Pash Lima is a visual artist living in north Atlanta. At first, I was really interested by the pure talent of his artwork. However, once I started talking with him, his maturity and entrepreneurial spirit stood out to me. For as young as he is, he has his head on straight! He appreciates art and art history and in the future, wants to build a business that shares his passion with the rest of the world. 

Pash Lima:

My name is Pash Lima and I’m an artist

I truly believe that art is life

For 23 years, my life has been art based

UnderCurrent Atlanta: How did you get started as an artist?

PL: I’ve been drawing ever since I could physically pick up something and draw with it, I mean everybody draws, everybody draws when they are younger; they’re in kindergarten, everyone scribbles and finger paints and all that, some people stop some people keep going and art has just been, especially drawing, has been something that I’ve always been doing.  I can never remember a point in time where I wasn’t drawing.

UCA: Who or what are some of biggest influences in your life?

PL: My mom’s an artist so she really helped me nurture that and made sure that I kept it going and she saw that I liked it and she made sure that I wouldn’t get discouraged or let outside influences kind of deter me from, you know, with the whole stigma of an artist where you’re (going) be struggling or you’re not (going to) make as much money as so and so or it’s a whole process.

Just dealing with people, meeting people, you kind of find out through life, life is a lot about what you put out there and I focus a lot on faces because faces and hands in pictures always carry the most emotion.  In paintings and photography and drawings and anything you can always see emotion through like your hand posture or you face.

UCA: Are you influenced by anyone else?

PL: Gilbert, being in his later years, obviously has experience and I’m not the type of person, the type of younger person, to shy away from that or to look at an older in the same field that I’m trying to be in or I am in and disregard that, that’s not a smart move. You have to know where your skills come from, where you skills and your viewpoints… you have to know, the thing you have to do, you have to research the history behind that.

Gilbert Young: The problem with being a young artist is that it’s not about his art that stops him from being a good artist, its life itself. It’s not designed for him just to sit up and say, ok I want to be an artist. He’s going to be an artist in spite of (this) in spite of all the conditions that you run against. What I am to younger artist is a support group, like a support thing.

UCA: How do you approach your artistic career?

PL: Talent on its own can only get you so far but you have to take that talent and refine it and you have to understand the balance of what you are doing rather than just being content with “Oh, I can draw or I can paint”. You have to chase that down and nurture that and know where to take that. Being a good artist, you kind of have to kind of bounce around in other peoples mind, other peoples points of view so that your work becomes more universal and more balanced when it comes to showing other people your artwork and letting your artwork have a connection with other people than just yourself.

UCA: Do you have any business ideas concerning you art work?

PL: Something that I would want to venture into is hand painted skate boards…having those and selling them as skateboards that people can skate on or just painting on skateboards and hanging it as canvases: on walls, in homes. Similar to tattooing and the tattoo culture it’s all getting more acceptable and more out there to people that you wouldn’t think were into that type of stuff.

UCA: What’s your artistic goal in life?

PL: I really want to get my artwork out there for different types of people to appreciate and like, I don’t just want to appeal to one type of (person). I’d like to keep my artwork my artwork and just feel good that people appreciate it because it’s my artwork and because it’s coming from a place that is truly from my center.

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