Today we’d like to introduce you to Plutarco Zazueta.
Hi Plutarco, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
I draw since I have memory, maybe since I was 3 years old. Something that couldn’t be missed in my family trips was my little notebook and a couple of pencils colors, every free time I had; I would spend it on drawing what I saw. For many years during Elementary school, that activity just passed as a hobby, at the time I didn’t wanted to take it seriously, cause for me, a proper education in arts involved painting, and when I was young, I hated acrylic a watercolor painting. So, I stood without art classes. At the age of 13, I had to choose to continue training Gymnastics in a more serious way, and for the next three years, I stopped drawing. In Highschool, now being 16 years old, I took the Graphic Design Class, where I explored many disciplines and techniques. That experience was what revived my love to draw and paint, and since then I have not stopped. Later I had the opportunity to take painting classes in a scholarship program for teenagers, where I painted for the first time in Oil painting, those were classes where we were taught about history of art, and they made us worked hard on sketches until the compositions were decent, they encouraged us to, before creating the art piece, write about the message and what we wanted to communicate with it. All those exercises and the creative ambient that surrounded the workshop was what made me took the decision to study the Degree in Plastic Arts. Now I am currently studying my last year of the career.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As I mentioned earlier, I used to practice Gymnastics in a professional way, and that sport was my whole life. Drawing was my hobby, the sports was what I took very seriously, that was until I suffered an injured when I was 15 years old, I suffered an injured called S.L.A.P. tear injury. My arm had to be immobilized for many months; I had to go to therapy to retrieve the movement in that area. My arm healed, but not for a proper return to the sport, so I chose to leave that dream behind. The same year I left the sport was when I started the class of Graphic Design in Highschool, remembering that passion I had for drawing helped me to overcome the sadness that I felt for leaving an activity that I dedicated 13 years of my life. In Painting, I found the concept and the ability of creating catharsis, and that was a relief. To finally have found a discipline where I can communicate my feelings using symbols and compositions that everyone can relate to and also appropriate it, that is all art is about. And founding that helped me to overcome that struggle.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Right now, I specialize in woodcut printing, oil painting, traditional illustration, and digital photomontages. The themes that I like to work with are fantasy and complaints about social injustices. Besides of touching separate subjects, I like to create series of art pieces that are connected by theme. Like the case of my series “Miedo” (fear) and “Apátridas” (stateless). In “Miedo,” I created portraits from the fears of my classmates during the first months of the Covid-19 Pandemic, using symbols and their faces; the title does not tell what are they afraid of, but the complete composition in the background. In the case of “Apátridas,” I denounced in photography and paintings actions that have negative consequences, but Mexican society has normalized and joined as part of its culture.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I see myself working into arts, either creating on my own or giving classes. My plan for the future is to create a public workshop where students and artists could use the installations to work without the necessity of a monthly payment or inscription. To have that space where I could use to work on my own stuff life woodcut printing, but also have the option of sharing the space with any artist or student who needs it. That’s my goal for my future me in 10 years, to create a common workspace for artists. Just sharing the tools and space to any person who need it. In Tijuana still does not exist a workshop like this one with a more access to public vision.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sites.google.com/uabc.edu.mx/plutarcozazueta/inicio
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_plutarco/?hl=es-la
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PlutarcoZazuetaCervera
