Today we’d like to introduce you to Dora Zeneth Reynosa.
Hi Dora, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Acuña, Coahuila is the town that made me. A town so colorful I can still see it when I close my eyes. I clearly remember the pink walls in my grandma’s house. The fruit trees of her backyard. My father drove my art, really. He sat me down at the age of three and opened that world to me. At the age of five I picked up a paintbrush, What I didn’t know was, regardless of everything I would endure, my twin flame existed in the form of color. At the age of 11 America became my new home. The beige streets and identical buildings felt robotic. The home had lost its meaning in its entirety. I didn’t speak English so my communication with those around me was minimal. Art had come to a halt. I adjusted to my new reality. I moved to Dallas in 2013 to study architecture. After my first year as an intern, I realized this profession did not fulfill me. I felt drained of this life I was making. It powered me into a dark period of intense low self-esteem. I had hit bottom. Painting drove me up. I realized this was the healing component. A form of self-expression I had been wanting this entire time. An emotion I had been missing. For once I didn’t try to fight it, instead, it became my entire life. In all of 8 months, I was fundamentally running my entire brand single-handedly. An opportunity arose at the House of Blues that same year. My first ever art show. I did not plan to sell anything. In all honesty, I just wanted to be seen. I finally reached a period in which I felt I had a purpose. I traveled to New York right after looking for inspiration. I was creating the life my inner child had longed for. I was working part-time at a restaurant while doing art full time. When the pandemic hit, I quit my job and focused on my craft. This period of isolation did not put a stop to what I loved. I found a silver lining in forming a close, intimate relationship with my work. I had time to reconnect with it on a deeper level. It was then I truly began to developed as an artist. In the two months we all had to be alone, I persevered. Not only with the brush, but with everything to do inside of my mind. I realized my emotions, boundaries and personal relationships were all over the placeable recognize that I needed help with my mental health. I began a PTSD treatment that helped me process all the trauma that had been stored in my body throughout my life. The goal was to focus all my energy on painting, but I wasn’t able to do that with my past still lingering. My mental health and my art went hand in hand. If my mental health suffered so did my art. Healing my inner child became my top priority, and it’s still a process I’m going through. I run a full-time business now providing people with hand-crafted paintings and bold, energetic murals. I am to provide my audience with an opportunity to nurture their inner child with my fun immersive designs. I believe it’s extremely important to not only be aware of our inner child but also take care of it.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When I initially started painting, I was really just experimenting, I didn’t really know much about the medium but I knew I liked doing it. I didn’t know any other painters or muralists. I was completely self-taught when it came to painting, but it was really fun to explore and learn. The hardest part was literally having no connections in the art world. My knowledge of the art scene was next to nothing. I felt isolated, but I still decided to do this full time and give it all I had. My first order of business was money management. If I was going to broadcast my art while making commissions off of it, I needed to do it right. Figuring out the best way to price my pieces, and learning to build my on canvases was one of the first moves I made. Agents would contact me here and there but I never found the right fit. The messages I received contained information that only benefited the agent themselves. My self-assured independence, in general, was far too loud for someone else to brand my work. I faced a crossroad. If I was going to do this, and do this well, I needed to make a choice. Continue this period of comfortability or face an entire identity change head-on. I took it upon myself to legally form my business but as I found out it was a little bit different for me. Being a DACA recipient came with some challenges. I wasn’t able to do a lot of things that I wanted and pretty much had to take what I could. I do my best to stay informed and help others in my situation. There is not enough awareness on creatives that are DACA recipients, we face different challenges than others and it is not an easy road. Ever since I began this business, I always knew I had to have a backup plan just in case I had to go back to Mexico due to the uncertainty that it is to live under DACA.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a painter, Digital Artist, and Muralist. After a very short time of painting, I begin to look at it as a business. I realized not a lot of artists I knew stretched their own canvases or built their own frames. I took it upon myself to offer my clients that extra personal touch of building each frame by hand. I am very proud of being able to offer my collectors a piece of luxury. It’s a quality product that you can’t find anywhere else because it’s completely created by me. I am known for my free spirit, moving patterns. The color combinations I use for each piece carry uniqueness to it. When I began to paint for just myself, I saw the change that having art in your home can make to your overall health. I believe everyone deserves and should own good, original artwork and I am very proud to be able to provide that to my peers without them feeling like they’ve made a purchase they shouldn’t have. My goal is to keep my commission’s prices modest. I want people to feel comfortable asking for original work without having to feel guilty about what they spent.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Luck is a tedious slope that we all put our cards on. Whether it be luck or something else, the universe works in mysterious ways. I was lucky enough to have the father that I did. If it weren’t for his drive, I don’t when I would have looked in art’s way. I wondered what I would have used to form my self-expression. I think in any dimension I would have found this eventually. Luck has been on my side ever since I was small. I used to walk everywhere alone. To the store, between neighboring houses. I never let fear consume me and it has created my independence with full force. I never belonged to anyone and that perspective has held me through. People haven’t had the opportunities that I have and for that, I am extremely grateful. I’m facing a smooth sail at the current moment but luck won’t always be on my side. I know that. There are going to be multiple other barrels to jump over in the future. Whether my luck is a dream or a nightmare, I feel as though I have the push to utilize whatever is being thrown my way. A grateful heart is a magnitude for miracles.
Pricing:
- Commissions are currently at $1 per square inch.
Contact Info:
- Email: byzeneth@gmail.com
- Website: www.byzeneth.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/byzeneth/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/byzeneth
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/strictlymurals/
Image Credits
Elese Arias
