Gallery
Transcript (Unedited)
Tom Heath
All right, here we are once again at the Tucson Galleries inside of the proper shops in downtown Tucson, Arizona. We are right across the street from hotel congress, and we are featuring local artists with gifts, merchandise, and original artwork. It’s the place to go if you’re looking for something Tucson art related. And as part of our mission to expand the reach of our artists and make the world aware of how fabulously lucky we are. In Tucson, we do meet the artist events every Friday, and they are casual events where you can come in, have a glass of wine, cup of coffee, and chat with one of your favorite artists in town. We call it Meet the Artists, and as a favor with all of those artists, we ask them to record a podcast so we can keep our stories of this oral tradition of art alive through the gallery. And today, we are blessed with the presence of Enavique Aldana, who is very well known here in Tucson for many things, but recently became an artist. So, Enlavique, welcome to the show.
Enrique Aldana
Thank you, Tom. I appreciate it.
Tom Heath
Your story is pretty interesting because you have a really big philanthropic part. You’ve been out in the community doing lots of really wonderful things, and then one day you decided you were going to take that energy and turn it into something beautiful and became an artist. You just woke up and said, I’m going to be an artist today.
Enrique Aldana
Yeah, that’s pretty much what you all.
Tom Heath
Right, that is the end of our show.
Enrique Aldana
Thank you for joining us for Good night, everybody.
Tom Heath
Maybe you can elaborate a little bit on that journey for us.
Enrique Aldana
Yeah, so as Tom mentioned, I’m very involved in my community. I’d love to give back a fundraiser for Arizona Public Media, but I also have separate passions outside of that, and I like to serve on different boards. And most recently, I was serving on the board of youth on their Own, and they were looking for catalog items for their holiday catalog. And I’ve been taking photographs for many years, and my daughter said to me one day, dad, what are you going to do with these photos? I said, I don’t know. Admire them. And then this idea came that maybe I would create some note cards for youth on their own to help them raise funds. That became my first project. And it went splendid. I mean, it turned out really nice. Fast forward a month or so, and I approached Ben’s Bells, who I really like, their mission of be kind and spread kindness. And so I approached them to see if I could create some note cards for them, and they said, absolutely, and so I did.
Enrique Aldana
So they have their own line of note cards created by yours truly. No cards. And then after that, my daughter and I thought, well, what if we create just a separate line completely? And so tucson is known for what I call icons and oddities. You may be familiar with the McDonald’s dinosaur. The Tiki on Fourth. The lumberjack on Stone Avenue. So my daughter and I took about two months just on the weekends, and we decided to go photograph these icons and oddities and I created a library of them and then turned them into note cards. And it’s just been a wonderful experience making art, creating art, selling art. And now being here at the Tucson.
Tom Heath
Gallery, he had to think where he was for a second. I’m in so many places. Being here at the fabulous Chicago Downtown hotel. Wait a minute, I’m in Tucson?
Enrique Aldana
Well, no way. I’m here with Tom.
Tom Heath
You went from not producing any art to being prolific. Every time I look at your Facebook page like, oh, I just new release. Oh, look, new release. Just put this out.
Enrique Aldana
Yeah. I think it’s a creative outlet for me and it’s necessary for me to rejuvenate my being and my spirit. And so I keep on expanding my line. It’s gone from note cards to posters to puzzles. Now I have tote bags. Now I’m printing prints on metal and it’s just been the community has supported my work and I feel invigorated by their support and so I continue to create and it’s just been an amazing journey. And then I have people like you, Tom, who, when you were putting the idea together of the Tucson Gallery, for whatever reason, I mean, it must have been lacking for artists, but you called me up and said, hey, do you want to be part of this? And how could I say no? A, to you, but B, to be in the company of the amazing artists that you currently house here at the Tucson Gallery. I’m very blessed to be a part of that and I don’t take it lightly. And I really enjoy what you’re doing and what we’re doing together.
Tom Heath
You kind of glossed over it a little bit, but I think it’s fun how the name of your company is Yours Truly Note Cards. And how did that come about?
Enrique Aldana
Yeah, so I was trying to think, like, what am I going to name my note card business? And I had a list of crazy names, none of them of which I liked. And one day a friend of mine said, hey, wow, this is amazing work. Who created it? And I said, yours truly. And the light bulb went off and I’m like, I got it. That’s the name of my art business.
