33. Straight for the Soul — Diego Glazer

Diego Glazer: 0:00

People want to meet the artist. The reality is that collectors want to have a certain intimacy with the artist and they want to feel like they know you and they want to. They're not just buying a beautiful object. They're buying a part of you.

Laura Arango Baier: 0:15

Welcome to the BoldBrush show where we believe that fortune favors the bold brush. My name is Laura Arango Baier, and I'm your host. For those of you who are new to the podcast, we are a podcast that covers art marketing techniques, and all kinds of business tips specifically to help artists learn to better sell their work. We interview artists at all stages of their careers, as well as others who are in careers tied to the art world in order to hear their advice and insights. Before we begin with today's episode, I would like to make a couple of announcements on behalf of the team at BoldBrush. The first announcement is that we changed our name. Yes, the name of the podcast is no longer The BoldBrush Podcast, it is now The BoldBrush Show. The reason we changed our name is because we want to move in a direction of having multiple guests on at the same time in order to create more interesting conversation. This, of course, is no different from what we were doing before. It simply means that it's like what we were doing in seasons one and two, but 2.0. It's just a lot more stuff that we can talk about which is really cool. And then the other announcement that I'd like to make is that we are now officially a video podcast as well. And that means you're going to be able to see our guests and see some of their cool stuff in their studio, which is really exciting. We're still figuring out where we will be hosting our videos. And once we have that announcement done, I will mention it in a future episode. The only way you can see our videos right now is if you're a FASO member, and you can find us on the Marketing Center in your control panel. For now, though, for everyone else, we are still an audio podcast, you can still hear us on Spotify, Apple wherever you get your podcasts. And once we formally have a place where our videos are live for the public, I will let you all know. And now without further ado, I'd like to present our first guest to kick off the season and his name is Diego Glazer. Diego is an American born Mexican-Swiss artist who specializes in the human figure. On this episode we discuss how he found his calling what inspires him great advice for artists who are trying to find their voice and how he approaches prospective collectors in order to establish a connection and maybe even a friendship. We also discuss his ongoing show at Abend gallery as well as a really cool project that he's working on right now which is a still life video course where he teaches you how he makes still lives and how you can make beautiful still lives as well. Hello, Diego, how are you today?

Diego Glazer: 2:41

I'm good. Laura, how are you? Thank you for having me.

Laura Arango Baier: 2:44

Yeah! I'm good. I'm really happy to have you because it's been I think you said it was what, like six years since we last saw each other?

Diego Glazer: 2:51

Something like that. Yeah. And every so often, I'll think about you because Facebook will suggest an old picture that I painted of you. It's one of my one of my favorite porches I ever painted. And every so often I'll get reminded of it. I thought it was so cool to see you with the silver hair. It was such a unique kind of portrait to paint.

Laura Arango Baier: 3:13

Yeah, thank you. The silver hair, sadly did not last because it's not good for your hair. But I also remember that I remember because it was like it was almost like a rite of passage where the new comers would get like tricked into joining the portraits, you remember?

Diego Glazer: 3:34

Yeah. Yeah.

Laura Arango Baier: 3:36

I was like,"If I model, I get to join in portrait!" And no, that's not true.

Diego Glazer: 3:41

I did portraits, and I never sat, so.

Laura Arango Baier: 3:46

Oh, really?

Diego Glazer: 3:48

Yeah.

Laura Arango Baier: 3:49

You slipped past us. Oh, no!

Diego Glazer: 3:51

Yeah.

Laura Arango Baier: 3:54

Yeah. Oh, man. Well, I'm glad I'm glad you, you know, painted me because I also have fond memories of like, you know, texting my mom, like,"Look, Mom!" Because I think the painting was put on like a poster or something. And I was like, damn!

Diego Glazer: 4:09

Yeah, yeah, we printed at like, a few feet wide. It was awesome. Massive.

Laura Arango Baier: 4:15

Yeah, yes. Oh, so cool. Yeah. So actually, before we continue, do you mind giving our listeners a little bit about your background and what you do?

Diego Glazer: 4:29

Of course, so I would consider myself a figurative oil painter. And I grew up in... I was born in the States, but I grew up in Mexico ever since I was three years old. So that's pretty much all I knew when I was growing up. I grew up in Queretaro, Mexico, it's a city in the center of the country. And when it came time to study arts, there wasn't a whole lot of resources around for the kind of stuff that I really wanted to learn, which was to paint like the old masters. So I started in a regular art school in Mexico, eventually, I had the opportunity to go to an atelier style school in Florence called The Angel Academy where we met. And that was exactly what I was looking for. I did three years at the angel Academy. And then I went back to Mexico to do a little bit of exploration on my own, because an atelier type school is usually training ground for very specific and controlled exercises to learn how to see and paint. But then I decided to take the next few years to figure out what I wanted to paint. So I started doing everything under the sun, I painted still life, figure, portrait, animals, architecture... everything you could possibly think of, and eventually started to fuse those different genres together. And eventually, a couple of years ago, I moved to Denver. And then, sorry about that.

Laura Arango Baier: 6:14

You're good!

