When artist, Isidro Blasco finished his piece for Lafayette, I had the pleasure of sitting down with him and discussing his work. He constructed a 3-Dimensional structure of the NYC skyline and placed graffiti in the sky. The work is quite interesting as it captures your attention. When asked what inspired his work, he replied, “ I have no inspiration.” He said he has the same idea in all his work, which is to capture the way we look at life. His response surprised me, but he then went on to say, “ I like to have many layers to a project.” Blasco feels that art should have some depth to it, but then later retracts his statement and says, “Actually, art just needs to be attractive because art is a spectacle.”
I had never thought as art as a spectacle of such, but it is true, you want the viewer to walk past you work, but also feel an inclination to look back and examine it. Blasco’s city sculpture does just that and when asked why he put the graffiti in the sky, he replied, “ It is a characteristic or New York City and adds a historical context.” He is right, NYC is well known for unique graffiti murals around the city and the beauty of Blasco’s structure is its subtle use. Despite Blasco’s handywork and technical knowledge, he insits that “if you try to teach art, you end up destroying it.”
His advice to the Lafayette students is to “look for things that you really like, don’t listen to any body. We are all different and you have to compete with so many other forms of expression. If your work is not different, you will not be good and the only way it can be different if it comes from you.” Isidro Blasco is humorous, incredibly talented and inspirational. His work transcends traditional photography and sculpture and pushes boundaries while creating new ones. Isidro Blasco’s only request was ” I hope my work does not end up as bathroom art, I saw some art in the bathroom and I dont want it to be mine”
We promise you Isidro, it will not.
