We had the good fortune of connecting with Nicholas Aceves and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nicholas, so given that most of us are stuck at home due to the crisis, we’ve been asking folks about what they’ve enjoyed doing during quarantine. We’d love to hear what your favorite thing to do has been.
During these troubling and uncertain times, a positive thing that has come with it is that it allowed me to get back into painting and producing artwork in a matter I’ve haven’t done in quite some time. Now that I’m home almost 24/7, it has allowed me to slow down my created process and focus on creating work that’s much more personal and fulfilling. Over the last two years, I’ve switched mostly to creating digital artwork, which then can easily be printed serval times over. Now with my bespoke paintings, I’ve become more connected with my artwork and such my enthusiasm has highen when finishing each piece. My current series of paintings harkens back to my previous usage of topography marking and geometric shapes, however now I’m exploring that same concept, but with the use of brighter and bolder colors, and changing up the topographic line work.

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.
I felt somewhat unique while taking art classes during community college, due to most students would rather get inspired by the Inland Empire and Los Angeles than their own backyard here in the high desert. The pieces feature here are abstract paintings of landforms based on my surrounding area. Picking a new spot on a map, I would set out with my camera and sketchbook and just wander. I found solace and inspiration from nature and turned those adventures into a body of work. My art and design career has been fairly traditional, went to school, landed a job and the rest is history. My day to day job is working is for a local ceramics company doing graphic design and marketing, along with general office tasks. I put in a lot of work as many others do, and for those who don’t need to, as I feel it’s the only way to have success as an artist. What I want others to take away from myself and work, is that someone whos grateful for the things that have come my way, and I will continue to cherish the world around me in hopes that it too can inspire others.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I wouldn’t necessarily want to stick with a preplanned schedule, but rather point some to a destination, and allow their own curiosity to discover the area. The area of which I would set people would be Palm Springs and Coachella Valley. I’ve visited the Palm Springs area countless times and will continue to do so as the area is ripe with inspiration, beautiful environments, and unique characteristics that are unseen throughout other areas of Southern California.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
It’s really hard to pinpoint to any one person, so instead, I’m gonna talk about serval people and organizations who have to help me over the years. First and foremost, my family has been a great support of my work and it’s been a blast taking them to my shows and see my work outside of our home. My shoutout extends to the art community of the Inland Empire, has many artists and art dilettantes have been supportive in a way I wouldn’t have expected. Two fantastic organizations that have not only assisted me, but serval other artists in the area are; Curious Publishing, a publishing house that establishes to promote underrepresented artists, and The Artlands Gallery, who puts on awesome art events that were unheard of in its local area. And lastly, to my wonderful girlfriend, Annery, who is my biggest fan and I can’t thank her enough for her love and support.

Website: nicholasaceves.com
Instagram: @nicholas.aceves
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-aceves-19a202a8/

Image Credits
portrait by Yulissa Mendoza