Prototype Issue
An Artist Back Home
By Carlos Ramirez
(page 1 of 1)Antonio Pelayo hasn’t always had friends; He hasn’t always felt at home in his surroundings either, but he has always found refuge in drawing, an art he has practiced since he was 2.
It was at that age that Pelayo embarked on a journey which would lead to a budding art career in Los Angeles. In the last two years, he has had about 60 shows in southern California. Pelayo’s preschool teacher, who predicted he would one day be an artist, wasn’t mistaken. But perfecting his art came less from having a gift at birth and more from experiencing solitude as so many like Pelayo do while being immigrants in the United States.
Born in the U.S., Pelayo and his family moved back to Mexico when he was 9 years old. “When we first moved over there I had no friends, but I had my art,” he says. Only eight years later he moved back to LA and again his art was his only companion. This displacement, although preventing him from forming longterm friendships, gave him ample time to perfect his craft.
Pelayo works primarily with pencil to create realistic portraits so precise they appear as black and white photographs. Although he is beginning to experiment with oil paint, Pelayo is fascinated by the power of graphite in a pencil. “I can’t believe that with just one material you can create such an intricate piece,” he says. Intricate is the right word to describe “Reflection,” which portrays a profile of a man smoking. Anyone who has ever used pencil in an introductory drawing class can appreciate the commitment and talent that it takes to create such distinctive shades of grey. Most impressing in the drawing is the depiction of smoke.
The man in “Reflection” is difficult to identify, but in most of his work, Pelayo captures the image of various prominent figures found in politics and pop culture. These portraits poignantly reflect the diversity of Pelayo’s world.
He draws fallen icons such as revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata, who fought for the common people during the Mexican Revolution; Mexican hero Frida Kahlo; Hip-Hop saint Notorious B.I.G.; Tupac Shakur, who documented ghetto life and struggle through poetic raps; and Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe, who died of an apparent overdose. These wide range of figures accurately depict the many worlds Pelayo has traversed.
Pelayo says one trait is true for all the people he recreates on paper: they are all doing/did something positive for the world. Most of his subjects have a longing for something better, which makes them a part of history and sources of inspiration for so many.
Pelayo has decided to document his family’s migration to the U.S. in an attempt “to get more personal” for his next project. Embarking on this exploration, Pelayo will be forced to ponder the questions: Am I American? Mexican-American? Latino? Other? These questions may sound simple to some, but for immigrants, such as myself, they’re quite difficult to answer.”
For more about the artist, visit www.antoniopelayo.com or www.mendenhallsobieskigallery.com.
Discussion