INTERVIEW | Ehren Salazar
The man.
The machine.
All those little lines. All that time. All that effort. All Ehren.
1.
L: How do you feel as a multidisciplinary artist wandering about on the occasionally dusty roads of Vancity?
E: How do I feel about being an artist in Vancouver?
L: Yeah, and a multidisciplinary artist in particular?
E: I guess for me it keeps… At least life is never boring, but at times I feel like my attention is spread too thin, that I’d like to focus on one thing and I wish that’d be something I was better at doing. I think there are a lot of artists in Vancouver that wrestle with that… But for my work, for instance, that is kind of a training ground for getting things done quicker and working in a style that isn’t as natural for me (tombstones). It involves very vector-line designs, and working off other people’s ideas and what they want from me. But being a multidisciplinary artist…hmmm. What can I say? I don’t focus enough on dancing. (Smiling) My dance practice is super rusty, but I will throw spin arounders in my day…quick spins. That sort of thing.
L: What kind of dancing do you do? Ballet?
E: No, no I’m joking.
L: I know, ha ha.
E: I like dancing, but…
L: You don’t do it…
E: Yeah…
L: State your “real” disciplines.
E: I draw. I try to draw everyday. And living in this new place has made it possible, in that I can have a mostly clear head. Having a designated area for my art, not just working out of my bedroom or out of cafes. Sometimes you have a designated drawing space, but you can’t focus because it’s at home, so you end up working better at The Grind or other coffee shops. Somehow in a public space you can focus better. But yeah I do: drawing, painting, animation, as well as tombstone and monument design. There is also running a gallery, and trying to play more music, as many music shows as I can… Trying to be a better guitarist. What else do I do? I don’t know if that answers your question.
L: I don’t know what the answer is either…
E: Who knows? No one knows the answer to that question.
L: Hmmm, that is probably true, but… would you like to remain a multidisciplinary artist?
E: I would, yeah, if I could. And make a living doing all those things. Music has always been more of a hobby, and I don’t ever anticipate any money coming in from music. But to have a full time job. Right now it’s with Pacific Spirit Stone Designs. It’s a small company. It’s just myself and my boss, and we’ve recently added a third person. There’s no shortage of work, which is good.
L: People keep dying on you?
E: Well, yeah, but we also…Ha ha, it’s the pun. But there are also other things, like parks… We recently did something for Port Moody’s City Hall park, so there’s landscaping, like building retaining walls. We do designs for water fountains made of stone and stone benches, so it’s not all tomb stones, although the bulk of it is.
Loading ...
