Today we’d like to introduce you to Alyssa Razo.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I’ve always been an artistic gal. Growing up I was always drawing or painting something. So although I mainly paint now, my formal education is actually in photography. I attended college at UC Riverside on a softball scholarship (not many athletes in the art department, I stuck out pretty well). I then went on and actually got my Masters in Studio Art with an emphasis on photography from Fresno State. I mainly shot sports and sports portraiture, but I always needed something else to kind of cleanse my artistic palette if you will, so I was always either drawing on my iPad or painting something. I saw a person on Instagram painting with resin and just had to try it. Couple hundred hours of youtube tutorials and some pretty awful first paintings, I finally got comfortable with using resin! Three years later and here we are.
Please tell us about your art.
I paint with resin, which is both a tricky and super rewarding medium to paint with. I create unique ocean-inspired art, mostly ocean areal views / abstract ocean views. Resin is super fun to work with because you can pretty much mix anything into resin; paint, pigment, powders, spray paint, sand, inks, etc. I move the colors in my paintings around with my hands and a heat gun, giving it a fluid, realistic look.
I’ve lived in California my whole life, which is pretty amazing. I grew up about 15 minutes inland of Monterey, so the coast and ocean has always been a part of my life. I moved to the Carlsbad area after finishing college, and am super lucky to be able to see the water every day. The ocean is such an extremely important part of our climate and ecosystem; I want my work to show its vastness, its beauty, and its importance in our day to day lives. I’ve made several pieces with plastic and debris that I’ve found at beaches, as well as recycled resin drips in order to reduce my waste when using this medium.
We only have this one planet that gives us life, so preserving its function and beauty is important to me.
What do you think about the conditions for artists today? Has life become easier or harder for artists in recent years? What can cities like ours do to encourage and help art and artists thrive?
I think, unfortunately, especially in today’s economy, the term “starving artist” is more relevant than ever. The practicality of making a living and being a practicing artist is daunting! Personally, I would love to be a full-time artist and create rad things every day, but I have a job as a server and that ultimately pays my bills. I’m beyond grateful for my job and the fact that I still have days off every week when I can paint and create, but I don’t want to work at a bar forever.
I think the biggest problems that artists face today is balancing a need for the market, but also being able to detach from it. Especially with social media, I have definitely caught myself searching and paying attention to what people are buying or collecting, and comparing myself to more successful artists, and trying to figure out how they figured it out haha. Ultimately though, I just always have to remember to stay authentic to myself, no matter how successful other artists have become that are using the same medium or subject matter that I am.
I think another tough thing is that people often don’t look at being an artist as a “real job” or a full-time job, so they don’t always appreciate the craft ya know. Painting with resin is pretty expensive, and as much as I want my art to be out there in the world and in people’s homes or businesses when looking at pricing my work, I have to make sure I at least cover my expenses. So when someone is interested in one of my pieces, but still tries to talk me down price wise, it gets a little discouraging. Art is an investment, and when you purchase something from an artist, you’re not just buying that finished piece.
San Diego and North County are some of the most artistic, and artist-friendly places I’ve seen. Carlsbad has some of the coolest murals on the sides of businesses and restaurants. There are so many galleries, museums, art fairs, and markets that take place in the San Diego County, and a lot of the events and fairs are free to attend. I think a really cool thing that I’ve been seeing lately is a different take on those “wine and paint nights” is that larger breweries are hosting little art fairs and markets for artists to come set up and display their stuff. What’s better than checking out some cool art and drinking some local beer, which there is no shortage of in San Diego!
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
I try to post my work as much as I can on my Instagram @_artbyalyssa, and I am also in the process of building up my website www.alyssarazo.com, and my boss is super cool and lets me hang a lot of my work up at the bar I work at (Mission Ave Bar and Grill) in Oceanside.
I mostly sell things through Instagram; people can just shoot me a message if they’re interested in a piece, or if they want something custom I’ve done a lot of custom commissions as well.
I mainly just go out in the community and ask local businesses (bars, coffee shops, restaurants) if they would like to support a local artist and let me hang some of my work up! Oceanside is all about supporting local business, so I have had a lot of luck with that.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alyssarazo.com
- Email: alyssarazophoto@gmail.com
- Instagram: @_artbyalyssa
Image Credit:
Alyssa Razo
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