Lara has gotten to where she is a bit by chance, because when she left Salceda for Segovia to study Architecture, collage was not part of her plans. His takeoff was so organic that he does not even remember how long he has been living off his clippings, which he sells in foil format in his own online store. “Seven or eight years,” he thinks.
“I was saturated with work and I had to choose; I chose the illustration because I like to take risks “
What you do know is when your interest in this technique began. “It’s my mother’s fault, who as a child gave me her stamp collection and I started saving the images that I liked; Like the flayers of the discos, which I loved. With them I started decorating gifts”, He explains, defining his collages as a means of expression. “I am very shy and with them I tell the things that sometimes I have to say.”
He began making collages when he was studying Architecture. With them he explained the idea he wanted to convey in his work. “I did them because I had fun and I liked them, then I saw that people found them funny,” he says. As a result, he began to publish them on Instagram and his followers rose like foam. That was when she was encouraged to sell them, until a time came when her permanent position as an architect was not compatible with her love of collage. “I was saturated with work and I had to choose; I chose illustration because I like to take risks ”, he tells FARO from Madrid, where he currently resides.
“People saw a collage and knew it was mine,” she says about her beginnings, still surprised. Currently, their style is still easily recognizable, since in them the vase women are turned into heroines, the sets are brutalist buildings and the cities are invaded by UFOs. Why UFOs? “They always ask me that question and I answer that because I am Galician. I think they give it a touch of surrealism, besides I really like everything that has to do with the universe because you realize that you are insignificant “, Explain.
Apart from the unidentified flying objects, which you have already seen imitated in collages of other people, the The main protagonists of his illustrations are the women of the advertisements of the 50s and 60s, those relegated to the background in advertising and outside of it. From the hand of Lara Lars, they go from being mere objects to holding the moon. “I wanted to give them their own personality”, she comments, highlighting that “it bothers me to be told that, because women are protagonists, it is a female illustration, when I have been growing up with male references for years”.
The first collaboration with a brand He arrived when Glamor magazine commissioned him to illustrate his horoscope and then AD magazine, specialized in architecture and design, also knocked on his door. “It was the magazine that I bought every month”, highlights, emphasizing that “I had no contact in the world of illustration; Instagram played a lot in my favor”.
“My dream? To be able to live all my life of this and that I continue to like it “
Since then, at 34, he has already worked with well-known brands such as Vanity Fair, Vogue, Bombay Sapphire or Dolce Gusto; He has illustrated book covers for different publishers and currently exhibits his work in New York and has his own podcast on Radio Nacional de España. It is even represented by Okiko Talents, the influencer agency that also directs the careers of characters such as Gala González, Fernando Verdasco or Ana Boyer.
Her success as an illustrator still catches her a little off guard and she doesn’t set any goals. “My dream? To be able to live all my life of this and that I continue to like it ”, Lara replies, that for the neighbors of her native Salceda she will always be“ the daughter of Don Luis, the mythical Physical Education teacher ”.
Work in Salceda
One of the works that has made Lara the most exciting is the commission that the City Council of Salceda gave her this year on the occasion of International Women’s Day. Thus, since March 8, Salceda wears her own collage by Lara Lars. In it, a woman plants a poster in the Plaza del Concello in which you can read “Salceda de Caselas feminista”. “It is a declaration of intent. It does not mean that Salceda is a feminist because there is no city that is feminist; we suffer sexist attitudes on a daily basis, both by men and women, but it is important to be aware of this in order to try to change things little by little ”, explains its author, highlighting that“ I am excited that the local government is interested for feminism ”. On the contrary, it regrets that in the middle of 2021 it is still necessary to remember that feminism means equality between men and women. “I think that with my work I contribute my grain of sand to the cause”, indicates this Salcedense.
– .
