Paula Fernández, also known as dudelsea, is an artist based in Spain who shared with us about her art, surfing, and her perspective on life overcoming chronic physical illness, and how she believes in never giving up.
What are you trying to communicate through your work?
Mainly what I try is to communicate myself. Maybe being a shy person has led me to use drawing as a form of communication. And over time, it has become a necessity without which I would not know how to live. For me, drawing is a way of communicating with others, showing how I look at things, what worries me, what I feel or what things I like. For example, in my illustrations and art projects I use to talk about climate emergency, about loneliness and memory, also about flowers and seaweeds or even about death.
How does surfing influence your work?
It may sounds a cliché, but what has influenced me the most is never give up, being constant, going slowly and not being afraid of error. Especially in trusting myself and my work, even though I sometimes had things against me. Because of some health issues, I couldn't been able to surf for some years. When my health was worst I also had to stop drawing, working and doing many other things to recover. Things were pretty hard when I had to stop drawing and stop surfing. I started my recovery little by little, first going back to the sea, then going back to surf and thanks to all the strength surfing and the sea gave me, I was able to go back to work. Professionally, surfing has given me some of my best projects as an illustrator. as an artist. Also I have met many of my best friends and some great professionals that I admire and who constantly inspire me.
What does the ocean mean to you?
It means Home. It is place to get inspired by, a place to learn and respect. The ocean have given us much and we have taken more from it than we deserve. It is a place we should fight for, because the ocean is home.
What advice would you give to other surfers or artists who have to pause doing things in order to be able to rest, heal, or even live?
I would tell them to be patient, for me it was important to do little things. The pain, the fatigue and a strong medication, makes you stay in bed for a long time and It can be very hard and desperate, even sometimes you don't see a way out, but you don't have to give up. In the moments in which I was better, I drew a little, and I pointed out ideas for projects, etc. I went little by little, one day I drew a little sketch or just a line and other day I went to the beach just to see the ocean. My medication and rest helps me mostly in recovering, but doing those little steps make me feel better, help me to distract my mind from my illness and make me believe that I can go back to work and surf. I would tell them not to worry if one day the only thing that they do it is just can grab a pencil a drawing a little line or nothing, or just put your swimsuit on, because those little steps are important.
How did your art and lifestyle change before you had to take care of your health/pause and after you improved enough to surf or make art again?
I have more confidence in myself and in my work, many of the things that once seemed a problem to me, now they are not. And above all, I have learned to see the good side of all things. I have learned to say no and to choose what I want. As for my way of drawing and painting, people say it has more strength than before. I use more colors and experiment with forms and lines more.
