06.09.2022 | Canvas Rebel

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Silvia Flechoso . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Silvia below.

Silvia , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I have the privilege of earning a full-time living from my creative work and even saving money for investments. But that was not the case at all a few years ago, when I dropped out of university to pursue my dream, mistakenly believing that from day one of my new life I would start selling my paintings for hundreds of thousands of euros. I remember my first exhibitions where I knew nothing about selling my art and I put very high prices for my works at the time, hoping that a rich collector would visit the exhibition and buy everything. I think a lot of artists make this mistake of waiting for someone to discover us. Then I realized that maybe things didn’t work that way and, if I wanted to achieve my goals, I had to make them come true using other types of strategies.
At first I was desperate to sell my art, because I had no other job to earn a little money, betting everything on my profession as an artist. I used to play guitar on the subway to pay rent and buy some food. These days I was so scared, it was like going through hell. Everything was black (I even used to work at night these days).
The first painting I sold was a portrait of my landlady´s mother. I sold it for 250E. I was very happy although it wasn’t a huge amount, because I had finally started the car. Then, a few months later, I had my second commission: a portrait of the president of the Ateneo de Madrid, César Navarro. When he asked me about the price, trembling I stammered: 700 E. But he replied: No, darling, 700€ is very little; I’m going to pay you €3,000. I could not believe it.
Then another portrait commission, and, little by little, I was selling enough to have a normal life, even with money to save.

Knowing what I know now, I could have expedited the process if I had been more humble: If I had knew the price I had to pay to be where I am right now. Surely everyone has in mind which goals they want to achieve and who they want to be, but we always have to realize where we are on our way. I would have changed my mind from being an artist to becoming an entrepreneur modeling business growth strategies as soon as possible, instead of waiting to be discovered. When you think as an entrepreneur you are active, assuming your responsibility, doing everything possible to have results and make them grow; you don’t depend on luck, being passive, waiting for something to happen in your life. We may be waiting our whole lives for something to happen, but we don’t have the time to live forever. That is why, even if we are artists, we have to think and act like entrepreneurs do, and make our dreams come true.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

First of all, work very hard every day to have works in quantity and quality to sell. After that, my goal was to share my work with the world; I had to exhibit my work: I applied for exhibit opportunities to slowly build a meaningful resume. At the beginning it is more difficult, because nobody knows you, and you don’t even have a line of exhibitions on your CV. So I looked for and took advantage of all the opportunities to exhibit, even if I had to pay a fee to participate, because at the beginning you have to focus on quantity, and then you can select, you can choose quality. Everything in life works like this: first quantity, then less but quality.
I also started applying to all the art competitions that matched my lines of work. Little by little I began to be recognized being selected in some of them. The next step was to work with a gallery. Some galleries were interested in my work and contacted me to work with them, which allows the artist to participate in art fairs and grow their career, cache and recognition around the world. And now I am at a point of expansion: working with more quality galleries that can take my work to the next level.

I have a client who has bought a lot of my works and told me that he bought them for the magical tool they represented for him, using my pieces to transform himself. I have always believed that art changes the world, because an image creates shapes in our minds that can change our perception, our feelings and ultimately our actions. So for me, painting a picture is a way of creating the image that you want to invoke in your life to materialize. When you have an image in your mind, for a moment you become one with that image. You become what that image represents. When the image is not in front of you, you can illuminate it in your mind and become one with the image again. To see is to accept, just as the primitives believed in the magical properties of art objects, I conceive my works in the same way. If magic has the power to transform things, or to make things happen, we are all magicians and we are living in a magical world. A magical object like a work of art defines exactly what images you want to see materialized in your life, just as images have the power to fix information in our minds, works of art have the power to accelerate the process from conception to manifestation. , acting as a catalyst. And you can say: ok, but we are surrounded by images, why do you think that one image is more powerful than all the images that we see daily scrolling on our smartphones? Because the artist not only has the power to create an image, but to give it a soul. We feel differently in front of a painting with an aura than in front of one that does not have an aura. The first one has a lot of energy contained within, and the other one only has the technique, better or worse, but only the technique. The first one is going to hypnotize you, it is going to eat you; the second bores you This is important, because in order to materialize something present in an image, it must also be boiled with the powerful fire of the aura. How do artists put soul in their works of art? Because they put their soul into the process of creating them.
That is why it is important to know about my work that I do not create beautiful paintings to decorate your room, I create tools to transform you through contemplation.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The opportunity to change the world.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

To think as a millionaire.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.silviaflechoso.com
• Instagram: @silviaflechoso
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/silviaflechoso/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4757pwwZlc6ZCNerjySvHQ

Image Credits
Silvia Flechoso in her studio (photogrphy by Alejandro Madrid) – Silvia Flechoso – Pietá (oil on canvas 200x200cm, Madrid 2021) Silvia Flechoso – Oro (oil on canvas 200x200cm Madrid 2020) Silvia Flechoso – Dejad que los niños se acerquen a mí (oil on canvas 200x200cm Madrid 2019) Silvia Flechoso with her famous Pietà in Art Madrid 2021 Snapshot of her first musical video “Cantata Dionisíaca” Art cover of her first single “Cantata Dionisíaca” (oil on t-shirt, La huella del cazador, Madrid 2022) Snapshot of her musical video “Contigo” Silvia Flechoso – Las Borrachas (oil on canvas 220x200cm Madrid 2019)