Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ricardo Acevedo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Ricardo , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?
In the visual arts: I use the human body in much of my work, it’s often seen as salacious. Even though almost all my work sells to women.
Musically: I blur styles. My work ranges from 80’s style New Wave to World beat Electro to post jazz and post rock. People like to put music in tidy boxes. That’s almost impossible with my work.
Ricardo , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
We don’t live a one dimensional life. We don’t live a life of only one active sense. We move through the world of ever varying, visual, sonic and… emotional landscapes that we congeal into our art if we are so blessed (or cursed) with the calling.
I have always felt the calling to the arts. Its in my blood. My father was a fine artist, and arts educator. My mother a singer, performer. As I grew up the arts were my solace in the turbulence of my home life. My outlet to trying understand the greater world, and also as a way to be noticed in the maelstrom of human emotion I felt.
I started as an illustrator, won many awards as a child. Dabbled in writing, and photography in my teens. Finally landing on music and stage performance and film in my 20’s. My bands Freaks Amor and The Blue Box played regularly all over southern Ca. in the 80’s. In the 90’s moved into more experimental musics and filmmaking while living in Flagstaff, and Phoenix Az. Finally landing in Austin Tx in 98 where I more embraced my writing, filmmaking, photography and illustrative graphic arts. Then in 2012 began my return to music as Lost Cat Magnet.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I had to learn that the arts are a conduit to a greater sense of self, not to be done for acceptance in any scene or the love and respect of others.
I grew up in very poor, alcoholic, and times violent world both at home and the city I grew up in. This lead me to often use the arts to feel like I was important, that I was worth something. This lead me into dark ego driven areas via a false sense of being needed.
Only after MANY falls, and years of therapy have a reached a place of greater understanding of my place in culture and my community.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
There’s a phrase “if everything is art, then nothing is”. Every word, every concept, requires exclusivity to have meaning. If everything is art, then art simply means everything, and we already have a word for everything: it’s, everything.
Art is an elusive concept. Art is simply not at the finger tips its a deep seated truth of the individual, and if its moved into the realm of “all” it is diminished into homogenized blandness. Art is in the realm of the deeper self. It can be used to help define and exercise ones personal energies but it is not, at its greatest depth, at the same capacity in all humans. We are not all artists.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acevedoricardo2016/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RAARTLIT https://www.facebook.com/lostcatmagnetTX https://www.facebook.com/RAworxATX
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricardo-acevedo-757a868/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/freaksamor
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVbBwIs4bt1-M7MTBG99WNw
- Other: https://soundcloud.com/lostcatmagnet https://inthera.tumblr.com
Image Credits
All images are mine. Either created, art directed by me. All live shots of me playing are by my wife Susan Acevedo