JAUME BOND: THE POWER OF THE DREAM

Jaume Bond's self portrait in water colours style

Jaume Bond. Artist. The Netherlands.

I'm Jaume Bond. I was born in Zundert, The Netherlands, the hometown of Vincent Van Gogh, my inspiration and guide. Perhaps for this, I decided to study Arts and I'm an artist, a person who creates art... but what is art? This is one of the most interesting questions without a common answer. 

People call me Jaume, like Jaume I, the most important Catalan king, a figure very important for the European Middle Age. Jaume is a translation of James, because my real name is Bond, James Bond.

-Good morning, Jaume Bond and thanks to attend us.

-Good morning. It's an honour.

-What is art for you?

-Art is something that affects your feelings and your senses. That's all. Then, it depends of every person. The same art work can create different emotions in different people.

-How is your art?

-It depends. Art is something that you can't control because it comes from the deepest soul and creating art isn't a mechanical action. It's a mix of soul and inspiration.

-How is your best work?

-The best work is always arriving because the most interesting about art is the process of creation and every work is better than the previous one because you really enjoy meanwhile you are working in it.

-Which is your favourite artist?

-It's impossible to choose only one but I love Vincent van Gogh. We are Dutch and he is the main reason of my career. I was born and grew up in Zundert and Van Gogh has been an incredible influence for me but I also love the Flemish art. It's mysterious and dark and I like this.

-Well, then... which is your favourite Van Gogh's work?

-The Starry Night. Vincent van Gogh painted it in Saint Rémy in June 1889. It's very important the season because, as you know, light changes and light is very important for a painter, especially for an impressionist one.

-It is a masterpiece, isn't it?

-Of course, it is. Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo: this morning I saw the country from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big... We know that Van Gogh was in an asylum victim of a mental breakdown in the winter of 1888 and he added that through the iron-barred window. I can see an enclosed square of wheat ... above which, in the morning, I watch the sun rise in all its glory. He must left out the iron bars to paint this picture.

-Van Gogh has a mental illness, like Salvador Dalí...

-Yes, and like the 35% of the world population... Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night is talking about mortality. The dark spires in the foreground are cypress trees, plants most often associated with cemeteries and death. This connection gives a special significance to this van Gogh quote, Looking at the stars always makes me dream. Why, I ask myself, shouldn't the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France? Just as we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star.

-People say that it's difficult to live with an artist. Is it true?

-I don't think so. Living in pair is difficult because it's a question of offering and receiving but it doesn't depend of your work. A relationship depends of respect and tolerance. I'm happily married with Eli Bond and we have a consolidated marriage.

-How's life with an artist, then?

-A normal life. There are many people who are artists but they work in other jobs and they don't explore and explode their art but it doesn't mean that they weren't artists. Remember: Art is something that changes your feelings and your senses and there are a lot of ways to reach it.

-Which is your advice for a newcomer artist?

-Believe in yourself. You should know that you must believe in yourself because this is a complicated world and you sometimes can feel yourself alone. If this moment arrives, you must think that you have got yourself.

-How do you feel being a member of The Bond's family?

-The Bonds are very good people. We're a great family and they respect me and love my art. They accept that I'm an artist and I sometimes need to express myself because I feel an unstoppable desire of creating something.

-How is a normal day with The Bonds?

-What's normal? If normal means something that the most part of people do, and then we aren't a normal family because we do whatever we desire, whenever we want and wherever we stay.

-How long have you been studying English?

-I studied English since the Primary School. In the Netherlands we have four official languages and we study them in the Primary School: Dutch, English Frisian and Papiamento. There are also three more recognized languages: Limburgish, Dutch Low and Saxon.

-Then, you speak Dutch and English, don't you?

-Yes, I do... and Frisian and Papiamento.

-What can you explain about your life with The Bonds?

-The Bonds offer me the possibility of being myself and this is something very important for an artist. You can express your opinions and everybody is going to accept your point of view although they don't share it with you.

-Which is your best memory with the family?

-I have lots of memories although I remember strongly when we stayed in Berlin last Christmas. I painted the Wall because I wanted to express my feelings and leave them there and the police caught me. Thanks to all the family, and especially thanks to Miriam Bond, I could recover my freedom.

-Imagine that I want to buy one of your works. Recommend me one...

-I love all of my works but I want to recommend you four because I have painted them meanwhile I have been with The Bonds. First, Blood. A tribute to a Romanian hero, one of the most terrible fighters who have existed. He used fear against his enemies and terrible punishments. It's a painting with a predominance of red tones. Second, The Prospectors. A tribute to those men who searched gold in the American rivers. Levi Strauss made trousers with the sailcloth for the Californian prospectors with blue material from France. That's the story of the first jeans. It's a painting with a mix of blue and yellow-grey colours. Next, Sharks. A tribute to the whale shark, a very interesting fish because is the largest of sharks and its mouth can have 3,000 teeth by 7,5 centimetres long. It's a painting with blue and grey tones. Finally, San Salvador. On August 3rd 1492 Columbus sailed from Spain for ten weeks to west. When a sailor saw a bird, Columbus knew he had arrived to an island which he named San Salvador and he said that the Earth was round. It's a picture with green, blue and orange colours.

-You're an artist. Can you create a slogan for The Bonds?

-We're the power of the dream because we never give up and we fight the future.

-Thank you very much, Jaume Bond.

-You're welcome.

Feel the flame forever burn

teaching lessons we must learn

to bring us closer to the power of the dream.

As the world gives us its best
to stand apart from all the rest.
It is the power of the dream that brings us here.

Céline Dion