Yetzer Hara

Raphael Leray, as Yetzer Hara, creates pen and ink pieces based on cell structures. He is the microscope master. Raphael agreed to do an email interview with me despite the fact that he barely speaks English (French is his language of choice). After correcting his grammar and getting together a few of his black and white pieces, he let me put his interview up. Thank you Mr. Hara. Or Mr. Leray. Or mister molecular biology nerd.

Do your parents hate that you're an artist?

No

Where do you think you art will be in the next ten years?

I hope I'll have made a gigantic palace to put all of them in so I can live inside my drawings.

Are you pretentous enough to call yourself a starving artist?

For the moment that's pretty much the case... I don't get have any "pride" in it, but I need time to create and right now this is the most important thing in my life.

Do you think you have to suffer for your art?

I don't know if suffer is the right word, but I guess that when you have something floating repeatedly in your mind you have to make all the effort possible to accomplish it, that is the best way of living for me.

If you weren't showing your work, what do you think you'd be doing?

I don't know; for me showing my work in a gallery or something is just a way to get money and to continue working (that hasn't happened to me, however) but after that for sure I think that a piece of art doesn't have any sense if it is not to be looked at by people as a extension of your being.

Showing you art might make you live in a supplementary social dimension because you act on the cognitivity of people. How did you begin creating work?

I started drawing in one night; my goal was just to draw a portrait of a masochist actress; I was totally obsessed with this photo. in this photo I was seeing something more than just a maso scene, I was seeing something without any connection with what it was in reality. I tried first to wrote for myself my feelings about this photo, but I couldn't find the words. so I decided to draw it even if I didn't really know about drawing technics, I kept the drawing and it became a kind of talisman in my room. Later someone saw it and told me I should really continue to draw.

What animal do you most want to pluck from the wild and keep?

I prefer humans.

Whot inspires you to keep producing work?

People like Francis Bacon for example, Jerome Bosche and Gustave Moreau really stuck in my mind as a child.

What does your Sunday routine look like?

hummm, Sunday is no different than any other day for me. Except that im angry about the market being closed.

What does your playlist for working consist of?

I listen a lot of experimental japanese music like Merzbow. Before I was an artist, I was a musician – so there is a chance I may return to that.

What is your favorite combination of two colors?

well as you see : black and white, but I would like to grow into more color.

Had you always planned on being an artist [or had you other hopes]?

No not really, I was really interested in mathematics and science. I always appreciated art. I’ve become progressively more interested in sound-art opposed to drawing, painting, etc.

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