 And bienvenue to Hispanic Hawai'i and Richard Concepcion, with Ana Jiménez-Mandmela. The Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated between September 15th to October 15th in recognition of American Latino contribution to the nation. Today's program is to celebrate and recognize Latino artists here in Hawai'i. Buenos Dairos. So today's guest is Dervin Leva, who's a Cuban artist and shares his art with Cuba's life of political, social, and cultural life. Bienvenido. Welcome to Hispanic Hawai'i. Thank you for having me on the show. So tell us about yourself and how long you've been in Hawai'i. I've been in Hawai'i for 14 years. I came here because of the military. I used to be a navy diver and I retired here. So I've been here in the island for 14 years now, kind of grew up under me and now has become my second home. Girls on you, doesn't it? Yes, it does. So what inspired you to become an artist and what type of art do you create? Well, I started painting and drawing when I was very little. I always enjoyed all the Disney cartoons. I always rushed to my friend's house to watch the cartoons and then after we finished watching the movie of the cartoon, I always, we went and got some paper and pencil and then we started trying to draw all the characters. And it was kind of hard at the time because you couldn't pause, you couldn't kind of have a reference to do it. So you have to pay attention to everything that they were doing so you can recreate it. And then that's how I started drawing. Then through my life, I kept painting and doing some drawings. But then after I retired from the military, I went to UH Manoa and I was taking my, I was doing a VA painting. From there, I changed, while I finished my BFA, we are concentrating as culture. And that's how I started doing more of the artwork that I do now. The type of painting that I do, it's kind of hard for me to describe because I kind of do, take a little bit from everybody. A lot of people ask me if it's cubism, or they ask me if it's extraction, or has a lot of elements from realistic. So I kind of use a little bit of everything. It's hard for me to explain. You just kind of have to see the art because I take elements from everybody. And that's, I think, what makes my art special. I like it because I just take reference from all the different artists that I've been starting through history, even from the Renaissance and a lot of the great masters. So I take a little bit of everybody and then just try to include it into my work and then create my own. That's a lot of work? Yes, it is. Well, I want to ask you, talk to me about the techniques that you use or how everything is started. Well, normally, I spend a lot of time just researching the idea of what I want to paint. I spend a lot of time looking at photos or a lot of photos from Cuba or different places, whatever I'm getting my idea from. Then I think what is the idea behind the painting? What is what I want to tell the people with the painting? I look a lot of musical instruments. And then once I got the idea in my head, I go and I start doing the drawings. I do the drawing directly into the canvas. Normally, I don't do a sketch, which is what most people normally do. They are part of the process. They do their sketch and then they bring that sketch into the canvas. So you go straight to the canvas? Yes, I don't like doing the sketch. I just like to go and work on the canvas. What I do, I use charcoal and then I start... I put a thin layer of red iron oxide just because I don't like the white canvas. And then once I use the charcoal to do the drawings, I start having kind of like a conversation with the canvas. I start changing things around, erasing. And then once I got a charcoal, with the charcoal to do the whole drawing, I start redoing the drawing with paint. I use like a blue paint just to cover everything. And then on that second phase, I will call it, I change some things around. And that gives me an idea of what the final paint is going to look like. So what happens if you make a mistake? There is no mistake. I just keep adding more lines and kind of working with the canvas. I see what it looks like. And then if I don't like, then I just move around or change it to get a different result, maybe get a better composition or something more interesting. But there is no mistake in painting. Okay. I want to know. I didn't know it. Because seeing a lot of people doing the sketch, and then they're trying to create a paint, but you don't do that. You usually go straight to the canvas. Yes, I do go straight to the canvas. Well, I mean, to me, I think that's easier than actually doing the sketching. Maybe I don't lose so much time doing the sketch, and then I just go straight to the canvas. Then in the final process, when I start adding painting, then the conversation will start again, because then I start adding value and colors and creating those shadows. And then that gives me a different perspective. So then I change some things around again. And then by the time I finish, the painting is a different one from what I originally thought about. That's a lot of conversation between you and the canvas. Yes, it is. So how many hours? Can you give me like a time frame, or how long does it take for you to, from the beginning to the end? I can tell you the paintings that I do have a lot of detail, and they're very complicated. So normally, the last few paintings that I've been working on, the size are about 48 by 60, which are pretty good size paintings. Those are not the biggest ones that I've done, but those take me about 80 to 100 hours, depends. And time frame, that depends on their orders, because some people to do 80 hours paint may take them three, four months. Normally, something like that, if I have a timeline, I can do it like between seven to 10 days. I like to paint, and I paint pretty fast. But I do spend sometimes 10, 12 hours, 14 hours in one day just painting. Just painting. That's how long it takes me to