Diego Glazer: 6:16

So I decided to move to Denver because I'm an American citizen. And Denver has a better art scene than my hometown in Mexico. My hometown has a decent art scene, but Denver has more things going on and has a whole street dedicated to the arts and, and we have a lot of talented people living here. So I've been in Denver for two years, and I'm a practicing artist here, trying to get into the gallery game and trying to succeed in this niche of the figurative arts.

Laura Arango Baier: 6:52

The toughest niche.

Diego Glazer: 6:54

Yeah.

Laura Arango Baier: 6:56

Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. You have to really love it. Yeah, you know, figurative... a nd it's so funny, because a lot of the people I interview on here are also figurative. And actually, what I find fascinating is that I feel like there's always something in common, you know, amongst figurative painters, and that is that deep love and appreciation for one, the old masters and then also, there's just something that's easier in terms of storytelling. When it comes to you know, a person seeing a person on a canvas, right. It's much like, personally, I feel like it's easier for me to relate to a figure than you know, maybe like, no offense to Picasso, but...Picasso, right,

Diego Glazer: 7:42

Yeah!

Laura Arango Baier: 7:43

um, yeah, I mean, there's inspiration to be found there. But we're just like, from youth, it seems like we're all just leaning always towards the old masters and being like, ah, the way that they painted, you know, it's incredible.

Diego Glazer: 8:02

Absolutely, yeah.

Laura Arango Baier: 8:03

Yes. Yeah. So I wanted to know, if you could, because like you went through this whole, you know, exploration phase, right, you were exploring the figure and architecture and still life. And I remember because, like, it's so funny. Whenever you go to one of these academic schools, it's so great to go to the person who just graduated, go to their Instagram and like, check out what they're doing now. And like, be like, Oh, my God, did you see that amazing shell that he painted? You know? I remember you did like a whole like, still life. You were amazing. At still lives. By the way. I remember when I was at Angel.

Diego Glazer: 8:39

Thank you. Oh, thank you.

Laura Arango Baier: 8:41

That it in my memory. Yeah. Yeah.

Unknown: 8:44

Yeah. I like those paintings of perishables. They make me they make me hungry.

Laura Arango Baier: 8:49

Yeah. Like literally are hungry to paint more.

Diego Glazer: 8:54

Both!

Laura Arango Baier: 8:56

Yes, that's true. And they're also just, oh, perishables are the hardest, but the most fun because they push you to the limit, you know?

Diego Glazer: 9:07

Yeah. And they do what they want. They rot or they don't rot and you just got to chase them.

Laura Arango Baier: 9:11

Yeah. Yeah. Or replace them if you can. Yeah, exactly. So since you went through this whole exploration of, you know, themes and styles and ideas, and I wanted to know, if you don't mind, sharing how your processes, you know, from inspiration to, you know, approaching a new project or an idea.

Unknown: 9:40

Of course, so, over the last few years, I've started to settle on what I like and what I don't like, and that's helped me narrow down a lot of how I come up with a new painting. So I know that I like old rustic things. I know, I like old, exquisite and elegant things. I like natural beautiful things like sea shells, bones, fruits. What I don't like is modern things like someone wearing a t-shirt from the gap, or...

Laura Arango Baier: 10:15

Oh my god

Diego Glazer: 10:16

you know, I would never paint that. And I would never paint a can of Coke or, or a pack of Twizzlers or something like that I would never do it. So that already helps a lot. I'm always surrounded by the kind of objects that I like. So let's say I want to paint a still life. I have a collection of shells, bones, branches, rocks. It's so weird, like I'll walk around parks. And you know around nature with a backpack and I'll start picking up branches and rocks like a weirdo and just putting them in my backpack. Just carry in the way I have no idea what people think when they see that. But they're great for my still lives. You know?

Laura Arango Baier: 11:01

Yeah, yeah. And you're in good company too. Because Rembrandt's had, you know, if you've ever visited Rembrandt's house, he had a massive collection of taxidermy, shells, probably sticks from what I remember. Yeah, in good company. It's like, it's another idiosyncrasy with, like, realist painters, or we just collect pretty natural things.

Diego Glazer: 11:25

Heck, yeah, totally. And like, No, there's no real shame involved. I mean, it's, I think it's so cool to be to embrace being a weirdo just to serve a cool painting. Like, I don't, I don't care much about how I look, picking up sticks on the street, if it's gonna make a badass painting. And you know, that's the bottom line for me. So I'll throw things up on a table, I have some like, pieces of barnwood that I've found. And all, I'll start throwing things together, there's usually a backplane, to the still lifes where I might nail something to the backplane, where it's hanging, or I might add some, some volume covered by a fabric where I'm adding a shell on top of that. So it's not just things sitting on a table, but things sitting on a few different planes, it makes it a little more dynamic. And I also don't hesitate to make things up and change things around. Because reference is just that: it's a reference. And if I feel like I have to make this shell bigger, or I have to change the shape of a part of it, or whatever, I'm perfectly fine doing that, you know, it's something I've learned and forced myself to do. And that's how I'd approach a still life. If I were to approach a figure painting, I'd probably start out thinking of a mood. Or perhaps a model or a friend that I know has an amazing outfit that I've seen her wear or him wear, and I think it matches the mood. So I'll hire him to come over and do a photo shoot with that mood that I had in mind that might match the outfit and just try to funnel everything about the image to that emotion that I'm trying to convey. As opposed to what we were talking about earlier. For example, Picasso, I feel like there's a lot of obstacles, to be able to feel what he wants me to feel. He made--he makes it impossible for me to feel it. But there's a lot of artists that just beeline straight to my heart, you know, and, and to my soul, and there's no obstacles, and I love it. And that's the kind of art that I want to make. I don't want to have obstacles for you to feel my work, you know?

