Acknowledgements
From a young age, L. C. Atencio understood that the fine arts would become the center of his life. Long before publications, exhibitions, awards, or professional recognition, there was simply a child filled with curiosity, imagination, and an overwhelming desire to create. The road from those early years to the present moment was not built alone. It was shaped through guidance, sacrifice, discipline, education, friendship, criticism, perseverance, and the unwavering support of countless people who believed in the importance of fine art and storytelling.
Above all, Atencio wishes to thank God for His protection, guidance, mercy, and blessings throughout every stage of life. In an industry often defined by uncertainty, rejection, instability, and intense competition, faith became a source of endurance and hope. He is equally grateful for the guardian angels whom he believes watched over him during moments of danger, transition, loneliness, and hardship. Without divine guidance, he does not believe he would have had the strength to continue pursuing a life in the arts despite the many obstacles placed before him.
At the very center of his gratitude stands his mother, Elena González, whose love, protection, and sacrifices shaped the foundation of his life. Her encouragement gave him the freedom to explore creativity fearlessly at an early age. She created an environment where books, paintings, theatre, music, and imagination were not treated as distractions, but rather as meaningful parts of human life. Her influence can be felt throughout every aspect of his artistic career, including the very name of the Gonzálezism art movement, which was founded in her honor. Her support extended far beyond emotional encouragement; she invested deeply in his education, artistic development, and personal growth, often placing his dreams before her own comfort. Much of who he became as an artist and as a person stems directly from her love and guidance.
He is deeply grateful to his brother Leo, who patiently modeled for paintings on numerous occasions and whose companionship helped shape many of his happiest childhood memories. He also wishes to thank his aunt Raque, whose artistic insight and painting techniques proved influential during his formative years as a fine artist. Her guidance expanded his understanding of visual composition and artistic possibility.
Atencio additionally wishes to thank Brandon and Lina, whose unconditional love and support became a source of strength and encouragement through different stages of life. Their belief in his artistic dreams helped reinforce his determination to continue creating even during difficult periods.
Special gratitude is extended to his childhood best friend, Raúl Mármol, who listened enthusiastically to countless handwritten chapters and imaginative stories during their youth together. After school, the two would spend hours riding bicycles, eating pizza, doing homework, laughing, and discussing the next developments in Atencio’s fictional worlds. Those moments of friendship and youthful excitement helped transform storytelling from a private hobby into something alive and communal. Having someone genuinely eager to hear the next chapter gave the young writer confidence to continue creating.
Atencio also wishes to express profound gratitude to Ms. Petunia, the editor hired during his youth in South America who became one of the most formative literary influences of his early life. Ms. Petunia trained him rigorously and without sentimentality. She demanded discipline, precision, revision, humor, stronger descriptions, sharper pacing, and emotional clarity. She forced him to move from handwritten manuscripts to typed drafts, which required hours spent composing stories while listening to his mother’s telenovelas from the family computer room. Their correspondence often took place long-distance through mailed manuscripts and floppy disks filled with extensive critiques.
The experience was transformative. Manuscripts returned from Ms. Petunia frequently contained hundreds of pages of edits, crossed-out paragraphs, rewritten sentences, and brutally honest criticism. She was unafraid to write comments such as “BORING” across pages she found ineffective. At the time, the criticism was emotionally difficult to endure, but in retrospect, it taught Atencio the importance of resilience, revision, and thick skin within the creative world. Through her demanding mentorship, he learned that storytelling required not only imagination, but craftsmanship and relentless refinement.
He also remains grateful for the literary lessons found within the works of Roald Dahl and Dr. Seuss, whose books Ms. Petunia frequently assigned to him. Dahl’s sense of momentum, humor, and wonder deeply influenced the young writer’s understanding of entertainment and emotional pacing. Atencio has also openly acknowledged the sadness and disappointment he later experienced upon learning of Dahl’s antisemitic remarks and harmful views. He appreciates the apology issued publicly by Dahl’s family and believes deeply that artists, like all people, must be held morally accountable for hatred and prejudice.
Growing up surrounded by the visual arts equally shaped Atencio’s imagination. He found immense inspiration, comfort, and artistic refuge within the works of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Frida Kahlo, Edvard Munch, and Katsushika Hokusai. Their paintings demonstrated that emotion, vulnerability, beauty, tragedy, and humanity could exist powerfully within a single image. Through their work, he discovered that art could transcend time, language, geography, and social class.
In literature, he found companionship, refuge, and intellectual expansion through the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, H. G. Wells, and Homer. Their stories helped establish his lifelong love for mythology, fantasy, heroism, morality, imagination, and emotional depth. He also wishes to acknowledge contemporary authors who carried those traditions forward into modern generations, including J. K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, Ursula K. Le Guin, Rick Riordan, Philip Pullman, Christopher Paolini, and Stephen King, whose works demonstrated that fantasy, horror, wonder, and speculative storytelling continue to resonate profoundly with readers around the world.
