Embracing the surreal with artist Armando Chacon 

One recent morning, Armando Chacon greeted me at the front door of his charming home in Lilburn. He welcomed me inside and guided me through the house and down to his terrace-level studio. The walls of nearly every room were covered with Chacon’s vibrant, colorful, and masterful paintings.

I first came to know of Armando Chacon through his participation in exhibitions at the Avondale Arts Center. He is a talented painter who mostly creates surrealist oil paintings. Chacon also is a member of the Virginia Highlands Plein Air Association, and can often be seen wearing his signature cap and frock, painting live while out in nature. Chacon enjoys flexing his realism skills in plein air settings, and the change of pace from the surrealism works he creates in his studio. 

Chacon is originally from Guatemala, and he migrated with his family to Tampa when he was a teenager. “You always dream of going to America, especially in the 90s,” he explained. As a young man, he didn’t know the language and he had a lot to learn upon landing in America.

Describing this experience as “mixed emotions,” he made the most of his time in Florida. It was during high school that he first encountered the surrealist works of Dali when his art teacher took him to visit the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. “It blew my mind,” he told me. The experience unlocked a new passion for surrealism and became instrumental in his pursuit of an artistic career.

Chacon’s love for art started long before he moved to America. As a boy, at the age of 12, he won Best of Show for a drawing he completed in an art contest hosted by the Spanish Airline Iberia. Coming in first place out of 40,000 student submissions was a massive boon to the young man’s confidence. As the winning artist, he and his family were invited to go to Spain where he visited the Museo Nacional del Prado and saw many of the classical realism works of great masters. 

After graduating from high school, Chacon enrolled at the Hillsborough Community College of Tampa, where he got a dual degree in art and radiology. Professionally, Chacon painted on the side while working as an x-ray technologist. 

He lived and worked in South Florida for a time, maintaining a studio at the Bakehouse Art Complex in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami during the early aughts. He explained that back then the area was mostly desolate, with abandoned storefronts surrounding the studio. Over the years the area grew in popularity and is now home to the esteemed Art Basel annual international art fair as well as a number of fine art galleries and exhibition spaces. When his rent went up, he made the choice to move out.

Chacon was employed at Cleveland Clinic Florida when he met his now wife Rocio, who was working there as a Registered Nurse. The two married, started a family, and ended up relocating to Atlanta when Chacon accepted a job at Piedmont Hospital in Buckhead in 2016. He was enticed by the opportunities presented by life in Atlanta, and he loved the idea of being surrounded by trees which reminds him of his childhood in Guatemala. 

Though Chacon enjoyed working as a radiology technologist and had moved up the ladder to leadership positions over the course of his career, he describes his choice to leave work and become a stay-at-home-dad as a “no-brainer.” As a parent to two young girls, he felt that there was too much traveling and not enough stability to support their upbringing. And so, he opted to stay home and focus on his family as well as his artistic career. The following year, 2019, he began submitting his work to exhibitions and competitions. 

Chacon describes his wife as his muse, and his deep love for Rocio is evident in the way he speaks of their relationship. “She’s my muse,” he explained. “The muse inspires me, as the artist, just to paint whatever and see the world in different ways; full of hope, full of opportunity. She has driven me to continue doing it.” 

Looking around his studio at the variety of works on his walls, I was curious to know more about what inspires his art. “My art is inspired by the experiences I go through in life,” he told me. “I like to express normal things in different ways, and from different views.”

As he walked me through his home he showed me works from a variety of series – there is a selection that features elements inspired by stained glass, works that incorporate prominent figures from history and civil rights icons, pieces that explore the relationship between humans and Artificial Intelligence, and a more recent set of works that are based on lyrics from pop music.

Some of the works that I found most intriguing showcase the influence of Guatemalan and Mayan symbolism and imagery. As a boy attending a military school in Guatemala, he had learned about Mayan numerals that are expressed through a series of dots and lines. He is currently working on the ninth in a series of 20 numeral works for that set. 

