Today it’s our pleasure to present Patricio Lazen, an artist with his unique creative technics, whose answers will not leave any reader indifferent and probably will bring to a sort of philosophic mood.
Q: To get the readers started, Patricio tell us how you got into Art?
A: I started at a very early age. Back in those days, imagination was your only software, and the only tools and gizmos available were good ole’ pencils and brushes.
Q: How long have you been creating art?
A: Since I can remember.
Q: We know that you had a considerable pause in art career, what made you start drawing again?
A: First, I overcame fears I had about criticism, and acceptance. Second, I completed the connections between all the things that surrounded me.
Q: What does art mean to you?
A: Any spontaneous or premeditated action independent of someone else’s command.
Q: Where do the images come from that you create?
A: People and things that surround me.
Q: What is your inspiration for these images?
A: They appear to me as images asking to be added to the ever growing and never exhausted collection of Americana.
Q: What drives you to keep at it and do everything?
A: Once started a piece, it has to be completed. It may take a year or ten, but they have to be finished. This attitude doesn’t come from any Spartan Idealism, or any Protestant Work Ethics, but rather by the haunting those unfinished pieces exercise over me every time I think of them.
Q: What obstacles – if any, have you encountered along the way?
A: Honestly, myself. Considering that by nature, an art career doesn’t unfold smoothly, and there will be obstacles such as society’s scrutiny, or finding jobs that would accommodate your schedule with theirs. The major obstacle, at least for me, was the artist himself.
Q: Can you recall the first piece of art that you created that made you go WOW!?
A: A portrait I did of my son. It wasn’t the quality of the painting itself; it was the subject.
Q: What is the most memorable piece that you have done and why?
A: A small watercolor of the Chilean port city of Valparaiso, I walked through those streets as a college students so many times, and yet every time I look at it, I discover something new that I missed the first thousand times. It’s a living image.
Q: What fame means to you?
A: Not being know as the artist, and observing people looking at my paintings for more than 10 seconds, reading the name, and whispering it to themselves before moving on.
Q: How do you rate yourself as an artist?
A: If there were a very specific scale to rate, I would have in front of me about a quarter of a million of other artists whose work I admire.
Q: What in your opinion makes a good artist?
A: I think a good level of education is very important. I’m not talking about amassing college degrees, but rather having a sense of the many disciplines that compose our academic universe, but above all, having a sense of the historical tribulations of the common man. Seeing how those scientific, artistic, and social realms converge to create, for good or for bad, a balance. We belong here. It’s our universe.
Q: Three words to describe yourself.
A: Impatient, Romantic, Theatrical.
Q: What do you do in your life except art?
A: I’m a pre –college teacher, and part-time professional musician.
Q: Who is your favorite artist?
A: Every single one of them, honestly.
Q: What is the favorite piece you have created?
A: “Waiting for Work” the saga of some migratory workers after a long day of waiting without success.
Q: Tips and tricks you want to share with aspiring artist
A: Before you create your own alternative universes, explore ours. You will find your own place on it.
Patricio Lazen | Artist
PRTFLM 