We are the cosmicollective (a collective of culture and awareness), and we currently have four members: Adriana Bartolomé, Tobías Bartolomé, Lucas Buteler and Tomas Buteler; additionally, you can check out the timeline of our site: cosmicollective.org
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(Lucas actually doesn't use an artistic signature, so this is added just for fun...)
The cosmicollective was created in 2006 by me (Tomas) and my brother Lucas, with the intention of creating a single output source for projects both of us were developing independently. The objective was to create a cultural collective that was versatile, not limiting itself to a single medium (which seems to our specialty, in both good and bad ways). Also, we hoped it would one day attract other artists to join in.
Shortly after we were delighted to welcome innovative artist and close friend Tobías Bartolomé, with his unique glass and paper compositions, consolidating a partnership that had begun with the conception of the “Presidents of the USA” series. Sister Adriana joined at the same time
Ever since we started we’ve been surprised with what we’ve been able to output, and even though most of the time we spent was not dedicated to painting (most of us still have study or dedicate ourselves to regular jobs, and not to mention all the time I spend as my alias, grumpy old Cosmo), we think of the cosmicollective full-time.
I really hope you enjoy what you see in this site, and don’t hesitate to write us and give some feedback, or show some art of your own, which we’d absolutely love to see.
I was born in Seville, Spain, in 1987. The youngest of two brothers, I learned to play when I was 17, with the aid of my brother Tobías (and largely motivated by his influence in my life). Our family moved to São Paulo in 1998, and ever since I’ve longed to go back to our little hometown, and even though São Paulo is a terribly interesting place to live and learn, I prefer the quiet and historical Andalusian region. Aside from studying and the occasional art project I enjoy flamenco dancing, cooking and eating (Sevillian ‘tapas’ still rank highest in bar-snacking).
I am a man of very few words, especially when talking about myself. I’m Spanish. I live in Brazil, and I’m always looking for new ways to express myself - I paint and play the guitar, which is already enough to keep my mind busy. I adore traveling. And I have a little sister, whom I taught how to paint.
Born in 1977 and in constant search. Searching paradox and beauty within randomness. I often lose myself and regain my path in the process of creation. I value the process more than the product itself. Artist and an educator by profession.
I was born in Buenos Aires, in 1981. During my early years my parents traveled a lot, and we went from Argentina to Spain to Chile and ended up in São Paulo, Brazil, where I spent most of my life. Even though I always liked and had a certain knack for drawing I started painting at the relatively late age of 21. Before that I flirted with with digital art at the start of the Internet (and way back then I also picked up some HTML coding skills), but ever since I took it seriously I craved for a more physical, concrete medium, which is why I experimented with a number of techniques (mostly water-based, because I’m extremely sensitive to chemicals). Around that time I got to know Tobías, which also experimented with some techniques of his own.
I actually produce very little, although, admittedly, more than I care to show in this site; I’m a demanding curator, it turns out. In my defense I have an “ordinary” job in my actual formal graduation field - Business - leaving little time to experiment or put on paper / canvas / board those ideas which seem to pop inside my head.
Together with my older brother Lucas (I also have an older brother, Diego, and a little sister, Ximena) I created the cosmicollective and supervise most of the activities related to it, like designing and maintaining this site.
I’m an avid art, film and music fan, and enjoy video games more than my free time allows me to play. I also like reading and writing a lot (favorite writer is Italo Calvino).
Please feel free to contact me for anything related to this site or project, or just to talk about common interests. Cheers!
Below you will find the timeline of the cosmicollective.org site. It’s been a very interesting project for us, especially since none have any education in web design or programming.
Thanks for watching,
§ October, 2006: cosmicollective created, originally called cosmicoletivo, in Portuguese. Hiatus over complete lack of time for both me and my brother due to work. One month later the first site is uploaded, but nothing fancy. Joined the billion other sites eternally “under construction”;
§ Decide to pay a little attention to the domain and site. Sign up with Google Apps, and put up a site with Google Page Creator. On May 20, 2007, version 0.5 finally up (no longer under construction) and fully functional, courtesy of Google’s genius programmers;
§ The many limitations of Google Page Creator make me switch to an offline app (Adobe Dw). Abandoned Google Apps for a local hosting company and I build and publish v1.0 on June 10, 2007, shamelessly using the Google-created code as base;
§ Within the Google code I find this little thing called CSS (!) and finally understand what people have been talking about for decades. The possibilities are endless. I adapt the page for external CSS themes, make a major clean up on the code and version 1.5 is released on June 24, 2007;
§ Dig up some more CSS, learn XML and RSS and start toying with the Spry framework. Decide to go ahead and try to code a blog-like page without using databases (reading about Apache and SQL gives me shivers). Version 2.0 is released on July 13, 2007. Feed is officially live from this point on; domain cosmicollective.org registered, and Portuguese version is slowly abandoned over the English one because of wider reach (and my lazy ass not wanting to update two different versions of the site);
§ A great deal of fixes, code tweaks and design improvements keep me busy for months. This is actually very fun. Web standards are a modern blessing, though I can’t seem to adhere to them all for the time being. Version 2.2 comes along on October 7th, when I finally get around to cleaning the CSS, which allows me to fix many glitches or unnecessary code. Also, code is redone using the concept of "semantic markup", as much as I could absorb of it. 2007 is officially the year I fall in love with the web again;
§ Forget about the "semantic markup" of the post above - I spent the last 7 months really understanding what the "new" web is about, and do my best to really apply that knowledge, but taking some poetic licenses of my own. Working with web and coding projects like pump.kin helps my develop my skills (real XHTML, CSS, Javascript and Spry skills, plus some good XForms knowledge, though that is hard to put to use in an ordinary site), and I feel capable of coding an entire new site from the ground up. Free of the Google Page creator legacy inside my code, I feel much more confident about the code of version 3, which comes through on May 22nd, 2008, after just about 7 days of coding (an impressive mark, for my standards). The new site features a simple and straightforward design, yet focused on variety and depth of details, and uses a variety of fonts and patterns, which was something that was on my mind for quite a long time. Being able to discern from most of the Web 2.0 bullshit that is being thrown around is also invigorating, and even though I still love the web, it is a much more mature and conscious love. It’s hard to tell what’s next since I’m really satisfied with the site’s design for the first time, but I’m planning to get into databases finally and take Cosmo’s projects up a notch;
All patterns are used with permission, so take the time to meet these lovely people:
by Squidfingers
by Squidfingers
by Squidfingers, slightly modified by Tomas Buteler
by Squidfingers
Brian Taylor’s style is a mix of early Disney, Lantz and Warner Bros’ cartoons with an Itchy and Scratchy swirl. Gore-cute at its best. He’s crisp, colorful and versatile. Faint-of-heart, go with care.