“I want to say things without being so obvious,” he continued, showing me how he had hidden these numbers and incorporated them into abstract works throughout his space. “I want you to go into the painting and look for the meaning. I want it to mean something to you, too. That’s my interpretation of what art should be. “Dali taught me how to hide things.”

Another common theme in his works is blue spheres, which he says represent souls. Souls of whom, you may wonder. The truth is that Chacon doesn’t exactly know. It could be his, or the viewer’s, or the subject’s. All he knows is that he’s compelled to add them to his paintings, and so he does. It has become one of his signatures that helps unify his pieces despite their varied subject matter.

“Radiology helped me see literally through things,” said Chacon. He still enjoys thinking in that way, and often employs creative solutions to explore this aspect of his work. One prominent example is a series of his works that are two-sided and can be mounted on a bracket which allows them to turn.

He uses this approach to create works that can be witty and include puns such as the work titled “Temptation” that showcases a hand holding a green apple on one side, and on the back is a hand holding a green Apple iPhone. 

I asked Chacon if his family supported his art from his youth, and he explained that it was difficult for his parents to understand his passion for art. Their love and concern for his well-being resulted in an encouragement towards his career as a radiologist rather than a professional artist.

“I’m the first professional artist in my family. Everyone draws and paints, but I’m the only professional artist in my family. It’s not easy trying to pursue something artistic. This country has given me that opportunity, and I call myself ‘the original Dreamer,’ because I came to this country from a Latin country and here we are,” he said as he gestured around his art-filled home. 

Chacon explained that his inspiration comes from his daily life, and while he doesn’t remember his dreams he does get inspired by daydreams. He listens to a lot of music while working, and can close his eyes and imagine places and things in vivid detail within his own mind. 

“I dream during the day, in a way. I dream of different views and different places,” he continued. “I like to see people’s reactions; I can see it in their eyes. People sometimes are going through a mundane life, but if you’re showing something different there’s a spark coming through their eyes.” 

Chacon is a regular contributor to group exhibitions in and around Atlanta, and will often take on the challenge of creating something new for a contest such as the racehorse piece currently hanging on the wall of his sitting room. (PS – if you love this piece, you can vote for it to win by clicking here!)

“My creativity is constant,” Chacon told me, and explained that he enjoys having multiple styles and mediums with which to explore his ideas. “That allows me to be versatile.” 

On average, Chacon creates about five paintings each month. He’s usually working on three to four pieces at any given time, and finds that abstract work is much faster for him to complete than anything else he works on.

“Once I get the vision in my head, it’s kind of life I paint in my head before I paint on the canvas,” he continued. Inspired not only by surrealism but also trompe l’oeil, which is a French term that means “fools the eye,” he enjoys inserting a playful nature into his work. 

These days, Chacon is gearing up for several upcoming events. He will be painting with the Virginia Highland Plein Air Association during the Piedmont Park Paint Out from March 31 through April 6. Two of his works will be included in the RAKSHA art show at Avondale Arts Center opening on April 12, and he will also undertake a new mural in Brookhaven’s new City Hall lobby once the construction of the building is complete. This 11×17’ mural will be his largest undertaking to date. 

Chacon’s works can also be found at the Distillery of Modern Art in Chamblee where he has a large mural painted, one of his pieces hangs in the Governor’s Office at the State Capitol, Emory Hospital in Johns Creek until May, and he maintains a wall at the Scene Gallery in Alpharetta, among other prominent locations and exhibition spaces. 

I asked him if he had any advice for a young artist inspired by surrealism who might like to pursue a career in fine art. “Don’t be afraid of going with your first instincts and imagination,” said Chacon.

“Whatever you imagine, put it on paper or canvas. Only by working on it can you unlock who you truly are as a person. I think that’s what I’ve been doing in a sense; kind of unlocking what makes me, me.” 

You can see more examples of Chacon’s work and inquire about commissions via his website.

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