We recently connected with Melissa Vogelgsang and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Melissa, thanks for joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I do have a regular job! I try to divide my days between my “normal” job as an Architect, which I love, and my other passion for arts. Sometimes one gets more attention than the other, if I have a big commission, for example, I dedicate more time to it, it’s ok, I am happy with that. When I was a teenager and had to choose a career, I knew I wanted to pursue both, Architecture and Fine Arts! It was hard, many sleepless nights, but I was fulfilling a dream, and I have kept doing so since that day. Like everything in life, it’s not always perfect, I do have annoying tasks to do, or I have too much work, but I can guarantee you that the good tasks overcome the bad ones. There were times when I had to do other jobs, very distant from my original career. When I first moved to Germany I didn’t speak German so while I was learning the language I had to work in another field, like many other internationals, I worked in a marketing and customer service company, in the beginning, I felt miserable, but I met a lot of nice people, that were in the same situation as me. I put all my efforts into learning and focused on coming back to my profession. One piece of advice for those in this situation is to continue learning and pursuing small jobs or freelance work in their desired field. This will help them stay connected to the industry they hope to work in. Nowadays I am working as an Architect as I always wanted and I also work as an illustrator through commissioned work.

Melissa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Melissa Mendes-Vogelgsang I am an Architect, Artist, and Illustrator from Brazil, based in Germany. I have a great passion for drawing and it has always been my favorite thing. I have lived in several cities throughout my life – I was born and raised in Brazil, where I studied Architecture and Fine Arts. Later I moved to Madrid (Spain), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Berlin (Germany), and finally settled in Leipzig (Germany) in 2017 where I live and work. I find inspiration in architecture and city life, which led me to create a project called “Cities of Me”. In this project, I share what I’ve learned and seen in the cities where I’ve been through my drawings and short stories. I also work as a book illustrator, creating book covers and inside illustrations for novels of fictional literature and magazine illustrations. I’ve worked with several authors in Brazil and Germany and currently, I am collaborating with an author to illustrate a book which we plan to publish together next year.
I work mainly with black ink on white paper, using crosshatching techniques, so my drawings are mostly black and white and figurative.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I have liked art since I was a kid, it was always my safe place, where I could go and express myself without judgment. I used to draw on the walls of my bedroom when I was 4, after that my parents gave me a sketchbook, so I kept drawing and painting things for myself, with time my drawing skills improved and I ended up going to a Fine Arts in university. The most rewarding thing is the making, the process, the art’s ability to take me out of reality and free me, for a few moments, from my own thoughts, what comes out can be good, but sometimes not, and it’s ok, I will keep doing it for the pleasure it gives me. Obviously when I have a commission, I expect a specific outcome, it’s something professional, I need to focus on the result, but anyway I enjoy the ride.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

First of all, we all have to understand the importance of art and creativity. Everything, literally, that surrounds us, was once made or inspired by an artist, even the dullest things: obvious visual things like movies, music, or art but also not so obvious like cars, clothes, furniture… if you go to the bakery next to your home and look around, the typography of the front sign, the packaging, the logo of the bakery, the uniforms of the employees, somebody visualized that, created that idea. Other day I saw on a fast fashion vitrine a T-shirt “inspired” by a type of art that is now very popular on social media. Now a big company is making a huge profit from someone’s creative work and probably not paying anything for that, that’s the moment we should ask ourselves why not buy directly from the artist? That would be a great and fair way to support a thriving creative ecosystem: recognition, fair remuneration, and intellectual property protection.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.citiesofme.com
• Instagram: @citiesofme
• Twitter: @citiesofme
• Other: TikTok: @citiesofme Substack: @citiesofme

Image Credits
Michiko Saiki