Artist Interview Series | Anthony Lazorko

Linus Galleries, Fine Art Gallery

2014 Artist Interview Series

Anthony Lazorko

Linus Galleries, a Los Angeles contemporary art gallery, presents The Artist Interview Series. Our Linus artists are from all over the world and come from a variety of different practices and backgrounds. Read on to gain insight into the creative process and personality of our featured artist. This week we feature Anthony Lazorko who recently exhibited one of his colorful, charming woodcut prints in our Dream State exhibition.

1) Please tell us your name, artistic practice of choice, and location in the world.

I’m Anthony ‘Tony’ Lazorko and I am a printmaker living in Mesilla, New Mexico. Although I have made my living in commercial art all my life, the love of printmaking has always been a big part of my life. A few years ago I retired from my job as Art Director of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and have begun again to make prints.

los angeles, linus galleries, woodcut print — A portrait of Anthony Lazorko

2) Are you self-taught or did you formally study art?

I received four years of fine arts education, 1956-1960, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There I studied drawing, oil painting and printmaking under the tutelage of such prestigious artists as Morris Blackburn, Walter Stumpfig and Franklin Watkins. The focus of my work has always been to depict something about the American experience, no matter how ordinary, and to say it in an aesthetic manner with tactile surfaces, color and composition.

3) This is a hard choice for many visual artists, but what is the first answer that comes to mind when you think of your favorite color?

Maybe blue but green in all its variety.

4) Where do you create your art?

In my imagination, day dreaming and from what I see around me. My wife, Marguerite Biddle, and I purchased a small house and studio in Mesilla, New Mexico, where we are busy working. She and I were fellow students at the Academy.

5) What is difficult for you about your chosen medium?

Errors are time consuming to resolve. My woodcuts are multi-color, involving many separate blocks. I always pull my own prints so the whole process is quite time-consuming. Therefore, I do not like to send them out to galleries unless there is real interest.

6) What trends bother you?

Personal “mental dramas” on paper or canvas tend to bother me.

7) Describe your “aha” moment when working with your medium that made you make that leap into another level. Or does that feel like it is yet to occur?

It’s always elusive, but you know it when it happens.