We were lucky to catch up with Bryan Paredes recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Bryan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
As an artist I take it as serious as the next person. Painting shows the world what the artist state of mind is at. I worked job to job just to support my art journey. I believe if you work hard and understand the hardship you will get the path you want to be on. Luckily, I work under an artist at his workshop and there isn’t a day I think about getting a “regular job”. That’s just capitalist propaganda to make you believe having a “regular job” keeps you comfortable. There’s nothing wrong about that but if you have a strong sense of being creative and have things to say or even show, you should always prioritize that. Don’t give in to the societal stigma of being a creative leads you to nowhere, a complete total lie. Everyday I paint and it feels fulfilling even without a sale, showing, or a critique. That’s what really matters, there is not enough money in the world that would make me feel fulfilling pushing pencils in an office. In fact, I would live as a painter and die as a painter. Its not for everyone but you have to go through the challenges. Life isn’t about being spoon fed but experiencing the highs and lows of it all. That’s what being an artist is all about, experiences. You put all that into your works and projects. Its an ethereal feeling to express these suppressed emotions living in a daunting world. Even if the challenge itself is presented during the painting process, instead of taking it as a sign of defeat or a mental block, you should be excited as challenging yourself helps you go deeper on figuring out who you really are and explore your roots. You should always think outside the box and pushing the medium. There’s nothing stopping you other than yourself. Block out the outside noise, keep your head low and work until you find enlightenment in your art and maybe just maybe you will find that answer about the meaning of life.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I was born in south Florida Miami and moved to Orlando to attend UCF as a film student. As far back as I can remember I always loved the film/tv media and dreamed of making them. All my life I lived and breath film just constantly learning about the media. My story is not a failure but an inspiration to those who think changing your career path is a dead end. In 2020 when the pandemic arrived I had to choose working to have a roof over my head over school. I eventually failed out, not attending classes, doing the assignments, etc. That didn’t faze me at all instead it felt relieving and a weight has been taken off my chest. Besides that, I genuinely lost interest in how the school taught film. Very capitalist mindset and the people weren’t really into it for the art. The only class that opened my eyes to the world of art films was Avant-garde cinemas. The only class I can say was worth every penny. I realized there’s more to just make money when you do film, its about the art and the way you can express inner emotions by pushing the boundary of the medium. I fell in love with the idea of it but during the pandemic I shifted to painting. I used everything I knew about film into teaching myself art. I didn’t like the stress of having multiple people to understand my ideas so painting was much easier to display thoughts. I would work long hours during the day and at night paint until I fell asleep. One whole year, eventually lost my job and still put in the 9-5 mentally in my painting on a daily basis. 2-3 years later, one bad job to another I finally stumbled upon an art workshop and a mentor. On top of the education and learning about artist I’ve never discovered, I’m still polishing and develop my craft everyday. My works are about real life challenges, the horrors of the world I’m forcing you to see and pointing out the hypocrisy from our current state of society. I’m strongly a painter and my goal is to keep pushing ambitious ideas into the world art and start a revolt to break the current art world of its horrible habits of exploiting artists. What sets me apart from everyone is I will not give in to trends or whatever the public is demanding. I’m going to do the exact opposite and give you fresh and brand new ideas either you like it or not.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Society needs to stop this idea that everything you do has to make money. That dilutes the quality of art. The art world doesn’t need anymore flowers, pictures of pets or realistic portraits. My mentor calls this the curse of the renaissance. This constant pressure to create something to cater people shouldn’t be the norm. Everyone should start by having a comprehension of the basics of art and then evolve. It doesn’t matter if the painting takes a minute, a day or years. If the painting has a soul it will do the talking for you and reach out to those who can understanding what you have expressed in the piece. I believe people are to caught up on selling it leads to mental blocks and even unfulfilling artworks. The other problem is the middle men, Galleries. I work in one and I know whats happening behind the scenes with certain places and its disgusting. Not only do they exploit smaller artists but only showcase artists they been loyal to for decades. Nothing wrong with that until you find out its a boys club. Its just people they personally know, someones best friend or wife or kid and they wonder why their business is dying. Its a lazy way of curating instead of scouting out potential great artists they only focus on the numbers (money and social media followers) even with that they completely finesse these artists. Buying low and reselling to private clients high. Its a nuance problem that must be talked about and I will not stand by that and refuse to be taken advantage. I want to help artists without even going to these middlemen, being showcased in a gallery won’t help you especially if they are not promoting you.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
Scam, bad, and tasteless. There’s nothing reasonable about these. Its another way to turn art into a corporate machine in capitalist America. I steer clear away from anyone about this. On top of this, it affects our environment. I’ve become very aware of political social issues and environmental issues. Art is about healing and expressing your emotions against the bad in the world. How can you do that knowing NFTs are doing the exact opposite of what your trying to expose to the world? We shouldn’t do the bare minimum we should do the maximum to stop these evil on earth. We as humans give ourselves too many excuses to not do the maximum effort in stopping these corporate entities.
Contact Info:
- Website: deathofcasanova.com
- Instagram: @selfhatedcasanova