Laura Arango Baier: 13:50

Yeah, yeah. Do you mind telling us like what artists reach your soul like that?

Diego Glazer: 13:57

Daniel Sprick, I'd say is one of the main ones that really, I mean, I feel like when I look at his paintings, everything about him makes sense to me. They're exquisite, they are moody, they have a very deliberate and a very specific ambience and they, they they're not really they're not even pretending to be anything where you have to analyze that much. They're beautiful paintings, they're beautiful shapes and a beautiful mood. And I don't usually don't bother to try to read a Dan Sprick painting. I just stand there and I feel it and I take it in and I enjoy it.

Laura Arango Baier: 14:44

I love that. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's more meditative and appreciative. So now, a very challenging question. And that is, if you could only pick one thing to paint for the rest of your life, right? Whether it's Like either the human figure or still life, or architecture, I mean, whichever of these things you explored, you can only pick one of these things the rest of your life, what would it be?

Diego Glazer: 15:11

I'll do you want better. It's exactly between human figure and still life, I would paint, skeletons, and skulls. That's--if I could only paint skeletons and skulls for the rest of my life, I'd be perfectly happy to do that. It's--I absolutely love them. They're a beautiful, beautiful natural sculpture. I mean, they formed themselves, it's not like someone's sculpting these, they just formed from nature, and we all have when inside of us. And they're also very expressive and versatile. So a skull has--different skulls from different people have different qualities and looks. A skull seen from a lower angle can be very imposing. A skull, seen from a higher angle seems almost pitiable. You know, you, you can make a skull look like it's angry, you can make it look like it's smiling. And an old weathered skull says something very different than a fresh and clean school, you know. And depending on what you pair them with, they can take on different meanings. So one meaning that I think everyone can relate to and it's one thing I relate to about skulls is the simple fact of mortality. You know, I'm perfectly aware that I could, this interview can end and I'll slip on a banana peel. And that's it, you know? So that's the way I try to approach my paintings. Like, always think of mortality, like if this was the last thing I painted. Am I leaving the kind of mark on the world that I want to leave? Or am I not? You know?

Laura Arango Baier: 17:03

Wow. Yes. Wow. That's a whole conversation, right there. Because, like, you know, it fascinates me that they're, you know, in history, there are so many painters who they had such amazing work, right. So like, Fortuny. If you remember Fortuny.

Diego Glazer: 17:26

I love Fortuny.

Laura Arango Baier: 17:28

He died at the age of like, 32, or something.

Diego Glazer: 17:31

I know.

Laura Arango Baier: 17:31

It's like, no.

Diego Glazer: 17:34

Gut wrenching.

Laura Arango Baier: 17:36

Yes! He had so much to give to the world.

Diego Glazer: 17:40

Yeah, he died of malaria, didn't he?

Laura Arango Baier: 17:43

He did that he got in Rome. It's insane. He says, he traveled to Africa and Northern Africa a lot. And didn't get malaria until like, he went to Rome. You know, it's it's almost like ironic, because, yeah, you know, it's much more common to get it in Africa of all the continents.

Diego Glazer: 18:04

Absolutely. It's so bizarre that he got it in Rome. And I--Fortuny is precisely one of the artists that makes me feel that way. Because, I mean, I I'm about the age that he was when he died. And if I died right now, it feels like I came so short compared to him. You know, he had such an expansive career, so many different phases and styles and so masterful, so he could do it all. And it's so sad that he got cut short. So I want to honor people like that while I'm still around, and try to crush it, you know? Because, I mean, it would suck if anyone's careers get gets cut short like that, you know?

Laura Arango Baier: 18:52

Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I also feel that way, sometimes when I reach, you know, or I'm about to reach a certain age where I think about, okay, what artists died, then, and how amazing are they and how can I, you know, improve myself in my work to, you know, almost, like, honor them, you know, past their time of their death. So, I think you're also doing that. So I'd love that.

Diego Glazer: 19:20

Oh, thank you. Yeah. Yeah, appreciate it.

Laura Arango Baier: 19:24

Yeah, of course. And then speaking of, I guess, challenging things, you know, like mortality, um, is there anything... Or rather like how do you handle you know, as an artist, how do you stay motivated and how do you handle you know, still going back to the easel, even when things are challenging in your life?

Diego Glazer: 19:50

Well, painting is both my work and my escape. So I'm kind of trapped I don't have much of a choice. Motivation isn't even if factor is just what I do. You know, like, I get up, I go to the easel and that's it. There's no thinking there's no, there's no nothing. It's just the natural order of things, you know. But I suppose there is. The thing that keeps me going the most is the excitement, that every day, there's palpable improvement, you know. There'll be a couple of days where I kind of suck, but for the most part, there's going to be palpable improvement, every single session that I paint. And if it goes well, at the end of this session, I'm going to be very, very satisfied. And I'm gonna go to bed and sleep like a baby. So that's kind of what keeps me going, like, what am I going to paint next? Like, yes, today, I get to paint, paint the face. Awesome. Tomorrow, I get to paint the tree or whatever, you know, it's all very exciting.

