We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Maria Bautista Signorini a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Maria, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I learned from a very young age I wanted to pursue a career in the artistic industry. However, I didn’t know what specific career I wanted. I started and completed a 2-year program in Fashion Design after graduating from school in my home country. However, later on I switched to a different career in the arts. I chose Illustration because of my passion for drawing and telling stories with my art. I think that even though I didn’t pursue my career in fashion, it influenced my illustrations.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m a Dominican freelance illustrator passionate about picture books and story driven illustrations. I started my artistic journey studying fashion design, but later decided to pursue illustration. I studied in my home country and later transferred to a different school in New York City. I think that my knowledge in different artistic areas and my experiences have deeply influenced my art today. My work often centers around nature, fiction, and emotion. Furthermore, I’m interested in experimenting with different traditional mediums such as gouache and watercolor, which I also incorporate in my digital work. I enjoy screen printing and turning my work into bright and colorful pieces to share with the public.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Reaching out to other artists is a great resource for growing as a creative. Learning a skill takes time and patience. I think that as I was improving in my work, I also started to research about how other artists work and ways to learn their techniques. It was very helpful to understand and later implement what I saw. Depending on what one wants to learn or improve on there are many resources online or on small artistic communities that help guide you through your process.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I think that it is very important to have a goal as a creative. I’ve realized that it helps me keep me motivated and focus on what I want to achieve and how I’m going to get there. I think that on a bigger scale my goal for this year is to start growing my business as a freelancer. However, on a smaller scale my goal centers around picture book projects incorporating elements of my home and sharing these new ideas with other artists.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.belenmariart.com
- Instagram: @belenmariart
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bautistamaria/
- Other: Behance: https://www.behance.net/belenmariart