We recently connected with Eric Gazca and have shared our conversation below.

Eric, appreciate you joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I’m very thankful that my art career is happening now. I just turned 40 a few days ago and it feels like the lights finally turned on in my head.

When I was younger I had anxiety thinking about making and displaying my art. It was such a big fear that I would barely create a thing besides gifts or sketches. It honestly took taking my mental health seriously and going to therapy to build my confidence up to try. Since those moments of clarity came into my life I’ve been striving to be more expressive and free flowing in my art.

I don’t think my art career or life would be where it is now if it all started earlier. I’m thankful for the life experience I can put into my work.

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

My name is Eric and I’ve been making art since I was in the 3rd grade. I had a classmate named Duke who was already an amazing illustrator at that age. ( Shout out to Duke from Coldwater Canyon Elementary )

I’ve been drawing since then. Traditional illustration is a love and hate thing for me. Even though I’ve done it my entire life, it can be tough to be satisfied with my work. Which is why I love the mixed media paintings I’m making. They free me of any traditional ideas I have. I’m capable of just letting loose and painting my feelings.

Both my parents are from Mexico and their culture is what is building up in the canvases I’m painting.
Through imagery and texts I find that I’m falling in love with the Mexican culture as I go along.

I’m not a traditional Hispanic artist by any means, I find myself not being able to paint classic Mexican images.
I make paintings that are based on the experience of our culture through the eyes of this first generation Mexican American who doesn’t wear his traditions on his sleeve.

Rap and poetry has always been in my heart as well, since I was a kid riding the school bus, all of us listening to K-Day and 92.3 the beat. So poems or phrases are a huge part in my art as well. I write everything in Spanish. Those small phrases and poems have become a huge part of my work. Sometimes I have the phrase first and build up from there.

I think what sets me apart is the same reason I make art. The fact that mainstream Mexican art is always Conchas, Frida Khalo, & la loteria etc. So I make art for the people that identify beyond that. The people who are of Hispanic culture and all of the other things they’ve experienced in their life.
We aren’t just simple images and ideas of those things. We’re complex and beautiful individuals that will always be apart of a larger culture.

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

The freedom that has come with being truly creative and the therapeutic nature of it. If I’m really letting go, I’m guided through the moments with paints, brushes, spray cans, and oil pastels.

It’s so rewarding seeing these things build up on themselves in a piece of the canvas and create something larger. Something more.

The therapy is in those movements, a flow of the brush after a long and frustrating day at work. Collapses all the stress in that moment to a calming quiet. The endless potential and possibilities of what can be on the canvas is life changing

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

The hardest part about being an artist is the fact I didn’t have a lot of support growing up. Both my parents were from poor ranchos in Guanajuato Mexico. So they only understood a hard days work and wanted me to focus on finding a job and earning money. It was hurtful but only until I understood what they had gone through and that they wanted better for me. My art career took a back seat to earning money and trying to do better in my life.

It’s only as I got older that and had boys of my own that I realized that I could still dream, and show them to chase theirs. That I wasn’t old enough to give up on making art because I truly loved it. I could always find a moment here or there to paint or make something. No matter how busy I was I could still express myself in art. We never know what someone is going through at the time, so check in on all your creative friends.  We can use it. Trust me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @huesos_arte