Hear Orlando’s Story And What Inspires The Hungry Young Artist
Q: Who is Orlando the Artist?
Orlando: He is an immigrant who migrated to this country without knowing what life would be. He had dreams and aspirations of the American dream, and he found his purpose. He thought he was gonna be an engineer, and he discovered his true purpose in life was to be an artist, and tell the story of where he came from. Tell the stories of his town, paint the mountains where he grew up, the people that he remembers, memories as a kid. That’s who Orlando the artist is, someone who believes in community and that community is important, for quality of life. I really pride myself on being a public servant, whether that’s teaching classes, creating public art, doing demos, exhibiting in places where people might not think of a Mexican artist, that’s what I really pride myself in doing.
Q: And who is Orlando the person?
Orlando: Orlando is someone who enjoys time with family and friends, loves to play pool, go to the park, read books, and visit museums. He’s someone who is hard-working and believes that nothing worthwhile comes easy. It’s hard to talk about Orlando the person because I feel like everything kind of revolves back to art, wether I want it to or not. Orlando the person is the in-between moments, in between shows and art… he is someone who is very grateful for all the things he has and the people he has met and been able to help.
Q: What does an ideal day look like for you?
Orlando: An ideal day for me is waking up early, going to the gym, eating a good breakfast, then heading to the studio around 9am; picking up a book I’m interested in, wether that’s a biography or an art book, reading for an hour, then either setting the day for carving or painting- I like carving a bit more nowadays, usually around this time of year. I’ll spend most of the day drawing and carving, then taking a nap after lunch or dinner, and getting back to work right after that, making more work or sending some emails, looking for things to apply to and sending it to [Micky]. I would say the perfect day would be me leaving around 7pm and then playing pool with my friends until, like, 10pm, then going to sleep by 11pm.
Q: What things have inspired you throughout your life to be who you are? What has helped shape the person you are today?
Orlando: I think I would have to say… just moving to the United States. It’s probably one of the things that really changed me, and that’s because, you know, there was such a cultural shock… when I was in Mexico there was probably, like, 20 kids in one classroom… I grew up with them all the way to fourth grade. And when I came to the United States, it was like 5 different class rooms for fifth grade. That was probably one of the most [different] things, just the change in perspective of how big things were here in the States. And also that it was more kids, but you felt less connected with them, you know? In my town, we all just got together at the end of school and we walked together, so that was probably one of the biggest changes. I would also have to say going through school and figuring out that I wanted to do art towards the end of high school, and what that meant and how realistic it could be. Nobody in my life, nobody in my family has ever done that before. So for me to be like, Oh, I want to be an artist, I want to teach classes to kids, I want to paint murals, do printmaking, paintings and be in galleries and museums, was, to say the least, different. I think that was a shocking thing, the big change in my life when I realized I was an artist and I wanted to do this full time, because it’s not a very common path.
Q: How has your heritage impacted who you are as an artist?
Orlando: Well, I grew up in Mexico so a lot of the stories that I would hear, the things that I remember, I reminisce on those things, so a lot of times I’ll paint pictures of farm workers or of my town- I’ll actually go to Google Maps and look at pictures of my town and use them as reference for some of the bigger paint works. It’s just a good memory of where I came from, because sometimes I don’t believe that I actually grew up there, it feels like a whole different life, so that inspires my work. Nowadays, it’s also inspired by what it’s like to be an American, and what it’s like being Mexican and living in the States. Now I’m exploring a lot, and a lot of that has to do with nostalgia and my childhood. But lately I’ve been exploring with different themes and different periods in Mexico’s history. For example, right now I’m fascinated with the Mexican Revolution and the artists… so a lot of the work I’m doing now is kind of reminiscent of the Mexican Revolution, but with a contemporary expression of it.
Q: Any last thoughts or advice?
Orlando: I would say right now I’m at a very happy stage. I’m making a lot of work and exploring a lot. I’m learning different mediums and I’m surrounded by really good people. I think that’s something that if you’re an artist, make sure you put enough time into your craft and surround yourself with good people. Because sometimes it can get very lonely being an artist, so you want to be around good people to cheer you up, to help you out, and to get you out of the arts sometimes. You know, try and get some fresh air. And of course, that person for me is Micky.
Thanks for reading! See Orlando’s work here or more of Micky’s blog here.