Tom Heath
Here yours truly note cards. And now, like you said, posters, puzzles, metal prints, just quite a collection that’s growing. Your stickers have been quite popular in the gallery. They’re very iconic. Tucson or Arizona Images.
Enrique Aldana
Thank you. The community we live in, as you know, is just beautiful and amazing. And so I pay homage to my community through my work. I love to be inspired by the sights and sounds and scenes around us. And so a lot of my work is really replicated from the things that I see around me, and stickers seem to be doing really well, and that’s a lot of fun. Yeah.
Tom Heath
You’ve been doing this for how long now? When did you create your first note card?
Enrique Aldana
It’s been a little bit over a year now, in November of a year and several months ago. And again, it was youth on their own that kind of spurred this on. And I had the idea, and it’s just been something that I’ve been doing on the weekends now and just really enjoying it.
Tom Heath
And you’ve gotten some good press, I’ve seen in several magazines, local magazines have been featuring you.
Enrique Aldana
Well, it’s that saying it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. So I’ve been featured in Tucson Guide. There’s a new publication in the foothills that came out, a friend that wrote a blog who included me in that. It’s just been amazing to see my name in print. And again, I surround myself with amazing, beautiful people, and they like to support me, and I I support them back.
Tom Heath
So do you do you see a future where this becomes your Monday through Friday gig, or is this you always see it as sort of an additional to what you’re doing.
Enrique Aldana
Well, I love what I do for Arizona Public Media. Again, I’m there.
Tom Heath
That’s right. Your boss might be listening. That’s okay.
Enrique Aldana
They can listen.
Tom Heath
I’m not going anywhere.
Enrique Aldana
Awkward. No, I really enjoy my job and what I do, and I hope to retire, and this is a hobby right now, but maybe upon my retirement, I take it more seriously and consider myself an artist and just continue to do what I’m doing on a full time basis.
Tom Heath
And you had the I don’t say the luxury, but maybe it’s the luxury of someone that you know and trust, your daughter, that sort of pushed you into this. But you had these photos for years. What kind of guidance can you give to someone that is out there that takes a lot of photographs, doesn’t quite know what to do, but doesn’t have someone in their life that’s given them that encouragement?
Enrique Aldana
Yeah, I’m glad that you asked that, because I think it’s been a great learning experience for my daughter, too. Because becoming an artist is not just creating the art, right. But you have to somehow create a buzz. You have to hit the streets to talk to people to see if they’re interested in selling your wares. You have to deal with the manufacturers of the pieces, the printing companies, cellophane wrappers. Cellophane wrappers, packaging. I mean, you go from soup to nuts, right? Creating your logo, creating your website, creating the business. It takes time, but this is the way I look at it is if I can do it, you can do it, too.
Tom Heath
I don’t think that’s the best advice well, I did it, so it can’t be that hard.
Enrique Aldana
No, it takes a little time and a little hustle. Actually, my work is located throughout Tucson. Now, there are seven or eight different vendors that will carry my work and I’m blessed that they liked it enough to want it.
Tom Heath
When you hit the streets, how do you approach I mean, we approached you because we wanted you in here, but I’m assuming you’ve had to some of the classier places you might have had to apply.
Enrique Aldana
Well, I guess my work speaks for itself. I let that do the talking and I take my artwork and I tell them that it’s available. I try to speak to the merchandisers or the people that buy the merch for their shops and I’ve been fortunate enough where they’ve liked what they’ve seen and then it’s just a negotiation how many and again, they’ve been really accepting of me and my work and have embraced my work and I can’t thank them enough.
Tom Heath
And your work has progressed. As you said, you started with the Tucson and the icons and oddities, but now you’re doing a lot of nature photos and things of that quality.
Tom Heath
What’s that transition? Is it just something you walk out that’s pretty. I’ll take a picture.
Enrique Aldana
Yeah. Again, I mean, walk down any street in Tucson and there’s always something that will catch your eye. For me, it’s the desert. I just love when I first moved to Tucson, I’m like the desert. Everything’s going to be brown and it’s quite the opposite. There’s so much color and intrigue and it’s just amazing to walk the streets. Lots of things catch my eye and I photograph a lot of things, but it doesn’t all translate into my artwork. And so I just think we live in a very vibrant, diverse, beautiful community and there’s no lack of
Enrique Aldana
material to photograph and it’s just amazing.
Tom Heath
Well, even though there’s no lack of material, then you go crazy and you put boots on bowls and things like that. You’re creating your own icons and oddities.
