L.C. Atencio’s Long Pursuit of an Artistic Life
For some people, becoming an artist begins with a decision. A particular exhibition, book, teacher, or moment may turn an interest into an ambition, and an ambition into a career.
L.C. Atencio remembers it differently.
“Art has been like breathing for me for as long as I can remember,” he says. “I didn’t think, ‘I’m going to be an artist.’ I simply always was.”
There was no single point at which L. C. Atencio decided to pursue an artistic life. He describes creativity instead as something that has always been interwoven with his life — through painting, writing, music, performance and other forms of expression.
That may sound instinctive, but sustaining such a life has been considerably more complicated. Over the years, L. C. Atencio has had to contend with rejection, competition, financial realities, and the practical consequences of letting creative work occupy an unusually large part of his life.
How Art Became a Way of Life for L. C. Atencio
L. C. Atencio does not describe his early years as a period spent waiting for recognition.
He consistently tried to place his work before audiences, whether by submitting writing for publication, exhibiting visual art or pursuing other opportunities. External validation, he says, was never the primary reason he continued creating.
That distinction matters because an artistic career is partly built in circumstances the eventual audience never sees. A published story has a submission process behind it. An exhibition has preparation behind it. A finished painting represents hours you can’t see simply by looking at the completed canvas.
For L. C. Atencio, those processes became part of ordinary life rather than temporary stages on the way towards something else.
The commitment also affected decisions far beyond the studio or writing desk.
L. C. Atencio says the arts have occupied so much of his life that they contributed to his decision not to marry or have children. He has never been married and describes himself instead as “married to the arts,” while referring to his artworks and contributions to books as his children.
It is a deeply personal way of describing the scale of that commitment. In his case, pursuing art has not simply meant choosing a profession. It has influenced how he has structured his adult life.
Choosing Creation Over a More Conventional Career
There were other possibilities.
L. C. Atencio could have pursued a career in a museum or library—environments that would have kept him close to books, culture, and art while offering a more conventional professional structure.
But he didn’t want to limit his creative output.
“I prefer to be creating the art, not curating it or maintaining it,” he explains.
What interested him was making something original and then sharing it with other people. A profession without that creative component, he felt, would remove the part that mattered most to him.
That choice illustrates an important difference between loving art and building a life around producing it.
The latter introduces questions that inspiration alone cannot answer: how to find audiences, how to respond to rejection, how to compete for limited opportunities and, eventually, how to make creative work financially sustainable.
How L. C. Atencio’s Definition of Success Changed With Age
L. C. Atencio’s own definition of success has changed substantially.
As a child, success was personal. He remembers it as seeing his mother happy and proud when something he created was recognised — whether that was a published story, a painting, a song, or a performance.
As a young adult, the definition became more public. Getting work published, exhibiting and appearing before audiences became important markers.
Today, his answer is more practical.
“As a mature adult, I define success as financial profit, because when something I do sells well, that tells me my audience is happy,” he says.
It is a notable progression because discussions about artistic careers can sometimes separate creativity from economics, as though earning money from creative work somehow makes the work less authentic.
L. C. Atencio’s view is more straightforward. If art is going to function as a professional life rather than only a private activity, commercial reality becomes part of the equation.
Recognition can matter. Publication can matter. Exhibitions can matter. But sustaining a career over the long term also requires work that supports the person making it.
A Career Without Just One Creative Lane
Another complication is that L. C. Atencio has never confined himself to one discipline.
At times, he writes more than he paints; at other times, painting dominates. At other times, instrumental music or singing can take more of his attention.
No rigid timetable governs the transitions.
“I follow my intuition,” he says.
Faith also plays a role in that process. L. C. Atencio describes having a close relationship with God, praying regularly and looking to his faith for guidance about where to direct his time and creative attention.
The result is not the conventional image of a specialist steadily progressing within one narrowly defined discipline. His artistic life moves between forms according to what currently holds his attention.
That breadth can provide creative freedom, but it also complicates building a recognisable professional identity.
Talent Was Not Enough
When L. C. Atencio was younger, he expected professional artistic life to be easier than it proved to be.
He had always been artistic, and people around him had repeatedly told him that he was talented. Looking back, he says that gave him an incomplete picture of what making a living through art would involve.
The missing factor was competition.
L. C. Atencio came to understand that talent exists within a much larger field of talented people, all trying to have work published, exhibited, purchased or otherwise selected.
Art adds another complication: judgement is inherently subjective.
One editor, collector or viewer may respond strongly to a particular style while another may prefer something entirely different. L. C. Atencio attributes part of his professional success to people whose individual tastes led them to support his work rather than that of other capable artists.
He says that awareness has stayed with him.
“I feel honoured to do what I love for a living,” he says, while acknowledging that other talented artists are continually pursuing the same opportunities.
It has also made the work behind finished creative products more visible to him. Long before an audience encounters the final result, L. C. Atencio may already be dealing with editors and others working within the art industry.
Rejection Without Retreat
Competition inevitably produces rejection.
L. C. Atencio does not attempt to romanticise that part of the process.
“Rejections have always sucked,” he says.
But the more important part of his answer comes immediately afterwards: they have not stopped him. He regards belief in his own ability as fundamental to remaining active in the arts.
That persistence shows across different areas of his career.
His work has appeared in publications; his visual art has been exhibited; and he has continued working across creative disciplines rather than treating an individual rejection as a judgement on whether he should continue.
For L. C. Atencio, the pursuit has therefore depended less on avoiding rejection than on refusing to let rejection determine what happens next.
No Single Moment of Arrival
Asked whether a particular sale, publication, exhibition, or professional breakthrough convinced him an artistic life could be sustainable, L. C. Atencio again resists the idea of one defining moment.
He says he had always believed such a life was possible because he grew up surrounded by artists.
That background appears to have normalised something that can otherwise seem precarious: the idea that creativity can occupy the centre of an adult life rather than its margins.
Yet believing that an artistic life is possible and sustaining one personally are different things.
The latter has required L. C. Atencio to keep producing, submitting, exhibiting and adapting while his understanding of success changed around him. His childhood desire to make his mother proud eventually became a professional concern: whether creative work could generate meaningful financial returns.
The art remained. The expectations surrounding it matured.
What He Would Tell His Younger Self
If L. C. Atencio could speak to the younger version of himself, he would not tell him to abandon the direction he had chosen.
He would tell him that his intuition was right.
In particular, he would reassure him about The Silver House, the creative project that began in childhood and remained part of his life as he grew into adulthood.
But there would also be a much less romantic comment:
“You’re on the right track.”
L. C. Atencio says he does not believe he would have progressed without sustained effort, and he still regards working hard at his craft as essential.
That may ultimately provide a clearer picture of his long pursuit of an artistic life than any single publication, exhibition or milestone.
The pursuit did not begin with a declaration that he would become an artist. In his telling, that identity was already there.
What followed was the harder part: organising a life around it, accepting what it demanded, learning that talent did not eliminate competition, continuing after rejection and eventually recognising that creative fulfilment and financial sustainability both have a place in a professional artistic career.
For L. C. Atencio, the artistic life has not been something pursued alongside everything else.
It has been the structure around which everything else has had to fit.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It discusses L. C. Atencio’s artistic journey, creative work, and career based on publicly available information. It is not intended to represent an official biography or endorsement, and readers should verify details with authoritative sources where necessary.