Community Artist Profile #1: Paz Torres a.k.a. Paztilla

07 Feb 2007 Morgan

One thing i have been wanting to do for awhile is create community artist profiles of artists in the local community. So, starting with this blog, i aim to put up at least one new community profile a month. Each month, i will conduct a short email 'interview' with local artists working in a variety of mediums. I wlll ask them questions about their arts, process and approach. this month, i would like to start off with Paz Torres, a.k.a. Paztilla. I first met Paz nearly 10 years ago while attending junior college. Our paths then diverged and only recently have we reconnected. I like her videos because she 'remixes' documents of her own experience with folky, nostalgic music. I feel quirky, poetic and romantic when i watch her videos. Below, Columbian-born Paztilla talks a bit about her art that is 'not artistic' in the interview below. Enjoy!

+ 1. How did you get started making videos?
Well, one summer day I was so bored that I decided to spend my time in something more productive.

+ 2. What software/hardware do you use?
I used I movie and my MacBook

+ 3. What has been the most difficult project for you?
Mmmm....I guess all my videos had a similar level of difficulty. I don't think that I have an specific project that was most difficult than other, as I said above, they all have similar level of dificulty, but I guess the most difficult part in all my videos is to put in words what I want to share. English is not my first lenguage, so I always find my self short in vocabulary, besides the fact that my words do not flow in the same way as they do in my native language.

+ 4. How did you get the viewers to your videos?
I put my videos in youtube and myspace.

+ 5. What drives you to create the videos that you do?
Video is such a rich magical media, you can created fantastical places and moods that are only possible to created in a visual/musical/etc.. way. I love to created art that I like to see, so I like to share with others the art that I like to see. Having a response from the audience motives me to created more. After all I make the video for the audience. What's the point of creating something that it is not going to be share with others? Specially something that we belived is nice and enjoyble, sometimes we need a break from all the agressive/harsh visual pullution that rules the world.

For more info about Paz and to watch some of her other videos, check out her profile (with links to her other works) here: http://www.sharesd.org/user/50