Today we’d like to introduce you to Robert Garza.
Robert, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve been working professionally as an artist for two years, but I’ve always been drawn to the arts. My mother is a painter and a musician, as was her father, and that was a major influence for me. Growing up, I consumed a lot of 90’s culture through TV. I watched a lot of after-school and Saturday morning cartoons, and I read a lot of comic books. I was also an avid little gamer.
These things inspired me to draw. A lot. I would even get scolded by teachers for drawing in class. I’d make comic books and draw characters I’d love to see on TV or in video games. However, I hadn’t taken any art classes until my high school senior year. I was exposed to fine art on a level I hadn’t really before and I fell in love with it. Soon after, I was working on my Associate’s in Art, intending to make some kind of serious living as an artist.
I had ups and downs with my education and with my confidence as an artist, but I eventually found my way to The Basement Gallery in 2015. I’d shown my work in student art shows and a pop-up here and there, but I didn’t really feel like I was succeeding as an artist until I began interning for the Basement’s owner, Daniel Yanez. He taught me a lot about the business side of the art world and always encouraged me to believe in my artistic ability. I even quit my job to spend more time working there, living solely on making art and assisting Daniel with murals and hosting art shows. I met many great friends there and worked hard to catch up to them as an artist. I started my own graphic design and art brand, and I tempered my skills like never before. Before I knew it, I was managing The Basement and creating art every day for a living.
When the city came down on us there and we closed our doors as a gallery, I did whatever I could to keep The Basement going for and with Daniel. Some months later we reopened as a shared studio space. We operated like that for a while, but the winds of gentrification blew our direction and we were forced to leave. We carried the same principle idea to a new location and opened Elevate in 2018, for which I am the Managing Director. There we keep the spirit of The Basement alive by giving artists a place to work and grow, just as it did for me and many others for years.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road to where I am hasn’t been easy. I continuously struggle with some pretty severe depression, and there were many times I wanted to give up because I felt I simply wasn’t good enough. I had hard mental and emotional periods, which I tried to keep buried and hidden from my friends and peers. Of course, that didn’t help. It only sucked away my drive and affected my artwork and relationships in the worst ways. But I had good friends to help me, and I was able to work through those periods. Since then, I feel my art has been on a steady rise in quality and I can properly focus on making successful moves, as well as keep up with my ever-growing responsibilities tied to Elevate and our team.
Now my struggles surround how to improve my work and how to get as many people as possible to know my name as an artist, as well as that of Elevate. Social media algorithms are extensive and annoying, but they’re manageable. It will take some rolled-up-sleeves-style work, but our team is phenomenal and I’m confident we’ll do some great things together.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite memory from childhood has to be the when I was about 11 or 12. My two best friends slept over at my house on a Friday after school. and we spent the whole night hanging out and playing card games (we were really big into Yu-Gi-Oh! those days) and video games, determined to stay up to see Saturday morning episodes of whatever shows were coming on. That was a great night, full of laughter and simple fun.
Pricing:
- Logo and Graphic Design – negotiable pricing (starting out at an hourly rate of $25/working hour)
Contact Info:
- Address: 1005 W Jefferson Blvd Suite 402, Dallas, TX, 75208
- Website: https://rsg-art-and-design.wixsite.com/artistwebsite
- Phone: 469 323 2689
- Email: robertgarza9@yahoo.com
- Instagram: @rsgartanddesign
- Facebook: @rsgartanddesign
- Twitter: @RobertGarza9
Image Credit:
Elva Chavez, Frankie Garcia III
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