The Story of an Artist: Victor Gastelum
The Story Of An Artist: Victor Gastelum
Interview with Victor Gastelum.
“Victor is the fifth Beatle, he is the silent one that no one really ever sees.”
—Joey Burns, Calexico
Words: Craig Carry, Artwork: Victor Gastelum
Original Post (with artwork): http://fracturedair.com/2014/01/29/the-story-of-an-artist-victor-gastel…
“Love the run but not the race
All alone in a silent way
World drifts in and the world’s a stranger”
—‘Quattro (World Drifts In)’, Calexico
In an attempt to write the story of the Long Beach California-based artist Victor Gastelum, it is tempting to simultaneously write the story of Tucson Arizona’s beloved sons Calexico. For, across the band’s vast body of sprawling, timeless work — encompassing a string of studio albums, tour records, a plethora of EP’s, soundtrack scores and a multitude of collaborative works — the artwork of Gastelum’s adorn some of the most precious of Calexico’s records since their inception in 1996, following core-duo Joey Burns and John Convertino’s previous spell as rhythm-section to Howe Gelb’s Giant Sand; another one of Tucson’s most revered bands. Victor Gastelum, a native of Southern California, would provide the artwork for one of the band’s earliest releases, “Spark/The Ride”, a single put out in 1996, prior to the band’s full-length debut “Spoke” (released by Quarterstick Records in the following year). The music (both written by Burns) can be perfectly summed up by the description found inside, set in all-lowercase, on a black-and-white postcard-sized insert:
