We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nick Rascona. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nick below.
Nick, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?
Now and then I do wonder what it’s like to have a regular job, to be able to compartmentalize work and life sounds interesting but ultimately I’m super grateful I get to live and work as an artist. I do work “overtime” basically every week and lines between work and life often bleed together but I am happy to show up everyday and make the work that is important to me.
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?
I am a visual artist primarily working with steel and aluminum. I studied Art at ASU and currently work full time out of a 1000 sq ft shop in Tempe. Some of my more notable accomplishments include a 6ft- tall steel sculpture in the city of Chandler, a 9ft- tall steel sculpture in Glendale, and a 5ft-tall kinetic sculpture made of wood and steel which was collected by SRP. I also regularly create sculptural works and sculptural gates gates for private residences across the valley. I am an AWS certified structural welder and have been practicing professional welding/ fabrication techniques within my work for years.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
If creating site-specific artwork is a problem to solve, there are no limitations on how to solve it. Every site is a new world for something in your imagination to crawl out of and live in. I really enjoy working through ideas in the sketchbook and refining them into proposals, but above all, I love my time in the studio where ideas are made reality. To be able to make this work is all I ever wanted, and to have clients commissioning works and giving them homes is a dream come true.
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 struggle for creatives to fit within the marketplace is ever-present. Negotiating the balance between selling “one’s work” and selling “one’s skills” is something I think people in other fields may have trouble understanding. Many people ask me why I don’t take some of my more successful ideas and streamline them- the concept that selling it twice is better than selling it once. This approach makes commercial sense but it doesn’t make creative sense. I have sold my work and I have sold my skills but my driving force is the pursuit to bring new ideas to life and to make a living while doing it. What resonates with me is to approach every project as an opportunity to make a new discovery, to push my abilities, and to create something great.
Contact Info:
- Website: nicolasrascona.com
- Instagram: @nickrawsart
- Facebook: @nickrawsart