Conversations with MIGUEL

Today we’d like to introduce you to MIGUEL.

Hi MIGUEL, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I became interested in oil painting as a child at the encouragement and teaching of one of my aunts. That was my first ‘formal’ experience in making art and I was probably 10. It took me 40 years to finally make it my full time job. In the between, I drew in school, doodled at home, and in general kept at it when opportunity came. Then I went to architect school. Drawing became a tool of representation and now informs my work whether I intend it or not. I make abstract work or figurative but at the end, I remain a landscape painter at heart.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Had I known the risks of having art as a full time profession, I’d probably have stuck it with architecture. But a combination of love for the art, the hopeful inexperience of youth, and a healthy dose of luck, delivered me to the present. I love what I do for a living and I have a family. There are always ups and downs, the moments of doubt can happen on the daily, and the economics of the whole endeavor can be shaky at times, but there is a point of no return, and making art becomes your life. For worse or better.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
In my work, I’d say the main goal is to try and express my humanity through visual means. I am curious about different ways to do it. I relish the process as much as I’m impatient to see an idea implemented.
I’m a firm believer that less is more, and also that sometimes the best way to convey a simple idea is in the most baroque way.
In my art practice I follow the work. I try and tune into my emotion and let it follow the work. To me an idea is some kind of a miraculous system of frequencies that I’m only lucky to access through my humanity..

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Los Angeles became my home when I was already an adult. I didn’t slowly wake up to it, but rather LA presented itself to me as a complete and complex ever-changing package. Crowded and deserted. Open vistas and interminable boulevards lined with parking spaces. New ideas told in new languages and old traditions nurtured in my native Spanish. Lavish affluence coexisting with brutal need. At this point in time Los Angeles is the place I’ve lived the longest although I’ve left it at least three times. I never really left, I was just temporarily away.
I just love LA.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.miguelosuna.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miguel_osuna_artstudio?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr