Meet Aitor Lajarin-Encina | Artist, Professor, Organizer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Aitor Lajarin-Encina and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Aitor, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
I don’t want to miss any of the aspects of life that bring me joy. I love the work I do, making art, teaching, and curating, but I know in my last days, I won’t regret having not made two or twenty more paintings. Hanging and spending quality time with my family and friends, working out, playing soccer, playing music, reading, watching films, and cooking are crucial activities that make me happy, and I make sure there is room for them in my schedule. Let’s not forget also about taking a good siesta when it seems necessary. Ultimately, I am from Spain!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My art is about engaging critically with the reality I have to live while I open a space for myself and others for thoughtful reflection and enriching aesthetic experiences. It’s about finding a way to stay collectively awake, not turning our look away from important issues, and staying alert and keeping a playful attitude toward life, even in the face of collective cataclysm or precisely because of that. It’s about touching people and offering them ideas and notions to think about, but is not about teaching or communicating anything. I am not interested in telling people what to do or what they should be doing or in conveying moralistic tales. My work presents the incongruencies, paradoxes, ambiguities, and complications of existence. I hope people find my work interesting because it makes it relatable to them and makes them reflect in their own way about their own experiences and life conditions. I believe people are intelligent, and they need to be treated that way. My work asks people to identify themselves. Something like, “Here I am, this is who I think I am, and this is what I think.”

I am a first-generation student from a working-class family raised in a small town in the Basque Country who ended up becoming an artist and a university professor in Colorado, in the United States. I am very grateful to be where I am, in a way, against the odds given by my background. I got to have a career in the arts, which is my passion, and I get to help other people develop theirs, which is very rewarding. I got where I got due to a combination of naivety, stubbornness, a tendency to feel inspired, and a dreamy attitude. Add to that constant work and many mistakes. Significant doses of luck and possibly some talent and strategic intuition. I got here thanks to the help, trust, support, and generosity of many people.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I had never skied before I moved here, which I think is a great thing to do in Colorado, and I would like to take my friends to do it. It’s a good way to experience the mountains if you are into them! I like Denver, too. I would take my friends to eat some food at some of the great local restaurants and visit some galleries and museums. The Clifford Still Museum is a truly special thing. Fort Collins is my town and a nice place to chill and ride bikes to breweries and all that.

But what I would really do is drive my friends around the state and experience the diversity of landscapes and situations that it offers—from the mountains to the flats, from east to west and nothing to south, searching beyond touristy places, giving attention to small towns and “seemingly uninteresting” towns and places around the state. I love driving around without a fixed plan, stopping in random places to see what’s up, and looking for unexpected encounters. I hate feeling like a tourist when I travel. I like to explore, meet local people, and find interesting corners and scenes of everyday life wherever I go. The idea would be to really get my friends excited about discovering what life in Colorado is really like. Maybe I am just a weird artist, I don’t know…

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
This is to my grandparents and parents, my wife, and all the friends and people from whom I have been able to learn the following. You need to have strong values to carry yourself in life and in the community. Don’t be individualist. Have a work ethic, and show up to life every day, no matter what happens with you or around you. People come first. People matter more than plans and property. Justice comes before freedom. Respect other people and watch for the collective benefit over my own selfish ambitions or desires. Respect and protect children, older people, and disadvantaged people, always, anywhere. Pursue your goals and dreams, but focus on the process and the journey and be open to the new situations these may lead you to. Life is precious, everyone’s life. Be a pacifist; war, destruction, and violence, no matter where or for what reasons, are not justifiable. Educate yourself; don’t take yourself too seriously.

Website: https://www.aitorlajarin.info

Instagram: aitorlajarin