The Story of the Artists: Sergio Larenas

Art is based on interpretation. Artists want you to interpret their work. Sometimes they will tell you a story. But art is most personal when an artist adds their own story to the art piece. When you see a piece of art, you feel the connection because of the colour, the anger, and the sadness. That is what art does. It provokes an emotion. 

Nathon Kong felt an immediate connection to the artworks of Sergio Larenas. Sergio Larenas was born in Chili and is Latino. The usual stereotype attributed to Latinos is to be vibrant, fun, easygoing, and open. Being Asian, Nathon often feels that certain expectations are similarly trusted on him in terms of how he should act or how he should be. 

Photo Credit: nationalclothing.org

Sergio Larenas's art utilizes many bright colours like pink and yellow to represent the frame of colourfulness expected of him as a Latino. But when you look at the technique, you see it is very sporadic. The colours are out there and spread all around the canvas. 

What Nathon loves about the art of Sergio Larenas and the other artists from Les Impatients is that the art created by people with a mental health troubles speaks volumes of where they come from even if they don't understand it and have no interest in being artists.

When we look at people with a mental health troubles, we have a tendency to put them in a frame defined by their condition, whether that condition is depression or bipolar disorder. Sergio Larenas's art is his way of saying he can be more than the stereotype of a Latino or a person with a mental health trouble. That's why his artwork is fun, angry, sporadic, and out in the open. You can't put a frame on it. When you create an artwork that is symmetrical it is beautiful. Larenas's artwork is not symmetrical but still magnificent. His technique is sporadic and unpredictable. Don't we want to be unpredictable? We don't want people to say "you are an accountant therefore you are XYZ." We want to be able to say "I work as an accountant but I am creative as well," or anything else. That is how Nathon interprets Sergio Larenas's artwork. 

Click here to discover the collection of silk fashion accessories incorporating the artworks of Sergio Larenas.