I was born in Costa Rica in 1984 and raised in various countries.  I lived six years in Honduras and another six in Ecuador.  Finally returning to Costa Rica in 1995, I got reacquainted with my roots and heritage.  My family, on both sides, has been in one way or the other influenced in the artistic sense.  On my father’s side it has been influenced on the visual aspects of art. I have an uncle who is an architect and my dad often draws for distraction, some abstract and somewhat psychedelic doodles (they’re pretty good).  On my mother’s side it has been heavily influenced on the musical sense.  My grandfather was a very well known pianist and big band leader in Costa Rica while he was alive.  Two of my uncles continued his tradition making tours with what’s left of his band.  My cousins in California are always immersed in all sorts of musical genres and one of them is a pretty good DJ and a rapper. My artistic senses have been nurtured and encouraged all around me.
My very first drawing was at the age of two.  I did a very rough but distinguishable doodle of Mickey Mouse on my mother’s cookbook.   It was at age six when I realized that I wanted to be a “drawer”, as I called myself then.  All throughout my school years, art was my favorite class, but not any art class. The fondest memories are from those lessons imparted by teachers that showed true passion. Those that maintained that fire despite what they’ve been through pursuing their craft.  Those teachers instilled in me that same passion and their philosophies about what to do with the talent I was developing. Their names are Max Rojas, Mario Parra, and Katherine Rodriguez.  They pushed me to pursue my ideas without fearing what people may think and I will always hold them close to my heart.
When I wasn’t drawing, doing homework, or playing videogames after school, I would pretended to be a radio DJ on a “show”. I would grab my sister’s yellow sport “boom box”, a blank tape, and record my favorite music and would do interludes of me talking in the simple microphone on the “boom box”.  I collected many of these recordings and after a couple years, I ended with so many of these tapes that I could not tell which “show” was which.   So I started drawing pictures and put titles for each “show” All these shows had no order and had crazy combinations. By middle school I discovered blank compact discs and that changed my drawings on mixed music covers and how I did these mixed music playlists.  Since I was drawing on the bigger CD covers, I had more freedom to draw the cover’s image. I discovered not only making music but also illustrating my own discs.
Years passed, I finished school, and went to college at The Savannah College of Art and Design to study my major in Illustration.  However, it wasn’t until my last two years in college I noticed how much my art was influenced by music.  I went through several music genres until I landed on Metal and Breakcore (currently).  I’ve always been open to experience new music and I noticed during every assignment or project given to me, there were different outcomes in my work revolving on what genre I was listening while drawing. Hence, I started to mix sound design classes on my curriculum to nurture that combination.
As the end of my college years neared, I began to think about what would I do in the real world with my illustration skills.  I’d talk with my friend Cassandra about what is lacking out there for the industry or what needs to be brought back.  We would talk about advertising; movie posters, billboards, bus ads, magazine ads, Internet ads, logos, album covers, journal designs, etc.  But the biggest thing that always revolved around me was music.  As mentioned before, almost everything I did in projects came out better when they revolved around music.
My ideal is to be an illustrator in the music industry whether I would be doing album covers or posters but all that matters to me is that music has to be involved.  The way I work started to take shape when I took up my minor in sound design and took a 4D Design course.  It was an experimental course that explored the relationship between sounds and visual images.  It revolved around what I originally did back then in the blank CD days.
Now that I finished college, many would expect as an international student that I would stay in the United States but I’m actually back in Costa Rica for various reasons and one of them is because the art industry here is on the rise.  I know I could work in the USA but nowadays that the Internet is such a powerful medium, anyone in the world could work from almost anyplace in any country. 
As a complement, I would like to be involved also in the music business.  With a little background in Sound Design and training as well, I can work with bands and musicians and produce for them as well as work in their art imagery.
If I had to define myself, today I would say I am Diego Larragán and I am a Musically Visual Artist.