It is with great honor to be featuring Antonio Pozo, an artist and creator of vibrant works. He was born and raised in Malaga, Spain and grew up already acquainted with the language of expressive drawing and painting. Since he was an adolescent he has honed his craft and has had his work featured in several exhibits including the Lyceo Frances in Malaga, the Nautical Club El Candado, and the Cultural Centre for Contemporary Art. He currently resides in London where he has his own studio and has been recognized and selected as one of the top artists by the Huffington Post at the Untitled Artists Fair in London 2014.
MQ: Was art something
you discovered in your younger years, or did you always know you liked it?
AR: As far as I can remember, I was always drawing, painting
and creating. My imagination was always supported by my family, they enrolled
me in an art academy when I was ten to develop my skills six days a week for
almost eleven years, and I loved it. It was my element indeed.
MQ: I noticed on your
bio that you went to University to study Industrial Engineering. What a
contrast. What was your reason for that field of study?
AR: My family always supported me in the arts, but I was
quite a gullible person when I was younger and I thought it would be impossible
to make a living of my art as my friends used to tell me. So because I was a
very good student, I decided to study engineering.
MQ: Following that
question, how did you find the time to paint given your demanding schedule and
managed to keep up with your daily studies and an aggressive career?
AR: At Uni, I barely painted – basically I quit. I did some
commissions but it was really hard and I was working to make my style more
commercial and popular anyways. At the end, I think I made it. People started
to ask me for my own creations afterwards.
MQ: Do you go off of
current emotion, or do you clear your head prior to painting? Any routines?
AR: I can’t paint if I’m not inspired, that’s really true. I’m
quite compulsive and many of the ideas come to me when I least expect it
whether I’m dreaming, travelling, in great situations whether sad or happy ones
– and I always have my notebook to draw them. I try to work on my message in my
own style of positivity. Be good – be in peace with yourself. Routines for my
daily painting session are classic music, coffee, litters of tea and one
home-made vegetable smoothie to purify my body.
MQ: What pushes you
past failures, what keeps you driven – on track?
AR: I’m living in the present, enjoying it to make a better
future and I’m already trying hard. Living in the city of London and painting
here is already a dream come true. Any past failure is in the past. I couldn’t
care less. In fact, I think I haven’t really failed at all because I’m here now
and that’s what I always wanted since I was a child, something I did apparently
worked!
MQ: Tell me about
London and the art scene there.
AR: London is a great place to be if you are an artist, that’s
obvious. So many great artists around here. On top of several of the world’s
best galleries and museums. You have to be competitive, you have to learn
non-stop and try to stand out from the crowd, which is almost impossible.
MQ: What is the most
rewarding thing about craft and the most challenging?
AR: The most rewarding things is the fact that I’m creating
a piece of art from my imagination and that one day someone will own it and
this artwork will last for years even when I’m no longer here. It feels really
amazing, and sad at the same time, but I’m quite sensible about that – I’m such
a weeper! The most challenging thing about being an artist is already trying to
make a living with art, it’s very difficult.
For more information on Antonio Pozo's latest work, go to antoniopozo.com.
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