Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Roman Pastucha. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Roman, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

In search of ‘El Dorado’ in Los Angeles I left a small railroad town in central prairie Canada driving a nondescript van straight out of ‘central casting’ . Packed beneath the plywood bed hidden from border agents were a crop of paintings. Best to plead ‘visitor’ status to immigration agents.

Beverly Blvd, Melrose Ave, Robertson, Fairfax, La Brea, Sunset, all the ports that docked galleries from corner to corner. And exhausted me in my routine of showing my work, gallery directors that had no interest in showing my work. One of which provided the apex of disillusionment telling me “you are doing yourself an injustice” . The work she liked, the scruffy weatherbeaten appearance, not so much. it’s hard to be self aware when you want to escape reality in a 4 wheel bedroom.

La Cienega Blvd was next. The Pacific Design Center harbored many galleries. I walked in the flagship, the Barbara Devorzon Gallery. I came across the owner, the galleries’ namesake. Barbara took time, ultimately, to see the album of works I had. Having come to expect the norm I figured this would be a short hello goodbye.
“How soon can you get these to me?” was not expected.
My response of course was that I would have to travel back to my studio and “see what I had left’ it would be a couple days.
My response was not going to be “hold on, they are all in the van getting ticketed up the block”.

Dropping off the work Barbara insisted in putting one in the window.
A day later she calls and says come by and delivery the piece to an estate in Beverly Park South. Finding out who saw and bought the piece in the window it would be all the more rewarding, my short days boxing at the railroad gym back in that prairie town. Knowing he too once lived in a Dodge resonated even more.

The first piece I ever sold in Los Angeles was to Sylvester Stallone while my address was still a license plate.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Barabara Lazaroff commissioned large works for Spago, at that time on Sunset Blvd. Site specific pieces became a rewarding challenge, incorporating the light and space, getting a ‘vibe’ to work with. Many hotels, homes, offices and restaurants followed including Scottsdale’s BLK Live musical venue. Collaborating, being able to visually translate the clients vision with your own to create a unique space and viewing experience is rewarding on many levels. Creatively, communicatively, contently. I have been fortunate to work from hotels to themed entertainment venues like the Venetian Casino and Resort and Universal Studios Japan, from theatrical and film to financial institutions like “Titanic” to Northwestern Mutual”. Being able to work in any variety of mediums, paint, sculpture, automotive, glass and on scale from hotel walls to hand painted watches is ever more rewarding as a creative.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

The most troublesome, in fact the bane of my existence is that some clients or viewers grapple to understand the very idea that as a creative (I prefer this term over artist, which seems limiting) I can communicate in any medium. Many can. Paint, sculpture, ceramics, film, glass, writing. Richard Branson’s mantra of “saying yes to something and if you don’t know how to do it you learn it” resonates.

The idea of a ‘renaissance being’ or artist is lost on many and has to be re-established.
Imagine the limitations and lost potential put on an artist because the client or viewer’s limited scope encloses their imagination and thinking. Imagine if Leonardo Da Vinci had an agent that specified “you can put painter on your business card, but leave off that stuff about being a sculptor, inventor, armor designer, city planner, and particularly that flying machine designer nonsense…”

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

We all know there is a history, a continuum of art and art as communication. The resources are there. I have and do study art of the past which encompasses social, political, religious, economic, in fact all of the histories. Albeit aware of the resources, I wish I had tapped into them earlier. It provides a roadmap of where we have been so we have some bearings on the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://romancreative.wixsite.com/roman-pastucha
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studioroman/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/roman.pastucha.9
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/romanpastucha/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ronpastucha