Wilmer Murillo’s bright graphic style is almost immediately recognizable. A trained graphic designer and illustrator by trade, Wilmer’s work is a combination of both skills depicted through bold lines, patterns and vibrant colors. His style has adapted over time, ebbing and flowing according to his own personal journey and travels. In away, this transition and ‘go with the flow’ mentality is evident – quite literally – in is work. Heavy curved lines, shapes and turns act almost as pathways, guiding the viewer along their journey. Read on to learn more about Wilmer’s sources of inspiration, including his recent visit to Teipei, and view more of his incredible work here.
CULT: What are some of your favorite mediums to work with?
Wilmer: Digital, collage, painting and sharpies.
CULT: In the last 24 hours, what has inspired you?
Wilmer: A Song by Chris Malinchak.
CULT: How did you grow into your current style? Were you always attracted to colors and patterns the way you are now?
Wilmer: Well, that’s a long story. If you see my work from previous years, it used to be kinda different to what it is now. In the past I was more into character design and a little bit of pop surrealism. Buy in the last two years, when I was living in Taiwan, my life (and head) had a lot of changes and I felt the necessity to try different things and evolve my work into something new because I was somehow bored of doing the same thing for years.
So I found myself living a little bit out of Taipei city, in a beautiful mountain, surrounded by trees and birds, with enough time to know myself better and find my own me by simplifying my work as far as possible and trying to find the pure essence of it by absolute creative freedom. So I took my lines, my shapes and my colors and started to do new things with them that I never tried before.
I never planned to end up making patterns or collage or whatever, I just followed my intuition and inner freedom, so what you see now in my work is the output of that experimentation process.
CULT: You cite modernism, minimalism, op art and dadaism as sources of inspiration. What themes, people or places outside of the art world inspire your work?
Wilmer: I would say that I’m mostly inspired by inner sensations more than outside stimulation. Any random thing in any place or moment can produce some unexpected effect inside my head to produce new visual things, even a potato in my meal or a random kid with weird eyes in the street. I don’t have a formula for that, I just go with the flow.
CULT: What are 3 artist tools that you can’t live without?
Wilmer: Sharpies, color paper, computer.
CULT: When you’re starting a new piece, do you envision the completed work or fill in the canvas as you go?
Wilmer: I fill the canvas as I go. Intuition and spontaneity are the most important part of my new process. I like to go with the flow and find beauty in mistakes and unexpected places (I do the same with everything in my everyday life).
CULT: What do you hope others feel when they view your work?
Wilmer: I hope they feel motivated to experiment and do things by intuition, without planning too much, without caring too much about other’s opinion and stay curious about nonsense, spontaneity and intuition.
CULT: How do you stay motivated?
Wilmer: With constant changes in life, discipline and permanent experimentation.
CULT: Words to live by:
Wilmer: Evolution, satisfaction, mindfulness.
