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

Hi Denise, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I never understood people that could take a NO for an answer, or people that could shut down an idea because it seemed impossible to do at the moment.

In 2010 When I was in my MFA’s thesis year, I had a Studio professor that would always look at me and say that’s impossible to achieve with the time you have, or he would always suggest to do something simpler. I simply couldn’t. The more he would tell me no, the more I wanted to do it.

Once I have an idea in my head, it’s really hard for me to shut it down. I like to try it and figure out myself if it’s possible or not. I’am very stubborn in that sense, but I simply can’t take a negative answer without even trying to think of a solution. During that thesis year I took big risks, I decided to make a huge project that was totally out of my confort zone in very little time.

As a designer with little background (at that moment) of coding and electrical and mechanical engineering, I decided to build a sculpture that had a sensor that reacted to electromagnetic waves when someone made a phone call. I not only had to make the system work, but I was trying to accomplish a visual appealing sculpture that would tangibly represent these waves, allowing visitors to interact with it when they made a phone call. Good news! I did it :) and got many offers from galleries to show it after the thesis show.

It would be unfair not to mention how I did it, because I learned that success is often shared, and in this case many people who believed in me helped me. A great family friend and amazing Architect Victoria Benatar helped me define the visual design. All my friends helped me assembly each individual acrylic piece (about 500) and then another group of programing friends helped me crack the code of the sensor! I made friends at the closest wood shop where they did the main structure. My dad an engineer helped me with the mechanical design, my mom always with love and support and lastly a well known artist from Venezuela Elias Crespin helped me with wise tips and tricks.

The sculpture was beautiful, I then learned that it looked like a piece from Le Parc (without knowing him at the time). After a year of hard work and 3 whole days without sleeping, I took it down and destroyed, yeah… so I had to cancel the gallery showing. Anyways, the experience was amazing and I have it well documented.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Denise Flasz, I was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. I currently reside in sunny Miami.

Through all my life, art and design have been my favorite subjects, and in 2005 I started my professional career on this path. I graduated as an Illustrator from the Instituto de Diseño de Caracas, and then expanded my career with my first Master’s degree in Multimedia design at Centro de Diseño digital in Caracas. I got my first job in an amazing company called Oruga Films and got the opportunity to work hand by hand with clients such as HBO, Sony, AXN just to name a few.

After a couple of years, thriving to learn more, I attended Parsons The New School for Design in NYC and graduated from the Master in Fine Arts program in Design and Technology. My thesis consisted of an interactive sculpture called “Intangible” that explored the interaction between invisible radio magnetic frequencies from cellphones and ourselves. I did various art exhibitions on and off School, it was truly amazing.

Getting to live and work in NYC made me grow professionally and personally like nothing else, I always say that NYC gave me the opportunity to peek into the future so I could bring back that knowledge home. During this time, I worked in various companies: Anomaly (Internship), Aviary Inc, now owned by Adobe (Full-time interactive designer), and Pixable (Freelancer).

On 2011, I returned to Caracas, and decided to open my own Interactive Design Studio, which I named DASZ from Denise Ana FlaSZ. This little studio had big National and International clients, and we offered everything design related: Graphic design, Web design, and Mobile design. My own personal favorite projects were the ones we made for cool startups.
When covid hit, most of my big clients placed their projects on hold, and this is when I decided to pursue a career path that I always loved and didn’t actually depend on anyone. I started my own art studio and online store called DASZ STUDIO.

My artwork is inspired by ambiguous concepts and the poetic contradictions around them. As an artist I explore the intersection between Art and Science, and incorporate technology when designing each piece. It all starts with an abstract concept: a feeling, dream, place, object or person. I study and deconstruct it, to then piece it back together in the form of a tangible multi-textured art piece. My artworks consist of geometric windows arranged symmetrically in balance, disrupted at some point with contrasting colors and vibrations to highlight certain areas. I work closely with light and shadows, and I’am fascinated by different materials and textures.

Most of my pieces are interactive and can be viewed from any direction; every point of view provides a different experience. Among my series is an exclusive collection of large artworks, framed in deep acrylic boxes in selected colors that become part of the artwork itself. I am currently working on adding Augmented Reality to my physical pieces and exploring the NFT world. My goal is to complete the cycle and bring back the tangible to an intangible world once again.

During the past years I’ve had many exhibitions and awards online and in cities like: West Palm Beach, Miami, New York City, Los Angeles, and Caracas. I also exhibited in Miami Art Week “Red Dot Art Fair”. You can check them out at www.daszstudio.com and Instagram @daszstudio

Now that the world it’s starting to get normal again with regulations, I am juggling myself between my design studio and my art studio. They are sister companies and compliment each other so well.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I am very intrigued and definitely jumping into that ship. I believe the decentralization of art is very important and this is the perfect solution. Having art available for purchase by anyone, and being able to profit from every sale or future re-sale of your piece, is something that wasn’t possible before. Something I learned is that the Art business is serious business, there are millions of sharks everywhere that want to get a bite out of your piece and profit from your work, between sale commissions, exhibition costs and galleries, the Artist still struggles to get a decent payment out of an artwork.

I am learning everyday and will sooner than later launch my own NFTs.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Creativity has made me an independent person. I was once called Mc Giver by a former boss because I would solve a problem with anything I had in front of me. It was my first day of work and it started pouring in NYC, of course my shoes got soaked wet, so I entered the office’s bathroom and made myself a pair of sleepers out of a Bounty roll . I was so nervous of what my boss would think, but he ended up being so impressed he gave me that nick name.

For me creativity has made me explore different solutions in certain situations, I would try to think possible solutions outside of everyone else’s thinking boxes. If there is a quality I strongly want my kids to have, is creativity.

Besides this, being able to know by heart Adobe Photoshop and illustrator has made me the hero of many stories. This are tools that should be taught in every school because I just can’t imagine someone not being able to solve the most simple daily tasks without this softwares.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.daszstudio.com
• Instagram: @daszstudio
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daszstudio
• Linkedin: @deniseflasz
• Twitter: @daszit
• Other: www.daszcreativos.com is my design studio website. @daszcreativos is my design studio instagram.

Image Credits
© Artwork by Denise Flasz