We recently connected with Artur Lago-Varjapetian and have shared our conversation below.

Artur, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

The biggest risk I took in my life was and is never compromising my vision for my life of someone else’s idea about what and how I should live it. From my early childhood back in my old country into my current adulthood in my home country we call united States of America, people always told me that pursuing my passion as a creative storyteller was just a childish dream and something I should do as my hobby. But the universe had a different plan for me. At age of 21, I won a green card lottery and decided to move to California where I could test my limits and challenge my perception of the world. And after years of figuring out myself and the world around me, I finally can say that listening to my intuition and working hard to embody my vision of myself, I finally have solid creative community of people that help me to realize my childhood dream of telling the stories, opening people’s horizons, and inspiring others.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Surviving a collapse of my country and a civil war as a child and a young adult, I witnessed the power of human kindness and support in the darkest times. All those years, only my dance teachers and a sense of community have helped me to stay inspired and hopeful. At age of 21, I won a green card lottery. I took a chance and moved to the United States of America alone. With $2000 that my parents had saved and my passion for dance and theater, I started my American journey.

After picking up part time jobs and learning English at Evans Adult School, I managed to earn a few educational scholarships and received my AA in Dance and Liberal Arts from Santa Monica College.

In Spring of 2015, after 6 years of magic, madness, injuries, surgeries, depression, and recovery, I finally received my BFA in Dance and Theater from CSULB. Thanks to Gregory R.R. Crosby my close friend and film mentor I met at CSULB, I developed a strong interest in film-making.

Since 2015, Greg and I co-produced, co-wrote, and acted side by side in multiple short films. Three of them being successfully received by film festivals nationally and internationally. And that collaboration gave me strength and confidence to get out there and pursue new projects, build new relationships, and find other talented people who generously share their dreams and skills.

One of my most recent projects includes my collaboration with an exceptionally generous filmmaker Austin Alward on the feature titled Tasmania where I play a lead role of Farhad Dabiri.
I currently am producing with my close friends and long term collaborators Iris Svis and Daniel Amato a Halloween feature with the Christmas theme titled Fortune Zombies written by Arnie Cantarero and me.
It’s an action adventure with a big heart about family, friends, and off course zombies. We are lucky to have such industry giants as Joe Pepe ( Avatar) and Stewart F. Wilson (Transformers) to lead our Art and Action/Stunt departments.

I have also been privileged to be a mentor, choreographer, and a performer for Inner City Shakespeare Ensemble established by Dr. Melanie Andrews to make sure art does what it does best: educates, entertains, unites, and inspires people of all colors, backgrounds, and ages.

All of the above is being made possible only because of the God’s, family’s, friends’, and my employer’s patience, support and guidance.

They give me strength to keep on pursuing my selfishly selfless dream of telling the stories and inspiring others to do the same.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of living my life as a creative professional is an opportunity to constantly be challenged and inspired by the wonders of human nature and the world around us. There is nothing like collaborating with people with so many stories and backgrounds while striving to tell a compelling and entertaining experience for our audience. Every time I get an opportunity to inspire a person through my work is a precious moment and hopefully this moment can turn into a memory that can make someone to fall in love even more with out ever changing world.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I believe that despite so many current challenges caused by emerging AI technology and other advances in the technological realm, there is never going to be a replacement of one factor that simply cannot be substituted by any technology: our universal human soul. And in order for our society and people who actually have an opportunity to improve the creative ecosystem, we simply need to embrace the fact that we are all wrong but we all thrive to do the right thing. With that philosophy in mind and some basic notion of humility and curiosity, we all can actively find a way to nurture our creative culture by getting in touch with the basic force of human nature-love.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.artur86v.wix.com/artist
• Instagram: artur_lago_v
• IMDbpro: https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm7722865?s=f6c55d45-54f4-d26e-df34-0ec52d300262&site_preference=normal

Image Credits
Gregory R.R Crosby Austin Alward