Pictured above are a selection of Barriento’s pieces. He said he creates art in big creative bursts and sometimes will create as many as 40 pieces of art in a month.
When it comes to naming the pieces, he says he tries to name the art after what he was feeling when he made it.
fluent in English was beneficial because he was able to
land a job as a server with a small, family-owned Mexican
restaurant. He said if he didn’t speak English well, he prob-
ably would have ended up in the back of the restaurant
where his earning potential would have been less.
While working in LaGrange, he started to think about
ways to improve his life once again. He said he was mak-
ing enough money and enjoyed the working environment,
but didn’t feel like he wanted to be a server forever.
At that point, he started to think seriously about becom-
ing an artist. However, Barriento needed to confirm these
thoughts, so he went to New York City by himself for a
week. He visited several museums, including the Metro-
politan Museum of Arts, Solomon R. Guggenheim Muse-
um, the Frick Collection and the Modern Museum of Art.
While walking through halls of the famous museums,
looking at the historical works of art that conjured up
emotion inside of him, he knew it was time for him to
pursue it professionally. He said it was work like Perseus
holding Medusa’s head and Prometheus Bound that pro-
duced passion inside him that led him to believe art was
the right choice for him.
“It is really the emotion that you feel when you see the
painting,” he said. “You look at the paint that it’s like ‘wow,
this is freaking awesome.’ I can’t buy it, so I’m going to
have to make my own.”
Although he left New York with a renewed sense of pur-
pose, he knew art wasn’t going to make him rich. Still, he
wanted to do something to invoke similar feelings in other
people.
“Art inspired me and changed my life, so I would like
that my paintings inspire people and also change their
life,” Barriento said.
Upon returning to LaGrange, he knew he had to contin-
ue working at the restaurant and that success wasn’t going
to happen overnight. Working at the restaurant taught him
a few lessons he was able to carry on throughout his life.
“One of the most valuable things that I learned at the
restaurant was a smile opens many doors,” he said. “I got a
lot of support, and people treated me like family.”
However, there was also a little problem with becoming
an artist for Barriento — he needed to learn how to draw.
In another way to improve his life, he purchased the
book “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” by Betty
Edwards, which is one of the all-time best-selling how-
to-draw books. Also, he began taking classes to learn how
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