L.A. VATOCOSMICO

Chicano artist, L.A. Vatocosmico c/s formerly known as the artist L.A. David, was born and raised on the Westside of San Antonio, Tx. He exhibited a flair for the visual arts and drawing at an early age.  His art and design work flourished and he won several awards while attending Fox Tech High School.  

He attended San Antonio College where he experimented with various styles and mediums that cultivated his knowledge of different artists and art movements, such as Impressionism, Cubism, Dadaism, and Pop Art.  “At San Antonio College, where I had my first one-man show, I explored my purpose as an artist.  However, I am also aware that an artist is constantly exploring  and experimenting.  The process of this constant exploration is intrinsic to my art.” 

L.A.’s objective in regard to his “Mas Cosmico Arte” culture entails a social and political consciousness.  His art is eccentric satire with a mixture of cosmic fusion, resulting in profundity in dealing with his cosmic Chicano roots.  

His artistic exploration of contours, line drawing, renditions and constant experimenting with his art has led him on a unique, expression driven explosion of cosmic comic relief as exemplified in his series of colorful neonesque characters and caricatures known as “Los Burros”, a fusion of humorous exaggeration and eclectic mix of “vatos y vatas” from the barrios who communicate with space aliens and Nahuatl ancestors.  

Los Burros are characters who are in touch with their indigenous and cosmic roots, who have returned from the “Planeta Burro” — the Ivy League colegios such as Yale, Harvard, Princeton — whose mission is to inspire a younger generation of “burros” in a cool, funky, and far-out way of relating to current issues.  Such issues are evident in paintings emphasized in “Chicano Cosmic Arte” although other paintings interpose the low-rider culture with the burros as a driving force that propels the artwork into socio-political themes.  

L.A. says that “los burros are everywhere, their caricatures are only part of a larger landscape of inspiration. 

His enormous landscape of inspiration includes portrayals of Che Guevara, Santana and Frida Kahlo, among others. Rich in texture, these portrayals command the observer’s attention to detail and to the bold combinations of form and line.

L.A. explains, “My paintings are nuances of color and shape that express cosmic irony or the feeling that even if we try to believe otherwise, we have no control over fate”. He states, “My inspiration for my paintings evolves from a vast array of sources. I indulge my motives with a significant creative and exquisite environment that becomes my catalyst for alluring enhancement to my visual images. My paintings are a mixture of dazzling fluorescent and acrylic pigments which is meant to enhance and illuminate the black-lite aspect”. 

Essentially, L.A.’s art is a conversion of paradoxical scenes that are far from the norm. “They are dream forms, they are the theatrical view of the absurd, and they are a comic revelation of life in general.”

Additionally, he verbalizes, “Sometimes I am drawn to the literal, sometimes to the figurative, such as a sentence from a story, or a line of poetry and these have been interpreted in my work”.

His artistic motivation may have come from a simple act such as walking into a room or from a complex analysis of the philosophical debate. The sources of inspiration are constant and his mission is to create excitement for his art connoisseurs.

In essence, his ”Avant-garde spirit is evident with all who come in contact with me or with my artwork”.

“Last but certainly not least, I want to acknowledge my mother for giving me the inspiration to paint. I recall during my childhood years I would notice my mother drawing on paper.  I was impressed and mesmerized. Watching her ultimately lead me to be an Artist.”