mishmash workspaces: Oficina Mescla

Oficina Mescla was born a little more than a year ago today. How did the idea of creating this workshop space come about?

Alexandra: Before creating Mescla, I joined an artistic residence where I was invited to participate in my engraving work. One of the requirements of the residence was to work with engraving, in particular with Tomás at Escola Artística da Árvore. It was a totally discovery for me to work with Tomás as I found myself learning more with him compared to the last years I spent at college. After the biennial’s residence, I then moved forward with my life but as I was looking for engraving workshops in order to give some kind of continuance to that type of work, I found none available, or the prices were just too high for non-students to get inside college workshops. One day at a casual dinner, I revealed to Tomás that I really wanted to create a workshop opened to everyone! I was finding so many hurdles finding a place to work. I immediately told him that if I were to open something like that, he was the most important piece of the puzzle because he had all this experience that could be shared.

Tomás: I opened my arms to this project because I was looking to start working with a younger generation, as the artist’s generation I have been working with, much closer to my age, is already acquainted with me and how I work. We all know each other very well because of all these years. My idea was to have this new place opened to the city, to have space for new artists to come in and experiment. After meeting Alexandra and getting to know each other in biennial’s preparation, there was a click.

How is your day-to-day like? How would you define the environment at the workshop?

Alexandra: Our day-to-day is always very different! There are slow days and totally chaotic ones. Sometimes we can have people signing their artworks on one table, us working on commercial pieces with a strict deadline, other people working on linoleum pieces, and then there are other days that are calmer. 

Tomás: There can’t be an equal day. The workshop doesn’t have a schedule, we can work during the morning or afternoon or both. I work both at Mescla and Cooperativa Árvore, but my boss is a really cool one, giving me the freedom to do what comes to mind. I am missing my job when I am here, but I can work nights and weekends, it’s very flexible. We don’t need to be caged to certain time tables to do what we love the most.

Alexandra: The environment here at Mescla is very cheerful and fun. Always with music on. We are always laughing.

Tomás: It’s very chilled indeed, even with the relationship with the students and the way they tell us to thank you when they leave. We put our souls into this and I think everyone can feel that.

Your workspace is very oriented towards creativity and cooperation. What role do you think can the workspace play, in people's performance?

Alexandra: If you have a good working space you will have more creativity. It also helps with the people you surround yourself with and creativity will always bring more creativity. It helps to be around people that already think outside the box and that connection with them can stimulate our brains even more. 

Tomás: The tools you offer, in this case, can play a very important role. We offer a lot of machines at Mescla and we have a lot of empty spaces for people to crash in. We are certain our dialogue is infinite here, we can speak about the same thing in very different ways.

How important are the tools we work with, relating to the work that’s being produced? Which tools can’t Oficina Mescla live without?

Alexandra: When talking about handmade processes, the right materials make all the difference. Each technique has its own materials, for example in screen printing what you need in essence is a raclette, ink and paper, but engraving, for example, needs a dry engraving tip and varnish, the linoleum technique needs a linoleum sheet and a craving tool and for lithography is a lithography pencil, stone and gum arabic. 

Tomás: You can always make some gymnastics like a Portuguese proverb says “He who doesn’t have a dog hunts with a cat” you know? If you need a dry engraving tip and you don’t have one, you can always sharpen a nail. There’s a lot of backstage work going on when you don’t have the right tools, but it can be done.

Alexandra: If I had to choose between one material or the other I would probably choose a spatula because it’s the one we use the most here. 

Tomás: Paper, spatula and ink are the three most accessible objects, in the way that you can do a lot with them, for so little. These are the materials that are a constant in every technique, you can find them at engraving, screen printing, lithography and so on.

Creativity is, evidently, a characteristic associated with any artist. How important is it to be creative when managing a space that breathes creativity?

Alexandra: That’s very important to us that people come in here and they instantly become aware that we are also creatives and we can help them with their projects. People come in kind of lost, searching for help and sometimes we need to guide them through their processes which is great for us.

Tomás: I like to give space for people to express their own creativity. It’s important not to cut the student’s legs or tell them what to do. What is bad for me can be good for you and vice versa. As a part of the guiding team we have to understand that people are here for themselves, to express their own creativity. There must be zero impositions. If we are receiving them, we have to receive them in the best possible way. What I can show you is how to work your creativity with a spatula, ink and paper. 

How is your workspace organised? Do you think a lot about how you arrange things?

Alexandra: I do! Tomás definitely not. Tomás is so relaxed. I like having my stuff organized with labels and things like that.

Tomás: I have been a workshop men for forty years. It can get messy, but I also have my own rules, I always know where my utensils are. If this is to be a workshop, it needs to be messy. If everything is pristinely clean, do you want to know what I use to say? It’s because they aren’t doing a lot. If there was a lot going on, it would probably be messy!

In your opinion, which feature do you think stands out the most in your space?

Alexandra: For me it’s being unique! It’s the only place in Porto that’s opened to everyone in all these different strands: receiving everybody that wants to use our machines, commercial work and classes. Plus we have four different types of techniques available. 

Tomás: The thing I love the most is the space’s accessibility, in Porto’s city centre. Modesty on my side, I think I am the most prepared person in Porto to be at this type of workshop and the easiness to arrive here and get to the machines right away can be done in a time frame of seconds sometimes. You come in and start working right away. In any other workshops you don’t have this type of accessibility and here you can do that.

Is our workspace deeply connected with our happiness?

Tomás: It can, or, in my opinion, it must! If I am not feeling well at a certain space, I have to leave. The reverse of the coin is that to be well at any certain space, you have to put your soul into it. It has to be like that otherwise it’s not worth it. The people you surround yourself with can also be great happiness boosters, especially when you know you count on them. She probably doesn’t know, but other people told me she considers me a best friend, and that’s everything to me! To have a great relationship at work and life.