February 2006: “The Silver Lining”
By Erin Clark of Artworks Magazine
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Life was good. Sonya Paz was riding the hitech train: jobs with Apple, Microsoft and Adobe. Opportunity was everywhere and then, all of a sudden, it wasn’t.
A pin pricked the balloon and all the air came rushing out – boom to bust in record time and Sonya Paz was one of the many causalities. During that time, looking for work in the Silicon Valley was an exercise in frustration – 10,000 applicants for every available job.
Besides, Sonya Paz had better things to do than look for a job, she was going to create one – literally. Sonya decided to pursue her art full time and she put her corporate experience to good use. Paz attacked her new venture with the zest of a true entrepreneur. Art was now her business, “I would say I spend 90% of my time on marketing, public relations and networking and 10% on actually painting.” Paz markets her art relentlessly, and she rarely takes no for an answer. “When I was turned down by the Sausalito Art Festival, I looked at it as a challenge. I redoubled my efforts, and not only did I eventually get in but in 2004 I was commissioned to design their t-shirt. Tenacity pays off.” And she has oodles of it.
When she was starting out she would call coffee shops and try to talk owners into letting her hang paintings in their cafes. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t, but she kept trying. She joined organizations and donated paintings to charities. She targeted wineries and restaurants. Some of her artwork was featured on hats, t-shirts, glasses and posters for the 23rd Annual Livermore Valley Harvest Wine Festival. Slowly, Sonya made a name for herself and built a business in the process.
Soon enough she opened a gallery and expanded her “product line” to include functional art (furniture), note cards, limited edition prints, and recently, wristwatches. It is a broad-based approach that makes her art, in some form, affordable to just about anyone. She dismisses charges that she is selling out. Without a hint of defensiveness she says, “I never understood what that meant – ‘selling out.’ We’re not mass marketing. I’m just getting my stuff out there; you can’t sit around and do nothing. You have to keep following up with people and letting them know you haven’t forgotten them, and they won’t forget you.”
Spoken like a true businesswoman. And it’s working. Sonya knows that not everyone will like her art. “Art is like oysters – some like it and some don’t,” she says, “But they have to see it to decide.” Her mission is to get people to consider it. One step into Paz’s whimsical world and its easy to see she doesn’t spend a lot of time wallowing. Her art is a reflection of her personality – energetic, optimistic and colorful. Paz calls herself a pop artist, influenced by the likes of Pablo Picasso and Roy Lichtenstein – color and form yes, but without the edge. Paz’s art is decidedly happy, and she makes no apologies for it. “I like bright and cheerful,” she says, “ And I don’t paint with a lot of texture so I have to rely on color. Its all about the color.”
Even her subject matter is fun: wine, music, city life, animals – all done in vivid exaggerated color and form. Walking into her gallery is like falling into a kaleidoscope. It’s hard not to smile and enjoy the slide. Just a few months ago, Paz doubled the size of her gallery, part of an old fruit processing plant in Santa Clara that has been renovated into hip industrial space – perfect for a contemporary gallery. Always looking ahead, Paz is planning a series of group shows. She also envisions the space as a cool place to hold events. She and her husband operate the gallery together. He handles the administrative stuff and she handles the creative and sales end of things. Eight years after the bubble burst, she is exactly where she wants to be. Life IS good.
By Erin Clark of Artworks Magazine
Click here to view full article – PDF
