LRA: Your Flash is known worldwide. When did you start to create Flash?Pedro: I started creating and selling my Flash around 10 or 11 years ago. I was one of the first Mexicans (another one doing original Flash back then is of course Goethe) to do original drawings inspired on the pre-Hispanic cultures. They say "the one who hits first hits twice" and so my Flash was successful beyond what I ever expected. It became so popular to the point that I started to see T-shirts, ashtrays, key chains, and all kinds of merchandising and even advertisements for other tattoo shops with my images, without my permission. There are actually people who think some of the images from these Flash are ancient creations, like the Aztec Calendar which is royalty free, and that I just copied them from a book or a museum. Of course, all of my Flash is inspired from ancient images but all of them are 100 percent original creations.
LRA: You live in a city famous for bootlegging Flash and artwork. How do you feel about that?Pedro: It's a real shame for me as a Mexican that my country is known for this (among other bad things). It's true, but this is just part of more deep and difficult problems that have no solution in the near future. Concentrate your energy on fighting against this and your soul will become ill.
My mission is to keep the ancient gods alive, to make them known to as many people as possible. From this point of view, bootlegging is just helping me achieve my goal. In fact, I counted on it when I launched the first set. I knew everybody was going to make illegal copies and there's nothing I could do about it. Its not that I can take legal actions against one big company who are using my designs illegally and win money on a lawsuit, but it's about thousands of people copying and buying them. You can't put a thousand people in jail because the end result is to win a lot of enemies and still no money at all. So what's the gain in putting a poor person in jail? On the other hand I'm proud to know that my designs have helped some people earn some extra pesos by selling a few T-shirts or a few copies of my Flash. To me it means that what I did was well done and served for something real.
What I will definitely not accept is if a big company, Mexico or any other foreign country, uses my designs without my permission. I had them registered many years ago and I will go against either one if I want.
Bootlegging is wrong and it damages us. I might be rich now if all the illegal copies of my Flash and merchandise made with them had reported some income, but I'm not the kind of person who wants lawsuits, I'm busy doing what I have to do.
LRA: You travel around the world. Do you see a difference in a lack of respect for Flash and artwork with people from certain parts of the world?Pedro: In the countries where the people have more economic power, everybody prefers to buy an original rather than a bootlegged copy. If they have the money to buy it, it's not about respect but about how much a person has to spend on certain things. In countries with more economic power, the people also have a better education and therefore more respect for artists. The problem with bootlegging is more about the economy.
LRA: A lot of your work is known in the United States, when do you plan visit the States? Pedro: I don't have plans to go to the United States in the near future. I have been there a few times already. Many people ask me why I don't go. It's simple: I don't have a visa and I don't want to go through the humiliation at the embassy to get it.
LRA: Who in the art world do you admire?Pedro: Jorge Gonzalez Camarena, Siqueiros, Rembrandt, Jose de Ribera, Goya, Monet, Dal, Otto Dix, H.R. Giger, Frank Frazetta, Alex Grey, Wayne Barlowe, Filip Leu, and Shige`.
LRA: Where can people see more of your work?Pedro: On my websites: www.neoaztecatattoo.com and www.myspace.com/neoazteca. Also, a new website is under construction: www.neoazteca.com.mx.
We talked to a few artists and asked them to tell us what they would like to ask Pedro. Here are a few questions from one artist to another.
Q: How do you approach a painting versus a sketch? Do you paint directly on a canvas and just see what forms?Pedro: Most of the time I make a sketch first. I got used to this from when I made backdrops and murals. I use a lot of the golden ratio and symmetry on the composition of my paintings, but I do have a series of paintings made with airbrush on amate paper without previous planning.
Q: Do you try to tell a story when drawing on canvas?Pedro: I do not tell stories with my paintings, instead my images are more static and full of symbols. It's more like a pre-Hispanic painting and sculpture.
Q: How do you make your color choices for your color pieces?Pedro: Colors are very important because they relate to the different regions of the universe and to the different gods. I choose vibrant colors and high contrasts, I also use complementary colors a lot because they are an expression of Ometeotl, the Duality God, and this principle of duality is present all over the universe.
Q: Where do you find your references for your Flash art, from books or museums?Pedro: I find my references in books, museums, and visiting the archeological sites. I never stick with the point of view of any writer or archeologist. I like to have different points of view because when it comes to pre-Hispanic cultures sometimes their opinions are contradictory.
Q: For someone getting into pre-Hispanic art, what are some good books to begin with? Pedro: Arte Pre-Hispanico en Mesoamerica by Paul Gendrop, El pueblo del Sol by Alfonso Caso, and La Vida Cotidiana de los Aztecas en Vsperas de la Conquista by Jacques Soustelle.
Q: Tell us what you like about pre-Hispanic culture?Pedro: What I like the most about it is that I find in their art the perfect expression of life-frightening and beautiful at the same time, divine and terrestrial, full of contradictions, but at the same time solid and authentic in harmony with nature.
Q: Did you study the pre-Hispanic cultures?Pedro: I'm always reading about them. I didn't have any formal classes, it was just my personal choice to study about it for myself.