Ricardo Gonzalez is a muralist specialized in street lettering, originally from Durango, Mexico. His artistic name is “It’s a living,” which is an ambiguous statement and also his life philosophy. This sentence to him means: “Doing what you love to do for a living.”
He lives in Brooklyn currently, and his signature script style can be easily recognized all over, from large-scale murals to commercial pieces for some of the biggest brands, and simple stickers.
As it says in his website:
The ambiguity in the typographical messages continually creates a dialog between the viewer and the artwork. ‘A word is an image’ and an image can be interpreted in so many ways, the direct approach of typography has been an exploring path where the main goal is to question our daily living and to produce a positive impact. After all, it’s a living.
He is a graphic designer by trade, but his main line of work as a lettering artist painting murals has taken him all over the world, with his work being exhibited in places such as Tokyo, Austria, Taiwan and Spain, as well as Mexico and the United States.
His first memory of an encounter with art was through his grandparents’ signatures in his native Durango: “Their writing was beautiful to me, but I never thought I was going to make a living out of writing,” he says. In his street signs, it is clear the influence of traditional calligraphy and lettering.
For more street art, go here: 6 Rising Street Artists You Need To Keep An Eye On
Art, he adds, “is something that has been part of my life whether I get paid for it or not, I just like to do what I do.”
His interests, clear influences in his most recognizable work, include traveling, music, skateboarding, and his childhood.
He is currently working on a project in the city of Kaohsiung, in Taiwan, but he also makes time to manage different projects in the States and Mexico.
As a Latinx artist, his work is a double-sided window that lets those who encounter it peer into a different way of doing things, and a different way of seeing the world.
The reverberating images he paints -or most of the time, sprays- are short, powerful messages about living in the present, embracing beauty, love, and togetherness in a world that is constantly telling us to compete with one other.
Follow him on Instagram to find out where you can go to appreciate his murals in real life!
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