Atencio is deeply thankful to Pedro León Zapata, whose influence as a South American fine artist helped reinforce the idea that visual art could carry both emotional resonance and cultural significance simultaneously. Zapata’s artistic courage and individuality left a lasting impression upon him.
His higher education years became another major turning point in his artistic evolution. Atencio extends heartfelt gratitude to his professors and mentors, including Susan Hubbard, the accomplished novelist published by Simon & Schuster; Darlin’ Neal, author of Elegant Punk and Rattlesnakes & The Moon; Terry Ann Thaxton, author of The Terrible Wife and Getaway Girl; Jocelyn Bartkevicius, whose literary works appeared in prestigious journals such as The Missouri Review and The Hudson Review; and Laurie Rachkus Uttich, author of Somewhere, a Woman Lowers the Hem of Her Skirt. Their mentorship challenged him academically, artistically, and intellectually. They pushed him toward discipline, professionalism, revision, critical thinking, and emotional honesty within his work.
Atencio remains especially grateful to the University of Central Florida, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude with honors in the Arts and Humanities field specializing in creative writing and art. The university environment helped him refine his abilities not only as a writer and fine artist, but also as an editor, reviewer, proofreader, debater, and literary critic. He additionally extends appreciation toward the many universities, literary journals, and academic institutions that encouraged his work throughout the years, including Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Southwestern Oklahoma State University, University of Southern Maine, Southeastern Community College, and many others that provided opportunities for publication, scholarship, recognition, and artistic growth.
He is profoundly thankful to every editor, publisher, literary journal, anthology, magazine, and university press that chose to publish his work over the years. At times, those opportunities involved competing against hundreds of submissions for very limited publication slots. Every acceptance letter represented not only validation, but also an opportunity to continue building a life in the arts despite overwhelming odds. Atencio will always remain grateful to the publishers, editors, and academic institutions who believed in his voice and gave his works a platform.
He likewise wishes to thank his literary agent, editors, publicist, and all publishing professionals who continue to advocate for his creative works and help connect them to wider audiences.
Special gratitude is extended toward the members of Scribes of Vision, the contemporary artistic collective devoted to artistic excellence, emotional truth, freedom of expression, and independent creativity. Their friendship, dialogue, encouragement, and philosophical discussions helped strengthen Atencio’s commitment to originality and authenticity within the arts. Among them, he wishes to especially thank his closest friend, Nicolo Santilli, whose loyalty, intelligence, insight, and artistic companionship have remained deeply meaningful.
Atencio also wishes to thank several contemporary peers and artists whose advice and interactions encouraged him throughout his professional life, including Josh Malerman, Agustina Bazterrica, Colleen Hoover, Freida McFadden, James Patterson, Daniel Handler, Romero Britto, Banksy, Jim Davis, Margaret Atwood, and Wyland. Their advice, perspectives, encouragement, and examples helped reinforce the importance of perseverance and artistic individuality.
Within L. C. Atencio Studios itself, Atencio wishes to thank every individual working behind the scenes across the many divisions of the Studios. This includes the Italy-trained carpenters assembling museum-grade frames, logistics partners, programmers, advertisers, managers, security personnel, specialists, public relations teams, and countless professionals whose labor makes the broader artistic vision operationally possible. Art on a professional scale requires collaboration, organization, infrastructure, and trust, and he remains deeply appreciative of every person contributing their expertise to the Studios.
He also wishes to thank the Studios’ business partners, including companies such as Affirm, and UPS, among many others whose professional partnerships help make the Studios’ operations and global reach possible.
Most importantly, Atencio wishes to thank his audience: The readers, viewers, collectors, supporters, attendees, patrons, and art lovers who spend their valuable time engaging with his work. Without an audience, the ability to continue producing art on a large scale would not exist. Their encouragement, emotional connection, purchases, messages, attendance, and continued interest make it possible for him to dedicate his life to creativity. Every painting viewed, every story read, every exhibition attended, every book purchased, and every shared recommendation contributes directly to sustaining the work itself.
He also wishes to thank the love of his life, whose emotional support, understanding, patience, and encouragement have brought peace, comfort, and strength during demanding moments of artistic and professional pursuit.
Ultimately, Atencio views his journey not as the achievement of a single individual, but rather as the result of many interconnected acts of kindness, mentorship, sacrifice, friendship, education, criticism, opportunity, faith, and love. From childhood theatre stages in South America to university classrooms, from rejected manuscripts to published works, from handwritten stories to museum-grade fine art, every chapter of his life has been shaped by people who helped him continue forward.
To every person who offered encouragement, criticism, opportunity, guidance, friendship, professionalism, support, or belief along the way: Thank you!