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Video: Former Circus Clown Now Makes Textured Paintings In L.A.
Gabriel Luis Perez is a Los Angeles-based artist who creates large, textured paintings. He's the next artist featured in a series of short videos from filmmaker Matthew Kaundart and Amadeus Magazine that follow various L.A. artists through their creative processes.
Perez's background is in the circus where he used to perform as a clown, typically putting together silent acts full of physical comedy and theatrics. In addition to clowning, he also worked with the circus to create sets, backdrops and costumes, a skill he'd picked up as a kid making Halloween costumes with his mother. In 2006, Perez left the circus to go to school and pursue his own art. He now lives in Los Angeles, where he creatures abstract paintings using fabrics, acrylic and other materials.
Perez explains how he knows when a work is done:
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If it's representational, I know it's done because I've depicted what I'm trying to get at, and if it's not… it's a real bitch. Because then, I have to decide what the right spot is, when it's the best. In abstract painting you can get to a point where it's the best and you took three more steps and you lost it. Or you're a few steps away from being perfect, and you can't really figure out what those steps are. That's the trick of being an abstract painter…
Previous L.A. artists profiled by Kaundart and Amadeus include Jen Stark, Randy Lawrence (creator of Echo Park's Phantasma Gloria), and Calder "Cardboard Artist" Greenwood.
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