create a happy face. It's unbelievable. I can't believe it. That's great. That's a lot of work. Some of the bigger paintings that I take in about 100, which is the celebration, that one is 9 by 14, and that one took me 155 hours, given a take to do. So a lot of work. So a lot of your artwork, I see a guitar, or that's the focal point. What's that about? Well, there is several reasons, because I like the musical instruments. I like the string instrument. I like the music that you can produce with this type of instrument. And the guitar is something that is very common in Cuba. It's part of the Cuban culture, the music. And also growing up in Cuba, a lot of the times when we were getting together, we always use music and a way to forget about things. I mean, due to the problems that we have back then, music was kind of like a way to escape. Even for a minute, you forget about the hunger or the problems that you had at home or the things that you didn't have. So music was a way to find happiness. And I kind of kept that through my life. I always listen to music when I'm painting, and I always use that as a way to inspire myself. And that's the reason why I always bring music to my paintings. Wow, and music is the language of the world. Yes, it is. So I know you said you use different techniques and such forth, but abstraction is part of your genre. And to quote a famous quote, allows man to see with his mind what he cannot physically see with his eyes, which is from Arshile Korki, which was a powerful painter of the Western time. What are some artists that have influenced you? That's, I've been influenced by a lot of artists. And then I think with the time I've been changing. I think that probably is a normal thing. Before I used to study a lot of the old masters, Renaissance, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Caravaggio. But then I love Saul Dali, I used to read a lot of his books, Egar. But lately I've been reading more about Picasso, Braque, We Friar of the Land, which is a Cuban artist, and he used to do a lot of cubism. Also, some of the older, I look a lot of the contemporary work. So I've been having an influence of everybody. It's kind of hard for me to single just one person that I can say, I do my work based on that person. I just get ideas from everybody. That makes sense, because when we look at your art, we see the modernism, we see the surrealism, and we also see the, correct me, of the other genres. So yeah, you have a nice blend and those vivid colors that we see. Well, I want to know, because I've been looking at your painting and kind of seeing so many different pieces in different locations, like something is broken, it's like shadow, that's the difference that I want, why? Well, that's a good question. And the reason I started doing that is because a lot of these paintings that I was doing was about Cuba. And to me, when I was representing Cuba and the landscape of Cuba, all these are memories that I have from 20 years ago. So memories are never what you think they are. There is a difference between memories and reality. A lot of the times, you have an idea of what it looked like or what it was, but in reality, it's completely different. And so it's like broken memory of my past. And I think that's what I try to represent in my paintings when I break a lot of the street and also in Cuba, the system is broken into pieces. The country is broken into pieces. So I think that by doing it this way, I truly represent what the island is right now. Wow, unbelievable. It took me a long time to figure out some of these pieces and I'm trying to find a beautiful guitar that you always place in different locations. But I want to talk to you about the International Exquisite Magazine. You went into a competition and you become number one. Talk to me about that. Yes, that was our exhibition that I entered. And I mean, I entered to a lot of competitions. A lot of the times, I don't know what the outcome is. And then I was surprised when I got the email that I was the winner for the third International Art Exhibition abstract. And I was surprised. I was not expecting that. Then they told me I was, they're going to feature me into a magazine, which they just recently came out, was last month that they featured in their International Art Magazine. And they published some of my work that I've been doing in the last year. So it was a great experience working with them and then just have my work exhibited all over the world. All over the world, amazing. So what about some of the exhibition that you've done here in Hawaii? I know you did one in Hawaii, one at UAH. Talk to me about that. Well, I done several exhibitions here in Hawaii. And the last one that I did here was when I had my VFA graduation, they did part of the VFA show. You do an exhibition at UAH Manoa at the gallery. But then the most recent one that I had was the International Exhibition, the idea in Venice, Italy. The name of the festival is called Surface. And then they do like three different exhibitions. The last one, which is for two months, is called Space. And that's where I have a lot of my work right now. Actually, all my work is now all my work by like four of my pieces are in Venice right now. And they're going to be there until the end of November. So that was a really good exhibition because a lot of new opportunities came out from there. I've been getting a lot of emails from different magazine books and things like that. I want to also feature my work because I'm very excited. That's great. Let's take a quick break and then we're going to come back. We're going to continue talking story. I want to know more about that paint that you took down to Venice and showing to everybody over there. Definitely. We'll be right back. Thank you. Aloha. My name is Mark Shklav. I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea. Law Across the Sea is on Think Tech Hawaii every other Monday at 11 a.m. Please join me where my guests talk about law topics