It was 2017. It was my second time in Los Angeles, and I had just released my first book, inspired by my first time in LA, a year earlier. I was walking near the neighborhood where I used to live, close to Venice Boulevard, very close to the first wall I painted in USA. I had just left a clothing store after buying a couple of t-shirts.
As I was trying to organize the bags I was holding in my hands, a huge station wagon with tinted windows skidded to a stop in front of me. I was astonished; no one else was on the sidewalk. A man in his thirties, wearing dark clothes and sunglasses, in chicano style, got out. He approached me and said, "Hey, you're Saturno, right?"
Despite rarely showing my face on my social media, with the few photos of me wearing a mask and sunglasses, he recognized me from afar. After asking if he could take a photo with me, he told me he had bought my first book. However, he missed the story behind those paintings. He insisted I should write that book for the sake of everyone who loves my work. He shook my hand, gave me a hug, and got back into his car, leaving behind a bunch of honking cars trapped because he had stopped abruptly in the lane next to the sidewalk.
I continued walking, smiling, astonished by the craziness of the situation: a stranger had stopped me in the middle of LA to take a photo with me. Reflecting on his words, I decided that shortly after my fortieth birthday, that book would be available and for sale.
Eventually, I finished compiling and organizing all the material, both biographical text and photographs, 4 years later than expected. I never imagined such a project would take so much time. However, as I progressed through the collection and creation process, I realized the time invested was necessary to achieve what I had done.
This book is more than my biography from a technical or academic standpoint, as we sometimes find. Here, I talk about things as personal as my family past or my experiences in school; only by doing so could I explain what I wanted to explain. Some friends and acquaintances published their biographies in their time, and I always felt they were missing an important part. Focusing solely on why I paint what I paint was not my goal. My vision went much further; I wanted to explain where I came from and what I had lived through. In this way, people could better understand the reason behind what I paint. This is much more than a style merely inspired by science fiction and fantasy cinema.
I have created the book I would like to see and read from my favorite artist, without mincing words or limits. I talk about much more, but you will find that in the book. How can you get a copy? Now I'll explain.
Welcome to the pre-campaign
Why run a pre-campaign instead of directly launching a crowdfunding? The answer is simple. A good crowdfunding campaign starts outside the platform where it will be launched; you have to prepare people for the day it goes live. This project will be launched on Kickstarter and is scheduled for early April.
And the book, what are we talking about here?
The book will be 30 x 30 cm (approximately 11.8 x 11.8 inches), hardcover with gold-edged pages. Inside, there will be some double pages, achieving a book opening of about 90 cm (approximately 35.4 inches) where you can appreciate, in full detail and high definition, things that until now you have seen from a screen (which is not the same) or that simply were never shown before.
In the crowdfunding, we will find different rewards, the option to take with you exclusive material available only while the crowdfunding is active. I will be showing this information during these days; for now, you can get an idea of what the book is like and prepare for when, in April, this exclusive edition will only be on sale for the duration of the crowdfunding.
Without further ado, let me say that this is, without a doubt, the most ambitious project I have undertaken so far, and I have enjoyed preparing it and bringing it to all of you, in the way I liked best, exactly like this.
Stay tuned.
Have a wonderful day.
P.S: Remember that only subscribers of this website will have exclusive rewards when the official launch of Crowdfunding arrives in April.