Laura Arango Baier: 20:50

It is. Yeah, I like that perspective. Because it's very much like fresh eyes, you know, almost like childlike wonder, you know, the excitement of something new...

Diego Glazer: 21:01

Yeah, exactly.

Laura Arango Baier: 21:02

...and exploring it and getting to know it intimately, you know?

Diego Glazer: 21:07

Exactly. That's what it's all about. For me.

Laura Arango Baier: 21:11

I can tell. Sometimes, I don't know if I use sometimes when I go to the easel and I'm in like a really boring part of the painting. Oh, boy, it takes a while for me to want to actually complete it. You know, kind of like when you do the background or like, or things just don't feel like they're moving forward in a piece. It just can be so... it can be a bummer.

Diego Glazer: 21:36

Yeah, been there too. You know, what helps me in those situations is like if there's a podcast, or an interview, or something like that, that I really want to watch. And it seems like a juicy thing to listen to. I'll save it for the boring part of the painting. So that way, I'll be a little bit bored while I'm painting, but my mind is going to be entertained.

Laura Arango Baier: 21:58

I'm gonna have to try that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Um, I actually really needed that because I'm in the middle of a portrait. That's like, I'm like, there's so much to fix.

Diego Glazer: 22:13

Been there, yeah. Oh, yeah... Yeah. So earlier, you know, I mentioned that it's really fun to, you know, look at the Instagrams of alumni, right. And one of my favorite ones to look at was yours, actually. Because your your work is very colorful. And I could tell that you really like, especially in textures, you really explored that. And not a lot of people really explored texture. But in any case, you know, just from observing you, I was able to learn a lot. And I can tell that you've also used social media as a way to document your work and your process and all of these things. Um, so I guess my question is, how do you use social media to connect with your collectors, your buyers, your followers? Well, to be honest with you, I'm still pretty new to social media marketing. So what I've, I've always been a lot more reliant on personal relationships to actually sell my artwork. And my social media has served more as a as a thing to share. And, you know, get a sort of audience around the world is translated into sales a few times, but not as much as I'd like. So that's something I'd like to focus on this year, to try to turn my social media into not just something to share cool pictures on but to turn it into a funnel, for people to sign up to my newsletter and have more of a personal relationship with them. That will result in actual sales of originals, prints, sketches, all that sort of stuff. So it's something I'm still kind of learning. Over the next couple months, you're gonna see, you're gonna see me work a lot on that. And I'll report back to you. Yeah. I don't have that much experience, honestly.

Laura Arango Baier: 24:16

I wouldn't have guessed. Because the way that you present your work, it seems already, like very appropriate for the audience. So that makes sense. Like, it seems very thought out the way that you photograph and post. So, I mean, it's there. You know.

Diego Glazer: 24:33

Thanks. Yeah, I suppose it's a question of, of how I post. If I just post that's just sharing ultimately. But if I post in a certain way that makes people see me as a person that they're wanting to support rather than just a hand painting a picture behind the camera. Yeah, I think that'll make a huge difference and have them You know, give them the, the hunger to keep, keep up with what I'm doing and want to support and buy from me. So doing things like giveaways, things like that, I think make people want to support you, you know, and make people want to sign up and stuff like that. That stuff doesn't come naturally to me. So I'm learning, you know?

Laura Arango Baier: 25:23

Yes, it doesn't come naturally to me either. I'm actually say, I've been very much dead on social media. So I totally understand.

Diego Glazer: 25:32

Yeah, I mean, sometimes, you just want to live the life of an artist and social media is a very new and unnatural part of life as an artist, you know.

Laura Arango Baier: 25:41

Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. And it can feel sometimes a little bit. Like screaming into the void.

Diego Glazer: 25:50

Yeah, yeah, totally.

Laura Arango Baier: 25:52

So that kind of I, I need, like, you like the human connection. I like talking to people. I like, you know, showing them and explaining to them, or listening to them and learning from them. You know, what that actually leads perfectly into my next question, which is, whether whether you prefer to follow trends, or carve your own path?

Diego Glazer: 26:19

Well, I like to carve my own path, using other trends as tools. And actually, more than trends, I like to look at specific artists, and things that I like about them, and take the things I like for myself, you know, and discard the things I don't like, because I don't think there's a single artists that I like, everything about him. There's artists that I like almost everything about their work, but there's a few things that just not for me. So for example, I like to take the the luminosity and the textural qualities of Joseph McGurl. And use him on a still life, you know, he's a landscape painter, but I'm trying to apply them to a still life or something like that. Or I might, for example, I really like Wwill St. John's juiciness and his brushwork and his paint quality. And in the way, he's both very meticulous, but also painterly at the same time. So I might take that and apply it to a landscape, you know, so I'll take a look, I'll try to imitate the ambience of a Dan Sprick painting, and apply it to something that Dan would never paint, like something tropical, for example, you know. So if, if I can take these little qualities and virtues from artists that I like, and apply them in my own way, then I'm kind of muddying the waters a little bit. So people can't exactly tell whose style I'm jacking, you know. And I'm trying to come up with my own thing, and just integrate all of that into my own stuff. And whatever I don't like about him, I just disregard and fuse it into my own style of painting. And luckily, I have a different big range of things that I like to paint, you know, like we touched on before still life animals, architecture, yada, yada. So I can always, I can always have a variety of ways to apply these little tricks and hide the source.