and ideas and music and Hawaii Ana all across the sea from Hawaii and back again. Aloha. Hello. My name is Stephanie Mock and I'm one of three hosts of Think Tech Hawaii's Hawaii Food and Farmer Series. Our other hosts are Matt Johnson and Pamai Weigert. And we talk to those who are in the fields and behind the scenes of our local food system. We talk to farmers, chefs, restaurateurs and more to learn more about what goes into sustainable agriculture here in Hawaii. We are on a Thursdays at 4 p.m. and we hope we'll see you next time. Welcome back to Hispanic Hawaii. We are here talking story with Derwent Laver. He is a Latino artist here in Hawaii. So welcome back. Thanks. All right. Let's continue talking about that trip that you took to Italy and your exhibition over there. Well, that was an amazing opportunity. I mean being able to show my work over there, especially one of the paintings that I brought because that painting is 9 by 14. So it's a very large piece and it's kind of hard to show in a lot of the galleries because they don't have the space to show something like that. So over there, not only was it a good opportunity to display, but then people enjoyed the work and people were able to see it. Let's see. We had a picture, the one that he was in Venice. They called it a celebration. Can you show that one? And we got all the given ideas right here. How large is this picture right here, this drawing? So how many hours you put in in creating this? That painting was about 155 hours that I spent. And then I had a, you know, at the end I just want to finish. So a lot of the days I was painting for 18, 20 hours. I was just wanting to finish the painting. So do you have a studio where you created or you just do it at home? No, actually that one. I used one of the space at the university. Right now, I use a part of my house for a studio and I probably can make something that large, but that one specifically, I use one of the space at the university. So I had, you know, I have the space to be able to do something. So how was the logistic, you know, take of these wonderful art that you created from here to Italy? You don't want nobody to touch it, please don't touch my art. Yeah, you know, actually that was a good learning experience doing all the logistic and shipping that big painting of, I just roll, once I finished the painting, I kind of roll it and then I had it, I had it in my studio, I had him open it or anything like that. So before I send it, I kind of open it, make sure that everything looks good. And then I have to ship the whole painting over there as a big roll. So that was, I mean, what's not that difficult is just when you think about it, it looks like something very different, but today it's not that bad. And going back to that painting. Can you bring that painting back again, please? Here we go. When I started doing that painting was kind of like a challenge for me because I never done a painting that big. And I want to, I want to challenge myself. So I start doing the drawing of that painting, the celebration. And to me, you know, one of the things that I like about my painting is when people look at it, everybody gets a different, everybody has a different opinion. Everybody has different ideas and everybody have their own interpretation. And that's what I intend. When I see it, I want it to be international. I want everybody to have their own ideas about the painting. I can tell you my ideas, what is behind the painting. So how do you come out with the title? You call it the celebration. Yes. The reason I call it a celebration is because this painting, at the time, Fidel Castro died. And there was a lot of, you know, there was one thing that the people showed in the media, on TV, people marching and suffering because Fidel Castro died. But that's only a small portion of the people in Cuba. The rest of the country, a lot of them want to celebrate, but it was prohibited. They were not selling alcohol. So it was prohibited to the people to buy alcohol at the time. And if you play any loud music, they could come and arrest you. Oh, wow. But that was not shown in the media. That was not shown anywhere in the world. So people who doesn't live there, doesn't know this. Then for me, the celebration is kind of like a way to show the world what the other people want to do. What they really wanted to do. Yes. And that was kind of like my way to speak for the rest of the country because they couldn't speak under, you know, they couldn't say what they really wanted to say. And then I came out with the celebration, which is the musicians in front of the cathedral in Havana. And they're celebrating a night of having a good time, but they're not celebrating the death of Fidel Castro. They're just celebrating a new era for Cuba. They're celebrating a new beginning for the island. That's what they're celebrating. So it's not about his day. It's about a new beginning for Cuba. And then I incorporated a lot of the elements in the painting, which is kind of hard to see on the actually photo. But when you look at it in one of the towers, the time that I chose, Can you put that picture again, please? Okay. So in the tower, the clock, the time is 1125. And that's actually November 25th. That's when Castro died. So I used the time as a way to as a representation for the day of, again, it became like a beginning for the Cuban and for the country. And also the year, you know, I use Greek numbers, sorry, Roman numbers. Roman numbers. The same, you know, I put a year which was the year that he died. And a good coincidence. I was painting, you know, I was trying to finish this painting. I was working on it. And then I finished the painting on January 1st last year, 2017. That's when I finished the painting. And then I realized that I just finished the painting on January 1st. But that was the same day, you know, in January 1st, 1959, when Fidel Castro took over Cuba. So I was surprised that I actually finished the same day that, you know, that