Today we’d like to introduce you to Dianita.
Dianita, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I was born in Veracruz, Mexico and moved to the USA on New Year’s Eve 2014. I’m currently living in Allen, TX with my wonderful husband, our dog and hopefully soon my cat Kitty will join us. If you ask me, I believe I’m the first artist in the family, at least the only one who’s working on art as a career so far.
Art wasn’t my first clear choice as a profession, somehow during my teenage years I created this idea that art was my hobby and it wasn’t going to be a good job. It was always my safe place, my escape from my problems and my favorite activity after school. In the end I chose to go to Engineering and I actually did better than I expected during university but at some point, after graduating I realized I didn’t feel passionate about it.
Thankfully, I’ve been surrounded by wonderful people starting with my Mom and my Dad and the friends who have had faith in me and my work since the beginning, and now my husband Victor who’s been incredibly supportive during this year that I had to start all over again in a new country. Arriving in Texas I’ve been welcomed by a wonderful art community starting with the Visual Arts League of Allen Texas (VALA) who have been incredibly supporting and inspiring and meeting local artist friends Jefferson Muncy and Maysa Sem who are trying to gather a small community of artists focused in Sci-Fi and Fantasy art in the DFW area.
I have been also able to participate in my first conventions here, Women of Wonder Con and the Texas Latino Comic Con where I met many artists like Elia Maria Crawford, Hector Gonzalez Rodriguez, David Doub, Kathryn Crenshaw-David among many others who are passionate about bringing their stories to the community. Participating in those 2 conventions was so inspiring and motivating as I was able to present my personal art and people received it with lots of excitement and interest. It’s incredible to feel I can inspire children and even adults with my artwork, it was amazing!
This year, I was also part of the MexicanX Initiative created by artist John Picacio, winner of the 2012 and 2013 Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist and many other awards in the industry. His goal was to gather 50 artists and authors of Mexican origin and help them attend WorldCon76 in San Jose, CA in August 2018. This event is a huge gathering of Sci-Fi and Fantasy artists, authors and enthusiasts of this industry and by attending as a group we were going to be able to present our works to a new audience that was really interested in knowing more about the efforts that Mexican and Mexican-American artists and authors in Mexico and the USA are making to bring Sci-Fi and Fantasy inspired works to our world. I never imagined that applying for this opportunity was going to be a life changing experience and the start of a beautiful family of creative people from different fields but with Mexican culture in common.
My biggest achievement this year was to be included in an exhibition organized by The Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists (ASFA). It’s called “Infinite Worlds: The art of the Fantastic” and it includes art from incredible artists in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy field as well as some artists from the MexicanX Initiative. The show was curated by Sara Felix, president of ASFA and will be open to the public at the Julia Butridge Gallery inside the Dougherty Arts Center in Austin, Texas until December 1st, 2018.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My art today is the result of finally deciding to give myself the chance to create something I feel passionate about. 10 years ago, I was completely lost and just trying to make art other people wanted to see.
I always tell the story that my life changed when a friend of mine from Veracruz gave me an art book as a gift, it was “The fabulous women of Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell”. That book opened my eyes to a world of strong women, fantastic creatures and other worlds, specially Julie Bell’s paintings have inspired me as I’ve been trying to find my way in the Fantasy art field. From her impressive portraits of women to her realistic animal paintings, watching her artwork make me feel that I can paint subjects that really inspire me and that my voice has actually a place in this world.
This year, I started creating works featuring women, animals and fantasy creatures. My goal is to create pieces with characters that show kindness and respect to their world and with the experience of living in a country with more diversity I’m really excited to learn more about people from other countries and try to portray them in my own work.
A very important aspect of my art is that I don’t focus mainly on heroic figures. I’ve always considered myself a character in the background and not really important but now my perception is changing and I would really love to create artwork that show the values I hold deeply in my heart. It’s wonderful to talk with people who want to know more about my art and see the way they smile when I tell them that I just want to show people that it’s ok to be themselves as long as you are respectful of others of course. That even if we don’t feel important, our values can change the world.
That’s why I’m creating pieces inspired in my friends and family (women mostly) using their likes in some artworks but mainly I take some aspects of their personalities and create my own characters and stories that fit in this fantasy world that I’m slowly building. My hope is to let my loved ones know that they’re important in my life, and that they inspire me with their daily efforts to make the world a better place. They might not be famous, but they’re a big inspiration in my own life and they voice matter to me. They’re my heroes.
I also have a series involving my cat Kitty befriending dragons and hopefully in the future she will be friends with many more fantasy creatures. I also enjoy painting horses and other pet portraits and the occasional fan art piece.
I never took serious art classes. I attended a two-year workshop from a local university in my hometown and currently I’m taking self-study online courses and I try to watch tutorials and many videos available online in order to keep learning more and improve little by little.
My favorite materials are graphite, colored pencils, acrylics and oils and I work on many surfaces from plain paper to wood. As I’m continually learning, my process changes from piece to piece. It usually involves searching for references online or taking my own photos, spending lots of time sketching ideas and working on the final piece.
Do current events, local or global, affect your work and what you are focused on?
I believe that everyone has an important role to play as a guest in this world. As artists we usually receive lots of hate because we’re perceived as passive members of society and no one seems to realize that the movies we love, the books with the beautiful covers, the shoes and clothing we wear, all our world has art that was designed and brought to life by incredible artists.
The artists I’ve fortunate to know are hardworking members of the society, some of them are activists trying to make their world a better place, others are working hard to be a good influence for their communities, etc.
The way that local, national or international events affect my art is by motivating me to produce pieces that bring a little bit of peace to people’s lives. To show kindness and respect in a world where this value is perceived as weaknesses. My art is not controversial, at least not for now as it’s very important for me to inspire good people to continue being good. To celebrate their dreams and for them to hopefully have characters they can identify with.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Right now, people can see one of my paintings exhibited in the “Infinite Worlds: The art of the fantastic” show at the Julia C. Butridge Gallery inside the Dougherty Arts Center in Austin, TX until December 1st, 2018. All artwork is for sale, including my painting “Fill your world with magic”.
My website is: https://www.artbydianita.com/
You can support my work by purchasing originals or prints from my website:
https://www.artbydianita.com/originals-and-prints/
Or you can become a member of my Patreon, where I share process pics of my work and I try to share more of the stories and inspiration behind the creation of my pieces. Tiers include from monthly downloadable coloring pages to original artwork at special prices.
https://www.patreon.com/artbydianita
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.artbydianita.com/
- Email: dianitaarts@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dianita_art/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dianitaart
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/dianita_art
- Other: https://www.patreon.com/artbydianita
Image Credit:
Dianita
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