Laura Arango Baier: 28:41

Mm hmm. Sneaky.

Diego Glazer: 28:44

Sneaky one.

Laura Arango Baier: 28:46

So, you know, we all steal from each other as artists, I mean, there's no way around it. Um, and you could even say instead of like stealing, it's also like, inspiration, right? So I feel the same way. About you know, like taking the little things and applying them instead of like, following a trend because there's nothing more uncomfortable than like someone telling you your work looks like oh, that looks like someone else's work. It's like, yeah, that means I failed, right? Like, yeah, yeah.

Diego Glazer: 29:23

Yeah. So totally agree there. Yeah, even even Bouguereau his wife painted exactly like Bouguereau.

Laura Arango Baier: 29:35

You can look at her painting and be like, is that a Bouguereau? Depressing! No.

Diego Glazer: 29:40

It is! That it kind of makes me cringe to think of that, like, an artist is trying to try their best to be like another artist. That's not the point of art at all.

Laura Arango Baier: 29:51

Exactly. Oh, yes. Now more than ever, it's crucial to have a website when you're an artist, especially if you want to be considered a professional in your career. Thankfully, with our special link faso.com forward slash podcast, you can make that come true. And also get over 50% off your first year on your artists website. Yes, that's basically the price of 12 lattes in one year, which I think is a really great deal considering that you get sleek and beautiful website templates that are also mobile friendly, ecommerce, print on demand in certain countries, as well as access to our marketing center that has our brand new art marketing calendar. And the art marketing calendar is something that you won't get with our competitor. The art marketing calendar gives you day by day, step by step guides on what you should be doing today, right now, in order to get your artwork out there and seen by the right eyes, so that you can make more sales this year. So if you want to change your life, and actually meet your sales goal this year, then start by going to our special link faso.com forward slash podcast, that's f a s o.com. Forward slash podcast. BoldBrush would also like to give a huge thank you and shout out to Chelsea classical studio for their continued support in this podcast. If you're interested in archival painting supplies that are handmade with a lot of patience, then go check out their Instagram at CCS fine art materials. And that's you know, that's the other hard thing because I know you can relate to this with academic work and academic painting. You can look at the work from like a particular school and you know, oh, they went to that school. You know, like, if you suffer from like Charles Cecil, you'd be like, oh, yeah, that's right. Um, and it's like, the hard part after academic school is how do you rip away from that, you know, how do you unlearn all of these things that basically have given you the formula to knowing how to paint, right?

Diego Glazer: 31:55

Yeah, absolutely. I think it's important to take workshops after your academic years. Because workshops are usually taught by people who are practicing artists, they went to school decades ago. So they came up with their own sort of way of doing things. So when you take their workshop, you're learning their own little way of painting. And it'll it'll switch a few mental switches of things that you took as a dogma, maybe you can just do them differently.

Laura Arango Baier: 32:28

Yeah, yeah. And that's the other part, like, mentally breaking free from these things that are, like, at this point, are a comfort zone, right? Like it's comfortable to paint academically. It's comfortable to, you know, paint another still life that looks like you did it in school, right? Instead of like, something more interesting. How did you personally break away from that?

Diego Glazer: 33:00

Okay, so I, the way I broke away from the academic style was to be very, quite varied in the subject matter that I like to tackle and also not being shy of being very experimental. And by experimental, I mean, trying a lot of different colors, trying different kinds of brushes, trying different kinds of mark making. I've done paintings, I deliberately challenged myself to break away from that I've done paintings exclusively using a palette knife. I've done paintings where I use my finger a lot, I've do paintings where I do a lot of dripping, where I do a lot of splashing. I've done paintings where I start with a fluorescent, with fluorescent under painting, and work from there. One of the things that's helped me a lot, and this will, I think this will rock anyone's world that's like coming out of the academic sort of setting is, why don't you try making paintings where the under painting of some wacky color. Like, forget about umbers, why don't you make it lime green and see what happens? You know, I do a lot of purple under paintings. I've done so many paintings with a purple under painting, or a blue blend, or whatever it is, and it always forces me into a color key that I'm uncomfortable with. But I got to figure it out. Or if not, it's not going to work. You know, it's like playing the piano and the scale, just the notes aren't on the scale. Same thing with a painting like that. If it isn't, right in the same key as you're under painting, then it's going to look wacky. So you have to force yourself to come up with a new way of seeing and mixing colors and applying them. So I think that's a way to kind of pull the carpet from under yourself, you know and force yourself to come up with something new. Little trick for ya.

Laura Arango Baier: 35:08

Damn. I'm gonna have to try that. But actually no, I did try that once. I tried... it was a cad orange under painting which isn't too unusual because I know a lot of plein air painters do a pure orange under painting before they go out and do plein air.

