards the youth that are been mimicked by the youth, such as gun play, drug dealing, and using women.  I do not condone drug dealing, however, there is a line between having to sell drugs to live, and selling drugs to be "cool".  There is not a doubt on my mind that good old hip-hop needs to come back and some new artists need to step down. _________________________________________________________________________ "The vision for my work is for people to become more conscious of music and art.  I almost feel like my artwork is a museum of good music that touched all of our souls." - Maria Rubio ___________________________________________________________________________ Noelle Lorraine Williams: Do you have a sense of urgency in producing your work? What is your greatest vision for it? Maria Rubio: I don't really have a sense of urgency per se, however, I always feel that I need to get my work out there to remind people about their souls.  By that, I mean, when a gallery puts some of the portraits I have painted up, such as Tupac's, I would love for the viewer to remember or to learn about his message, songs such as "Keep ya head up", "Brenda's got a baby", and such, really remember that the artists I paint had a true message. The vision for my work is for people to become more conscious of music and art.  I almost feel like my artwork is a museum of good music that touched all of our souls, when I look at the portrait that I painted of Lauryn Hill, I automatically think of the song "Ex-factor", and it almost makes me skip a beat, I hope my art does that to the people that view it.