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Sed ut perspiciatis unde.
SubscribeWe caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alexander Arzú a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Alexander, thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
Hey, thank you so much for having me. Pursuing a creative career came about during the market crash of 2008, so about 14 years ago. While art was always in the back of my head, school and education were very important in my upbringing as a military child. So, I checked off the boxes and graduated with a degree in architecture. I worked in the field for nearly 5 years while I kept art as a hobby. During that stressful economic time, a few things happened in parallel to convince me to pursue art full time and work for myself. For starters I saw so many people get laid off within three years…fellow college graduates working at retail franchises scared me. With my experiences at work, I knew that I was a hard worker and that I was determined, but the pay scale didn’t seem to add up to my skills or willingness to learn. This was discouraging because I could see how the field of architecture valued their own clients and prospective businesses. My curiosity about how to value my own time and energy started coming into play from what I observed in those early days, and I wanted to apply those principles to the jobs I did. I knew I didn’t want to work within oppressive systems and that there were few choices for financial and personal freedom. Then, there were two people who stood out and hyped me up when I showed them my art, like I could be worth millions. I remember in the office we had a discussion on things we like to do, and I said I like to paint. I showed one of my coworkers my mural portfolio and he asked me what I was doing with architecture when I should be painting murals. At that point I couldn’t get it out of my head and decided to pursue a path in art.
This concrete feedback gave me the extra push of courage to quit my job and pursue art full time in 2012. I still remember that day—I was riding in an elevator leaving work, and this guy made a point to say that it was the first time he had ever seen me smile. He asked what was making me so happy. I told him I had just quit my job. Incredulously, he asked what I was going to do next. With a wave of freshness and growing excitement I said, “I’m going to be an artist!” And I did exactly that.



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.
Yes, hello I’m Alex Arzú, founder of Zú Art Collective. I was born to an immigrant Garifuna family from Honduras. All my life I loved to draw, paint, build, and do anything as long as it was creative. I enjoyed doodling on any piece of paper I could find. My mother has been a teacher all my life and instilled in us that our education was the most important thing. I trusted that. As a child I struggled deeply with the disparities of the American education system, exacerbated by the frequent moves our as our military family underwent. This didn’t help the flow of exams and grade transfer either, which ended up becoming a hassle that affected my educational self-esteem. I also experienced the different ways I could be perceived with each school transfer, which was jarring as a young black creative who deeply valued education. So I taught myself to stand my ground and navigate that space in a way true to myself, and eventually I found that conventional success through architecture. I will share my personal realization that talent is the least important factor for success. It was through my other educational and professional work experiences that I understood how to make this creative lifestyle a livable dream; I could not have been this successful without learning business logistics, time and skill value, consistency, and community collaboration.
When I was more inexperienced, I used to accept any and all work that was asked of me. I used this time to gauge my skill set, expand my marketability, and experiment with different art mediums. I dedicated an immense amount of time to understanding the difference between art and aesthetic within the realm of a client satisfaction. Through this, I became much more selective with my work and I interview clients just as much as they interview me. I believe that as an artist, it’s important to keep art sacred to myself and value my energy balance to avoid burnout. Because of that, now I’m at a point with Zú Art Collective to bring in other production artists, provide them a fast track to these entrepreneurial lessons, and strengthen our local creative community resources. I look forward to exploring the boundaries of art and making it accessible to all classes and backgrounds of our global community.



Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
Well I’m still learning about NFTs and what this avenue has to offer the creative world. I will say there are a LOT of strong stances on NFTs and with anything, there are pros, cons, and risks to calculate. I would never encourage an artist to concentrate all of their energy into one outlet, and that includes NFTs. That being said, it seems fair to say that it’s beneficial to peek inside and see what seat you can have at the table. See what this movement, this technology can do for you as an artist and what you can learn from it. I agree with the consensus that NFT usage will be just as prevalent as any other digital / internet feature we use today, so there’s no reason to shy away from it. Do it with caution, be aware of the concerns, and put out your artist statement with your work.



How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Business transparency and logistics communication all the way. Ensuring a standard is crucial to accurately valuing everyone’s time and skills, and it keeps the market fair for everyone. Competition is a wonderful thing because it increases the value of art. We have to work with our fellow community creatives, not against them. Competition should not be about decreasing the price of our work, it’s about the inherent value we offer as individuals. I ask artists what they’ve been doing, and I strongly encourage them to not provide free renderings in hopes that they’ll receive the work. It’s important to keep the ethics of artwork at the forefront of what we do because we are stronger together.
I also think a supportive environment for artists can be strengthened by sharing our stories in the places we create, so that the community can be more engaged in our work.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alexarzu.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/alexarzu
- Facebook: Facebook.com/alexarzu
- Linkedin: LinkedIn.com/alexarzu
- Twitter: Theartistarzu
Image Credits
Alex Barber, Jimmy Ellis and Mike Lazo
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