Diego Glazer: 35:25

I didn't know that.

Laura Arango Baier: 35:26

Yeah, yeah, it creates like a sort of vibrancy, which is really nice. And I was like, I'm going to try it. And that one, that painting. Would I do it again? No. But at least I sold it.

Diego Glazer: 35:41

Nice. Nice. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. But yeah, that is what I'm talking about an orange under painting. I made a cadmium orange... that's not something they would have to do in school. But it probably it probably threw you out of whack in an interesting way.

Laura Arango Baier: 35:58

It frickin did I remember for that painting, I think I use like 50 different brushes. And they were only bristle. They were just hog bristle. And they like the majority was just broken color and like, no blending. And you know how in the academic world, it's like, blend only right? So it was very uncomfortable for me. But you know, it was a pandemic. And I was like, I'm gonna explore I'm gonna experiment. And at least now I know, I would never do it again. I take what I like from it. But would not do it again. But not doing it.

Diego Glazer: 36:35

I feel Yeah.

Laura Arango Baier: 36:36

Yeah. I'm sure you have a bunch of experiments like that where you're like, Okay, no.

Diego Glazer: 36:42

I have so many. So many. Yeah.

Laura Arango Baier: 36:46

Yeah. Well, you could do a studio sale, and you could sell them!

Diego Glazer: 36:51

I did! And they did! Yeah, that's a cool little thing. Like, if you have all these little studies that probably wouldn't... a gallery wouldn't take or they wouldn't look so good in a gallery or whatever. Do a studio sale and people are going to want them.

Laura Arango Baier: 37:12

Mhm! 100% like I sold mine in a studio sale. So there you go. That's social media right there, though. Yeah, that's the good part about social media. Yeah. Yeah. So you did mention that you you prefer talking to people in person? Right? Have you ever sold a painting in person just from talking to a potential buyer?

Diego Glazer: 37:37

Yeah, I have, um, in, in my experience, it's a question of not being very pushy. And being more interested than interesting. So what I'll usually do is start asking them questions, vague, open ended questions. So what kind of art do you like? What kind of art? Do you usually collect? The usually collect art? If you do, is it? Are you into uplifting art? Are you into landscapes? Are you into something that challenges you psychologically? And they'll start to give you the answers, that will guide you to a sale. So once once you start to narrow down their likes and interests, you can start narrowing down the options that you present to them. Because an overabundance of options can make anyone confused and hesitant. So like the classic example, if you go to an ice cream shop, and they have three flavors, it's so easy to pick. If they have 97 flavors, it's impossible to pick, you know, you'll probably end up choosing vanilla instead of something very interesting, you know, but what if you talk to this client, and from what they're telling you, they're giving you the impression that there's something into something a little more risky, or more exotic, or whatever it is, then you can show them that. And out of those few options, they'll be much more comfortable picking, you know, so I think that's a big part of it. In my experience.

Laura Arango Baier: 39:30

I think that's a really great advice.

Diego Glazer: 39:33

Yeah, it's, it seemed to work in the past and it's, it's an approach where you're not spooking people by being pushy, you know, like, I remember, because I grew up in Mexico and you walk down the market and everyone's like, hey, buy this, buy this, buy this lemons, yatta yatta yatta yatta. And it's like, Alright, I'm not gonna buy any of this. Like, if I want to buy it all approach you. You're all just spooking me away. And I don't like that, I like to have a very chill environment where like, if you buy cool, if you don't buy cool, we're hanging out, we're getting to know each other. And you're, you're giving me a sense of what you're into. And if you don't, if you don't buy, that's okay, we'll be friends. And maybe this person's friends or relatives or whoever will end up coming to my studio, and then we'll end up buying something. So I think that's what it's all about. It's, it's more about the relationship and about the actual sale. But paradoxically, the relationship is what's gonna get you the sale.

Laura Arango Baier: 40:42

Yeah, and I like that, that's, um, that's a really clear and good way of explaining it, because a lot of people, and I feel the same way I get so annoyed when someone's like, trying to push me to buy something, it's like, the more you push me, the less I'm going to want to buy, right. But if you like, connect with someone with the intent of actually connecting, especially with someone that's already there, looking at your work, right? They're already interested, they're already looking. So it's just a matter of, you know, conversing getting to know them. A lot of people get excited, you know, when they talk to the artists are like, Oh, my God, you're the artist. This is amazing, you know? Yeah. And even if they don't purchase, maybe they'll purchase in the future. Yeah. Like you said.

Diego Glazer: 41:26

Exactly. And I think that thing you mentioned, is incredibly important. People want to meet the artists. I mean, of course, his artists. I mean, it would, it would be amazing. If I had a show in Tokyo, and I don't even go and it just sells it out. You know, yeah, just because of how much people like my art. But that's just not reality. The reality is that collectors want to have a certain intimacy with the artists and they want to feel like they know you and they want to, they're not just buying a beautiful object, they're buying a part of you like, like a band that you like, a band that you're a huge fan of, you don't just like the songs, but you, you're a fan of the band members, and what they represent and how they live their lives and stuff. So that's, that's kind of what I'm what I'm trying to get at, you know, yeah. Collectors really appreciate getting to know the artists, I can't stress that enough.

