Velasquez, who holds a BFA from Cornish College in Seattle, discovered his passion for photography after exploring a long succession of other artistic interests. On the contrary, the artist, whose solo show “Keep the Faith” currently hangs at Steynberg Gallery, insists his art is more about making important statements-about sexism, fashion, censorship, religion, or art itself, to name a few examples-and that people who think his work is about ogling hot babes are utterly missing the point. The blue-collar workers who frequent his family’s burger joint, Tom’s Takeout, may enjoy his work on a base level-along the lines of “she has nice tits”-but the way Velasquez describes it, this reaction is hardly the goal.
Here is a man whose provocative shots, often of beautiful, nude young women, have received criticism from both progressive, feminist types and God-fearing Midwesterners. It was the start of my whole view of the world.”ĭecades later, the same conundrum follows the Santa Maria fine art photographer/fry cook. “And my mom was like”-he made a disgusted face-“‘That’s kind of dirty.’ And I couldn’t convey to her, ‘I want to learn from this.’ All she saw was a 13-year-old boy wanting to see these half-naked women. “I really wanted this book,” Velasquez remembered.
The young Velasquez had asked his mother for a book by artist Boris Vallejo, whose highly photorealistic depictions of ripplingly muscled men and buxom women-in various stages of bursting out of their minimal clothing-impressed the avid artist, who had already filled sketchbooks with his drawings of comic book heroes.
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CREATURE OF THE DEEP : While Mark Velasquez worked with professional model Raven La Faye for this shot, the Santa Maria photographer more often employs a regular gang of photogenic friends as muses.
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