B3 – Artist Conversation – Alvaro Alvarez Salazar Fall

Exhibition Information

Artist: Alvaro Alvarez Salazar Fall

Exhibition: Rolling Call

Media: Video (Paint. Paper, & Music)

Gallery: LBSU School of Art

About The Artist

Alvaro Alvarez Salazar Fall is an artist who is pursuing a degree in CSULB’s School of Arts. He is a first generation immigrant who also is the first person to attend a University in his family. Alvaro is very much driven to express his abstract and creative ideas through the art of painting, movement, and music.

Formal Analysis

The work that Alvaro presented in the gallery is known as “Live Art to Beethoven Triple Concerto in C major and Fantasy in C minor for Piano, Chorus”. His piece is a video that was projected onto a wall located on the left side of the gallery and it includes audio to hear the music and all the sounds recorded in his video. The video contains Alvaro on top of a blank white tarp with trays full of paint around him. He then uses the colors pink, blue, green, and yellow to paint on the canvas.

Content Analysis

In the video, Alvaro uses his body and complex motions as a response to the music he was playing. I asked him if there was a specific vision he had for this painting, but he said that he wanted to only move through the music without any ideas or feelings. In the beginning he used streaks of blue, pink, green, and yellow then began using erratic motions. Over time the painting went from streaks of blue, green, and yellow to a bold and mixed navy blue color. Alvaro wanted to push his idea of the natural expression of music and using movements and colors is a great way for him to express his ideas.

Synthesis / My Experience

Being completely honest, watching Alvaro’s work did not completely appeal to me. But his piece stood out the most in the gallery in my eyes. I am a very passionate person and I enjoy art that is moved with a purpose and emotion. But watching his art reminds me that we all need to move freely without thought sometimes. It is like mediation and moving with your mind without your thoughts burdening you. You are being you at the moment and you do not care about the past or the future. Alvaro is naturally responding to the notes of Beethoven and his work ends up looking dark and bold. This piece of art is very raw as he does not make any edits to his video. Music is a very important aspect in my life and seeing a visual representation of music is very important to me.

B2 – Designed Thinking

Design Thinking Applied To Life

  1. Musical Artist

Currently I’m working on becoming a musical artist. Becoming any musical artist is a lot of risk taking and hard work but my passion for music is eternal. There is no specific formula in making it in the industry, but there are generally steps and pathways that many rappers and musicians went through to blow up. In order for me to become the artist that I envision, right now I’m perfecting my craft while going to the studio as much as possible. That way I can create high quality music that is exceptional and appealing to my audience. That means I have to sacrifice time I have for school and hanging with friends and family to push out high quality projects. I also want to add visuals for my music and create music videos then post them on YouTube. Music videos are key for artists to gain recognition online since most rappers/musicians today have blown up from just one video. While all this work and creating needs to be funded, I also resell clothes and make money working part-time with my uncle. As I begin to get recognition for my music online, I plan on using social media to gather followers and to create an image for myself. Also, I plan on networking with fellow artists/influencers and collaborating with other rappers/musicians who are well known which will gain other audiences’ ears to listen to my music. As I gain a big following, obviously labels will be contacting me but I do not plan on signing a deal in which a label will take ownership of my music (except if I know the label can exceed my needs and as well as letting me have full creative control on my music). I plan on this happening before the age of 20. At the age of 21, I want to get a lot of money to live the lavish lifestyle I want to live and experience life to the fullest. Although I sound like I only want to make money from music, this paragraph was only written from a business mindset. I want to create music that other people can relate to and to help them with whatever they are going through in life while making money. I too was also the same kid who listened to many types of music which helped me throughout my whole life and without music I wouldn’t be writing this right now. (Confidence: 90, Resources: 60, Impact: 80, Satisfaction: 100)

2. Fashion Marketer/Stylist

Now if being a musical artist disappeared I would be very depressed, but I also have another passion which is fashion. Dressing in the flyest outfit is one of the most fun and satisfying thing to do. Fashion is a very broad industry and there are many jobs in the industry that specialize in other things, but I want to be able to help market brands or style for models like Ian Connor, Bloody Osiris, and other rappers. Many of my peers say I have a good eye in trends of the media and I like to give off a lot of ideas in order to promote something. So basically in order for me to work in the fashion in the industry, I need to network and make connections with people. Then I need to intern and gain a lot of experience working in the background of things, Then I will have to move my way up this social and fashion chain and gain a following in the internet. Then I can work with brands and style other models/artists. (Confidence: 70, Resources: 70, Impact: 80, Satisfaction: 95)

3.  Photographer

If I was financially secure, I would be a photographer. I always wanted to be a photographer when I was little because I loved the cinematics of movies and tv shows that I watched. I would just build an instagram full of my work and projects and take pictures of things and events I’m interested in. I would make galleries of my work and do what I want in life while capturing them through the lenses. I would take pictures of models and charge for shoots. I want to shoot for brands or for artists and make money off my work. (Confidence: 65, Resources: 70, Impact: 85, Satisfaction: 80)