Laura Arango Baier: 42:30

Yes, definitely. Yes. That's a really great comparison. Now, in terms of yourself, you know, seeing how your life has played out since school and even before, if you could talk to your yourself, right, like 10 years ago, or a younger version of yourself, and you can give yourself a piece of advice. What would you tell yourself?

Diego Glazer: 42:56

The first one, I think, would be to not waste time in any regular art schools. And if you're trying to learn the classical way of painting, I would go straight to an atelier, or a teacher or online courses of that style. Because I did spend a few years in a regular art school and I learned a thing or two, but for the most part, it was a waste of time, in my opinion, I would be two years more advanced in my little career now. I wouldn't be if I didn't go. So. I would say that's, that's one thing. And the other advice I'd give myself and I would hate myself for giving you this advice. But I would tell my younger self, something that everyone else told me. And it's to start working in series, at least small series, because I wanted to paint the building. And then I wanted to paint a butterfly and then an eagle and then a chair. And all my work would be very diverse not only stylistically, but in terms of genre. And that can be a little bit discouraging to buyers, because they're looking for a brand. They're looking for a signature, something recognizable about your work, you know. So even though I'm still painting a variety of subject matter, I think my style is now landing and something that's a little bit recognizable to me. But point being is that I would tell myself to rather than just do all these little independent little pieces, I would do series of two or three, you know, it doesn't have to be a series of 10 paintings and you get bored of the same subject matter style. But let's say you want to paint a human figure. So you hire a model. Take three, take a lot of pictures of the model, take the three best ones that are going to be wearing the same outfit and the same environments and paint those three, a series of three doesn't have to be more, but that's going to give you some consistency. And it's going to give buyers something to look at where like, okay, he's developing a brand, he's developing something recognizable. And they have something to choose from from those three, if not just buying all three of them together, you know. So that's a great word of advice that I would give my younger self, which I would ignore, of course, if I was that age, but now that I understand it, you know, yeah, I think I would do that. Yeah.

Laura Arango Baier: 45:40

Yes. And that's great advice. I don't think I've ever heard that advice before. So I love it. I love it. I always love hearing. Yeah, I always love hearing new pieces of pieces of advice, because that would have been something great to tell me when I was a kid to like when I was like, you know, just starting out, and all these schools and stuff, like, stay consistent in what, you know, whatever it is that you're doing, instead of like, instead of my ADHD, you know, just being like, go for the excitement.

Diego Glazer: 46:11

That's a good way to put it. Yeah, ADHD to the maximum.

Laura Arango Baier: 46:15

Well, I actually have ADHD, but I didn't know then.

Diego Glazer: 46:21

I might have it too. I've never been diagnosed. But I totally relate to that. Yeah.

Laura Arango Baier: 46:26

You should check, you should check yourself, you might might learn something surprising. Oh, man. So now, um, when I was researching you, I found your page on Abend Gallery, and you had this really good quote that I really liked. And I would like for you to explain it to us. And that quote is,"Internalize reality and use it to serve your personal vision." Do you mind telling us a little bit about it?

Diego Glazer: 46:58

Of course. So I think we've touched upon this before that I think of reference as mere reference. And I'm not trying, as a realist painter, I'm not trying to document reality, I'm trying to make a work of art, which is very different thing for reality, because a work of art, kind of, by definition, requires some degree of human intervention, the human hand, the human brain, the human soul, that all comes into play. So when I'm out there painting a landscape, or when I'm painting a model, or anything like that, I think it can be quite boring, to make a painting that's complete. When I think of something artistic, it usually is a transmission of emotions. And I think if you're a skilled artist, you can take what reality is suggesting. And bend it to your will. And like, again, the funnel thing, turn it into a funnel directly into the viewers soul. So you can make all these artistic decisions with artistic license, which you've acquired through practice, and perseverance. Once you can paint things the way they look, then you can start doing your own thing. I like to change things around in the landscape, for example, to make the more dramatic, I might change the entire mood of the scene. If I'm painting a person, I might even change their facial expression, or change their hair entirely. Or change the color of the light that's coming in, you know, everything to serve the purpose of the mood, and the emotion that I'm trying to transfer to the viewer. A great example of this, I think, is the tonalist painters. You're familiar with tonalism. So for for people that aren't familiar with tonal ism, it's a current of landscape were more than any sort of detail and definition, they're more concerned with the ambiance of the lights and and to make things very ethereal, and if it's a sunset, it's a very exaggerated sunset and it's very moody and gloomy and all that sort of stuff. And you see these paintings. Also the painters of the Hudson River School were masters at this, you'll see pictures by Frederic Edwin Church, and you know for a fact that that's not what it looks like, but he took in Niagara Falls, or he took into volcanoes, or he took in these Ecuadorian landscapes, and he made his own. This magnanimous epic, operatic scene that has no concern for what it actually looked like. Because who cares? This is not a David Attenborough documentary. This is a work of art. So the we're not trying to inform the viewer, we're trying to make the viewer feel, or at least I am, I can only speak for myself.

Laura Arango Baier: 50:19

So I completely agree. I'm with you. And it's funny, because you just reminded me of Michael John Angel, when he would talk about how people are ugly, you got to make beautiful, you have to make them look much better than they actually look. Like Photoshop. Like magazines.

