Spotlight: Charles Glaubitz

She's massive, rotund, winged. Her vagina spews forth quarks, those infinitesimally small particles that come in and out of existence a million times a second. She's the Soft Machine, and she's the visual creation of Charles Glaubitz.

Or is she?

Glaubitz himself is not entirely sure whether, as a painter, illustrator, and installation artist, he's the author of new worlds or merely a reporter of unseen realms. He suspects that, at different times, he's both.

Whatever the case, Glaubitz takes the calling seriously. By giving form to cosmic principles—and hinting that earthly problems such as environmental destruction and warfare may have much deeper, otherworldly causes and roots—he hopes his work will stimulate epiphanies of consciousness in others. "Like the artist Alejandro Jodorowsky," Glaubitz says, "I believe art is for healing."

The uncanny realms of the esoteric get star billing in Glaubitz's drawings. His psychedelic imagery, rendered variously in pen and ink or acrylic, depicts forces such as greed and consumerism clashing with justice and humanity. These energies are personified as eerie, fantastical figures that make multiple appearances in his ongoing series.

Glaubitz's play with duality is apparent in every aspect of his work, including his sources of inspiration. "I particularly like comic books, because they contain all the great mythologies from around the world," he says. He also looks to Joseph Campbell, Deepak Chopra, Grant Morrison, Hayao Miyazaki, George Noory, cave art, and quantum physics.

The hybridity of Glaubitz's art has its source in his own biography. Growing up in Mexico with a German American father and a Mexican mother, he learned how to bounce between worlds. That journey has included countless literal trips across the border between Tijuana and San Diego over the last 12 years as he has pursued his career as an artist and graphic designer.

Glaubitz came to CCA to find his artistic vision. "I had been drawing and painting since I could remember, but I didn't know how to tell a story, how to structure an image, how to communicate a concept. I didn't feel I was saying anything," he reflects. "Teachers such as Dugald Stermer, Barron Storey, and Vince Perez taught me how to look at things conceptually and find a way to express my ideas through my art."

Glaubitz's messages are both political and spiritual. In one recent series, more than 100 individual works tell the story of a clash between an evil, Mickey Mouse–like Capitalist King character and the Gardener, a sympathetic defender of nature. For the artist, the story is no mere fantasy but a depiction of actual machinations on multiple planes of reality—including our own. "The idea of using consciousness to direct quarks' journeys in and out of existence is also a story that teaches us about the power literally to create reality with our thoughts," he says.

Now married with two children and living in Tijuana, Glaubitz illustrates for the likes of Rolling Stone and Nickelodeon magazines, and he has had numerous group and solo exhibitions in Mexico, the United States, and Spain (at such venues as the Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil in Mexico City and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego). He also teaches graphic design at San Diego City College. But he spends more than half of his time rendering other worlds. "For me," he says, "it's less about commercial success than about helping people awaken."

See also: artist's website at www.mrglaubitz.com.

From Glance, 2007

Born in 1973 in Tijuana, Mexico

CCA degree:
Illustrator Program, 2001

Residence:
Playas de Tijuana

Current occupation:
Artist, illustrator, designer

Influences at CCA:
Mark Bartlett, Vince Perez, Dugald Stermer, Barron Storey