Carlito Dalceggio Trips Out

For the five month trip Dalceggio loaded his van with brushes, and suitcases of colours and inks. He would stop anytime he saw something that inspired him.

“That time for me was pure freedom…the van was just like magic everywhere unfolding.”

Well known for his nomadic ways, the native of Montreal believes it’s important for him to be “in a zone of non-comfort.” More than just an inspirational tool though, Dalceggio says it’s important to paint outdoors in order to have nature literal and figuratively in his paintings.

“If you’re always in the studio you’re inn a zone of comfort and you tend to reproduce the same patterns. So when you go to paint in nature, you’re really in communication with nature and you really have the shamanic energy from planet earth that’s really important.”

Other than his desire to have a mobile studio, Dalceggio also headed to Mexico to meet Carlos Castaneda‘s famed Yaquis natives. Dalceggio first became enthralled with native Mexican art and philosophy after his father introduced him Castaneda’s books when he was around 14-years-old.

On his journey Dalceggio’s dream came true. He met a Shaman who he painted with, talked about art and the universe, and participated in psychedelic peyote ceremony.

“A lot of the abstract knowledge I had since many years that I couldn’t really explain came out at this time, like a load of information and now I can get it in my art.”

When Dalceggio left Mexico to California he says he suffered instant culture shock. He had left not only his freedom in Mexico, but also dozens of murals and hundreds of ink drawings as gifts for what they had given him.

“I always thought that art had a mission to uplift the human existence, but [in Mexico] it was a concrete. Every single minute it was real… I saw the happiness you can bring to people and that was a gift to me every second.”

Splendours of existence II will be on display from Thu September 4th – Wed October 8th at Montreal’s Galerie SAS.

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