Diego Glazer: 50:42

Yeah, kind of. Yeah, yeah, he was. He was a character. But it's kind of a, it's it's kind of that same thing. I mean, it's it's embellishing. I guess that would be a very layman's term of... layman's way of saying it just embellishing. That's what it comes down to, you know?

Laura Arango Baier: 51:03

Yeah, it's like, romanticizing reality a little bit, because reality can be a bit dull, especially when it's like documented, as you said, it can be a little. It needs a little zhuzh. Yeah, yeah.

Diego Glazer: 51:19

Yeah. And I think every artist with our own personal vision, we have a certain wavelength that we relate to with reality. So some of us are more flowy. So if I'm painting a landscape, I might accentuate the flowy part of the landscape, but some of us have a more blocky square tendency, so we might accentuate the blockiness of the landscape. Some of us are very don't know we paint with a soft hand, we have a soft sort of personality or, or whatever. So we might use like pastel colors and very low contrast in the painting. Some of them are some of us are more assertive, and more. I don't know, they have this more. So they might essentially the contrast of it. Some people might accentuate the rhythmical aspect of it. So we could all be painting the same scene, and it's gonna look completely different from each artist. It's painting it. So that's kind of what what I'm getting at with that with that quote that you found, you know,

Laura Arango Baier: 52:23

That's brilliant. That's brilliant. I love that. More people should pay attention to that. Because like you said, it's it's a reference. Just have fun. Just play with it, you know?

Diego Glazer: 52:34

Exactly.

Laura Arango Baier: 52:35

Yeah. Yeah. Then speaking of Abend gallery, do you mind telling us about your upcoming solo show?

Diego Glazer: 52:43

Of course, yeah. So I'm opening this solo show on April 1, Abend Gallery, Denver, Colorado, anyone that's in the areas more than welcome to come, I'd love to come and meet you all in person. And this is a new show called Silent Solitude, a collection of contemplative figures. So it consists of a lot of brand new figure paintings. And some of them are male, some of them are female. A lot of them are put in these serene, tropical contemplative settings. And they each have a bit of a different sort of concept to them. But they all have to do with contemplation. And, you know, taking in the present moment, which is something I struggle with. So I live vicariously through these characters in my paintings. This is one of them right behind me.

Laura Arango Baier: 53:47

She's lovely.

Diego Glazer: 53:48

They're fairly big 36 by 40 paintings. Oh, thank you.

Laura Arango Baier: 53:52

You're welcome.

Diego Glazer: 53:53

And five of them are about this size, brand new. And I'm also complementing with a ton of other of my best human figures that I've painted in the last couple of years. So this show is centered pretty much entirely on the human figure, which is, I've never done a show like that. My shows tend to be pretty varied in terms of subject matter, but this is exclusively human figure. So it should be something new for people that had been following my work for the last few years.

Laura Arango Baier: 54:26

Oh, wow. That's so exciting. Oh, man, I wish I could go.

Diego Glazer: 54:33

That would be awesome. Yeah. Anyone that can tell I just want people to see him in person because they don't translate the same on screen.

Laura Arango Baier: 54:40

Yeah, yeah, it's, that's the one thing about paintings they're always they're very beautiful, you know, in pictures, but then when you see them and you take them in, in person, their size and it's like one thing to say to like this tiny little screen. It's another thing to take it in, you know, and it's reality. It's yeah.

Diego Glazer: 54:59

It's a different With areas Yeah. But yeah, definitely anyone in the Colorado area, you're more than welcome to come. And I would love to see you at my show. I think you'll love it.

Laura Arango Baier: 55:12

That'd be so exciting. And then one more thing too. So I mentioned earlier, so our listeners know that I think you're amazing as still lives like I always admired you for your still lives. And you mentioned something that you're working on, do you mind telling us what it is?

Diego Glazer: 55:30

Of course. So I've gotten a lot of requests over the last few years of doing an online course. So I'm finally doing it 2023. I'm in the process of recording a still life painting course. And we're going to focus on all the different textural qualities brush handling, a bit of color theory, all the kind of stuff, you see me doing in my still lives, we're going to learn how to do and this online course. So it's going to be bilingual. I'm going to do a version in English and Spanish, since Latin America has a lot of demand for this kind of knowledge and not a whole lot of resources. So I think it'd be a good idea to do that. And once I get this still life course out, which is going to be for all levels, but probably the people that would get the most benefit would be beginners to intermediate. After that, I'm going to be releasing courses that build on that, like indirect painting, for example. So keep an eye out for my online course releases. I think some of you might get a lot out of them.

Laura Arango Baier: 56:51

Yeah, yeah. People should sign up for your newsletter so they know when that's happening.

Diego Glazer: 56:55

Absolutely. Sign up to my newsletter, DiegoGlazerArt.com. You'll keep up to date with all the new stuff that's coming out.

Laura Arango Baier: 57:03

Yeah. And then we'll also include all of your links in the show notes so people could check those out. So yeah, thank you so much, Diego.

Diego Glazer: 57:12

Thank you so much, Laura. This was a real pleasure. It was great talking to you again.

Laura Arango Baier: 57:16

Yeah, you too. It was great seeing you