(birds chirping)
- I was trying to remember it.
Kind of like a wedding day
where you try to focus on all the things
'cause you know you're gonna forget bits and pieces,
and I was trying to take it all in.
I knew that this wasn't something
that a lot of people get a chance to do.
And what would happen that day would change my life forever.
(inspirational piano music)
No matter the obstacles, no matter what they face,
my parents always worked hard.
So my parents weren't ones to sort of make it easy on me.
They were gonna teach me how to work hard, so they did.
At an early age I started swinging a hammer
before most kids even knew what a hammer was.
(inspirational music)
I didn't really want to go to college.
My parents were insistent that I was gonna go.
I applied to art college,
and it was the only school I applied to,
but luckily I got in.
And they offered a sculpting class, and I was like oh,
that sounds cool, let me do that.
And the very first time I touched clay I fell in love.
But eventually I had to make ends meet,
and my only option was to go back to doing what I did
growing up, which was construction.
(lighthearted music)
I went and started working with my dad,
and it wasn't something that I wanted to do,
it was something that I needed to do to pay the bills.
But it also felt like a step backwards,
'cause I had had a taste of sculpting professionally.
As much as I liked working with my dad,
being able to see him all the time,
it was never a job that I liked.
I knew there needed to be something
that I could do different.
I started taking a week off about every three months
just to get something out, just to get some creativity out.
And in that time I would work as much as I can,
cramming in as much sculpture as I could.
But between the two things, art and construction,
my life was sort of being pulled apart
in two different directions.
I was already late in life.
I had lost essentially 10 years of my growth as an artist.
It was time to humble myself, get rid of all the ego,
and just say where can I learn, who can I learn from,
what can I do to get better in the shortest time possible.
Because this time around, failure wasn't an option.
(intense music)
people started to recognize that I was good at what I did.
I was approached to do a monument,
and knowing that this isn't an opportunity that people get,
I said yes, absolutely.
I got to sort of have a moment with my dad,
because he got to see that after all of the hard work,
now here I was with a big monument and a giant
sort of credit to my name, and he got to witness that,
and he knew that I got out of construction
for the right reason.
The Lucky Baldwin unveiling was on April 16th, 2013.
A year later to the day and almost to the hour,
we were burying my father.
(solemn music)
Every year it comes around.
It's both a happy memory and it's also a sad one.
It's weird to go through it in your head so many times,
and you're like, I'll be fine, I'll be fine,
I can say this out loud.
And you just can't get through it.
When my dad passed
I knew he at least had the memory of me succeeding.
He got to see one of the biggest crowning achievements
in my career, even to this date.
(inspirational music)
My parents really instilled a work ethic in me
that's second to none.
It really shaped the way I approached everything.
It doesn't matter how small or how big,
it's always trying to make it the best that I can.
My parents always said,
work hard, be your best, get the job done.
That's what my parents did,
and that's where I got that attitude from.
My name is Alfred Paredes,
and working hard got me to where I am today.
(inspirational piano music)