Luis keeps art in the family

CHILEAN-born Luis Vasquez Sr and his family have made their hobby not only a means by which to spend quality time as a family but also to earn a living in the most enjoyable way possible. Many of us have been mesmerised by the work of the Vasquez family. In fact several Newsday workers themselves were amazed to find out that the artwork that adorns the show window of Kids World on Tragarete Road and Island Hobbies at MovieTowne was done right here in Trinidad. There is no way of telling that the near flawless layered styrofoam cut-outs did not originate in the foreign-based studios which design and distribute these cartoon creations.

In his strong Chilean accent, Luis explained: “Art was always a pastime or hobby in my family. I have been specifically involved in this for the past 25 years. In Chile, my sister is a sculptor, with exhibitions in museums all over the country, my other sister is an actress, and my wife, you can see the talent... she can make anything with her hands.” Luis’s 20-year-old son, Luis Vasquez Jr, added, “On my mother’s side of the family there is a lot of artistic ability as well. They are graphic designers, architects and so on.” As you speak to the Vasquez team, the closeness is evident in their constant eye contact and gestures of approval or disapproval. All the while the son stood at his father’s side and for the sake of translation, at times, they spoke fluent Spanish to each other before responding to certain questions.

“We do all our work on our own. It’s really a family thing and with the four of us contributing ideas it can be difficult as it is. If we bring anyone else, it would cause chaos. Besides, if I ever had to tell someone they were fired, I don’t know how I would do it. It’s a sad thing to ever have to do. “Myself, my son and my daughter are a team. I design the artwork, and then Junior would draw the large scale design. This is family work. My daughter then deals with all the pigments and colours that bring the drawings to life. Both my son and my daughter studied design at school and now I can say that they are better than I ever was. My wife Wendy La Roche is also involved in art. She does the pi?atas that you see in the toy stores. Without my family, I don’t know where this work would be,” said Luis.

Regarding his artistic development, Luis Jr said, “When I was young I remember painting. My dad taught me and since then in growing up I would try to draw anything I saw. When we work together now, if it’s going to come out bad, we scrap it, we never do work like that. We like to have every detail perfect before we present the finished product.” Luis Sr gave a vivid description of how long some of their work takes saying that even though time is money, they refuse to sacrifice the quality of their work for the sake of speedy completion. The family channels their artistic ability to the cartoon displays, but they are in no way limited to this form of artistic expression. “We do decorating for weddings and so, you know, but I was always a businessman. I owned a toy store in Caracas before I came to Trinidad. We’ve been around toys for a long time and when you own a toy store, you are always watching cartoons and the toys become part of your life. We even went to Europe, Hong Kong and other countries to toy conventions, so it is a serious thing to us. Some people used to come into our store just to watch the decorations. I would be like, nice, nice, well buy something please,” said the light-hearted Luis Senior.

The 50-year-old artist then explained how he ended up in Trinidad: “I left Chile with the intention of going to Caracas and then to New York. While in Caracas, I met my wife and did not get to New York until 12 years later. My children were both born in Caracas. I first came to Trinidad in 1993, straight from New York. I totally love the country, how do you say, oh, it was love at first sight,” added a laughing Luis. “We see things like not many people do, we always see things as creative objects, especially in Caracas. We’d stop the car and pick up things like tree stumps and so. What others see as garbage is a work of art to us, we appreciate the beauty which not many seem to see,” added Luis Jr. “Once there was this child who was looking at the Winnie the Pooh display and he was able to point out the absence of a leaf on the stem of a flower we did. Many adults would take it for granted but children see things differently, my sister and I were amused by this.” You can expect to see more of the Vasquez family’s work as the toy and cartoon trends evolve.