Enrique Aldana
Well, funny you say that. If you’re in the gallery, you’re going to notice some metal prints. This was inspired by Andy Warhol where he photographed some Converse sneakers and put them on a vibrant background. And I really liked the look and I thought, well, how can I take that and make it my own? And so I added a bouquet of daisies coming out of the sneakers and then photographed them in a way that to me made sense and then put a beautiful color background and then you print it on metal and with a very glossy look and it just is very unique. And to me it’s beautiful.
Tom Heath
But even before that, you were taking these icons and mixing and matching them. Are you still doing that?
Enrique Aldana
Yeah, I am. I find it funny if you take the dinosaur in front of the McDonald’s on Tinkerberty and Grant and then you mash it up with the lumberjack off of Stone. It just makes for an interesting image when you’re seeing a dinosaur and a lumberjack kind of dueling it out. So that’s a lot of fun. The other photo I have that I mashed up was the Tucson cactus off of Grant or Miracle Mile area. It’s iconic. And I have the horse from El Corral jumping the cactus. And then I used the starburst from Lucky Wishbone on Broadway, and that’s representing the sun. So here you have this horse jumping a cactus under the sunlight, and they’re just icons from around Tucson. So I call those my mashups.
Tom Heath
Yeah, they’re definitely fun. How do people see your work follow you if they’re not in the gallery? That you got Facebook? Do you have a business page, a personal page? How do they get a hold of you?
Enrique Aldana
Yeah, if you go to on Instagram. On instagram yours truly. No cards, rather. And then my website is yourstrulinocards.com. Or you can come into the gallery, the Tucson Gallery here at the proper shops, and you’ll get a glimpse of my work here too. Or you can just contact me directly. I would love to partner with more nonprofits to create ways to help them raise funds. And I have some ideas, so I’m always open for collaboration.
Tom Heath
Always has ideas. Always has ideas. I don’t know if the man ever sleeps because he’s always coming up with something creative. But Enrique, we really appreciate you being in the gallery. I appreciate your time today. And if you’re out there listening and want to get a hold of him, you can reach us to the gallery on our website, thetucsongallery.com. In case you have any trouble finding him. While you’re there, you can look at the art we have available for him and all of our artists. What we have online are reproductions and merchandise in the gallery. We carry mostly originals, and of course in the case of Enrique with Photos, they’re of course reproductions, but sometimes we have different versions in the gallery than we’ll have online. So you want to check them both out. And while there, you can listen to meet the artist podcasts and go back and listen to all the others that we’ve had on and sign up for the newsletter so you can learn about all these cool events and show up and maybe
Tom Heath
meet one of these artists yourself and get to know them a little bit better and get this understanding of Tucson’s history through their eyes.
Enrique Aldana
Sounds like a great idea. And thank you, Tom, for hosting this and for starting this business model of showcasing beautiful artwork from our local artists. It’s wonderful. And thank you for including me.
Tom Heath
I appreciate that. We’re still calling it a model. We haven’t made any money yet, so it’s not a business model yet.
Enrique Aldana
So you’re a nonprofit?
Tom Heath
Well, we’re not intentionally, but we started intentionally to have a very favorable split for the artists and we knew it was going to take some time and we’re doing just fine. I’m teasing, but it’s a labor of love on our part. And just like yourself, I love Tucson and this is our way of getting back. I don’t have the talents that you have artistically, so I’ve got to do something else and promoting you is the way I can do it.
Enrique Aldana
I don’t know about that, Tom. I think you’re very talented.
Tom Heath
All right, before this bromance gets any worse, we’re going to wrap that up. But tune in. Check out the website for Meet the Artist podcast. You can also check us out on Spotify and Enrique. Have a fantastic meet the artist event.
Enrique Aldana
Thank you. I appreciate it. And everyone, stay creative.
Speaker 3
Thank you for listening to Meet the Artist. This is a weekly production by the Tucson Gallery, located inside of the proper shops at 300 East Conga Street in Tucson, Arizona. The mission of the Tucson Gallery is to support local artists by providing a space to show their art, a forum to engage with their audience, a virtual presence to connect with global patrons, an outlet to earn a fair price and an opportunity to hone their business skills. Head over to thetussonggallery.com for more information about our live events, listen to other Meet the Artist podcasts and check out the wide selection of of art gifts and other items created by Tucson’s modern, thought provoking and forward thinking artists.