everything began. Wow, that's unbelievable. Well, let's show more pictures or more painting that you have. We can talk about it. Yeah, sure. Let's talk about that one right here. Oh, so the the violinist, this one, I like the painting. I was trying to do something. The the cathedral on the back that I use is from Tridad, one of the cities in Cuba. That's what I use as a reference. And because I was doing a lot of the paintings before, I was always doing the nighttime. I want to do something different. I was like, well, I want to show, like, what Cuba looks during the day. During the day, normally. So I use that painting. So it was something different for me. It was kind of like a different challenge. And but at the same time, I want to use a lot of the lighting and contrast in it. And he has some reference in the painting about Cuba, like on the on the wall that has like a little plate, where he shows the island of Cuba. But then on the table, he has a book of and I wrote the word Libertad in it. So it shows, you know, what what the painting is about. I mean, and again, the music just bring everything together about our culture and then what people want. Wow, that's amazing. Can we show another one, please? And what is that right there? That one there. I kind of see a person on the left side playing the cello. Okay. And then on the right is a woman. His heart is Jesus standing in front of all the buildings. Okay. And this one is called musical loss. And when I was doing this painting, the reference to it was a lot of the people that, you know, in Cuba today, the society, the women's sex, you know, sex is kind of like a way to get out of the island. And because they find tourists or they find somebody who can actually take them away. And kind of, I mean, unfortunately, not everybody, but a lot of the young generation have found these the only way to be able to escape from the island. And that's the way that they choose. Wow, that's hard. Let's see the next one, please. This one, kind of like a similar idea is called Cafe Metela. And I was inspired. There is a cathedral in Santa Clara, Cuba. That's where I am from. And that's what I use as a reference in the background. So the left side of the painting, I kind of, that's a real cathedral and everything. And then I use the women sitting on the table with their crossfit. Kind of like the same idea, because a lot of the tourists go to Cuba today as a sexual paralyze. They just go looking for sex. And that's the idea behind the painting. But again, when people look at it, they have all different interpretation, which is great because, you know, I want everybody to have their own interpretation of my work. But it's important to me kind of like to represent all these things, because I think it's just kind of like a photographer and not putting my ideas and not trying to influence anybody and just trying to depict what I see. What you see and what's the reality. Exactly. And that's what the reality is. So it's not something that I'm trying to make. It's just what is happening right now. They see what is happening in Cuba and people don't even know that. Exactly. Wow, that's unbelievable. We have one more, right? This is, I really love this one. I mean, obviously the writing on the walls is, it tells a lot. In Cuba, you know, whatever you go, you're seeing a lot of the walls and everything, a lot of writings that the government used for propaganda. That's true. You see it everywhere, everywhere. And then the word, CBR, which is a committee to defense the revolution. That's something that they have in every neighborhood. Pretty much every block is just, you know, belongs to that committee to defense the revolution. They have like one person who is in charge of the organizing. Well, he's the person who kind of like reports to the police, everything that is happening, everything that is going on in that neighborhood. Well, I'm glad you say that because I was in Cuba and I saw that all over the place. I didn't know what it meant. That's exactly what it means. I thought it was graffiti. Well, no, they actually, and the government use it as a way of propaganda. They always have that. And you see it everywhere in the island. I mean, it's just everywhere. So it's kind of a way to control people in the island. And then I put people in music because we all love music, right? We love music. And music is for us a way to escape that. You know, it's like that was the way that we have to forget about all the problems that we were having and then just have fun, you know, enjoy life and forget about all the problems. Well, well, we almost out of time. And I want to ask you before we finish with the interview, what is your next exhibition? And how can a person buy a son of you painting? Oh, well, my next exhibition, the one that I'm getting ready now is for our expo New York. That's going to be in April. And a lot of my work that I'm doing right now, I'm kind of getting more into competitions and art shows and things like that. So I'm not selling it at the moment. I do have some other paintings that I used to do before a lot of Hawaiian paintings and things like that, where I sell through my website, www.derwinleba.com. And then I do have an account, Derwin on the court, Leba for Instagram. And that's where I put a lot of my work that I'm doing right now. So if people want to follow me and see a lot of the things that I've been working on, that I'm working recently, they can go through my account and follow me. That's good that he's using Instagram because he passed away. Yes, it is. I mean, I'm surprised how many people, how many new contacts and exposed you get through those Instagram accounts. All right. We want to say thank you so much for coming to the show and help us to understand a lot of things through your art with Cuba. Well, we want to say thank you for watching Hispanii Hawaii. And don't forget, you can rewatch this program at thinktechhawaii.com and many other programs. Thank you and aloha.