We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alethea Perez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alethea below.

Hi Alethea, thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I think probably the first time I had that realization was being a kid maybe 7 years old coloring at the coffee table watching tv I remember I was watching Disney with my mom or my dad and they used to do segments between cartoons I think or it was an actual show on the Imagineers or behind the scenes of Disney. And this particular segment was showing what an important role the Imagineers play and getting to watch them draw scene by scene and explaining the process of animation. And of course, my parents who knew I loved drawing and coloring said to me see, you can work for Disney drawing cartoons. And I remember looking up at the segment on TV and being utterly fascinated by the fact that someone could take a flat image and make it move – and get paid to make these things. think that was the first time I ever put together the idea of pursuing a creative path.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Alethea – I go by the artist name Inkeater. I’m an artist of sorts, I am also a business owner and animator. I’m from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I got into the industry of being a creator as early as 2002 ish, I studied, what they called time art – and video art at the time. While in college I was really into creating graphics on the internet which was the beginning of things, which led to photoshop, illustrator… And I remember wanting to learn more and more – I not only wanted to create graphics I wanted to learn HTML, CSS, and javascript to understand how the graphics would be used in the long run and help streamline my process of creating for others – And realized I had a knack for it – I loved taking the imagined and turning it into the tangible/real, I really enjoyed coding flash projects which was the rage at one point in the land of websites- And I remember getting paid nice amounts of money in the early 2000s for strings of code. I ended up working for a good friend where I did a lot of the website coding and creating and he did repairs. And it felt like we were building an empire at the time. And somewhere in learning a lot of cool things, I ended up in the realm of graphic design working for a college radio station and maintaining their website while going to school.

Fast forward to 2009 – I ended up fulfilling one of my little kid’s wildest dreams – I was the kid who would tell people in high school I was going to work for Mountain Dew – one way or another and in 2009 I actually ended up winning a wonderful opportunity with one of my animations to help shape the future of Mountain Dew along with 50 other creators by being a member of their Dew Labs program where they invited fans to help create the future for the company. I got to spitball ideas, see my own creations come into existence, and help create a mountain dew flavor. I really enjoyed my time with Mountain Dew and getting to be a creator for them. They taught me a lot about work ethic, never taking no for an answer, and throwing the craziest ideas out there because you never know what will stick. It also opened up many other opportunities such as getting to be in a Mountain Dew commercial not once but twice. Still to this day, I get a kick out of what Mountain Dew is releasing because I was there when those initial conversations took place and it makes me really happy to see hypotheticals turn into realities. But what I’m really proud of is this opportunity taught me, while I loved seeing my creations come into existence through another company’s lenses. I wanted to see my own creations too.

This led me to share a lot more of my creations online, getting signed to Channel Frederator Network as a freelance animator which has allowed me the opportunity to showcase my skill set to others by recreating animation scenes in my styles such as Pokemon,Adventure Time, Loud House and Steven Universe. I’ve started delving more heavily into my own original creations such as a cartoon I created called La Loca y Su Abuela which tells stories of the shenanigans my Abuelita used to get us into. Along with getting to share a few of my own cartoons with the world and opening up my own 5-Star Etsy shop in 2012 where I sell a lot of the portraits I draw of your favorite fandoms – I focus mainly on horror, but I really do love a good portrait. I create punny cards featuring zombie famous people and characters from different horror fandoms along with other unique gift-giving items.

I am really proud of my work ethic and my “put my money where my mouth is…” attitude. I love crazy ideas, And the weirder the better. I think I just love a great challenge and seeing other people get to see their ideas or creations that come to life. There’s a beauty in taking something from someone’s head and turning it into the real and tangible ultimately that’s why I create. I’m always down for the journey and helping someone see their creations through. My proudest moment this past year aside from getting to participate in two animation collabs through my network was throwing myself out there, sharing my creations, and getting commissioned to create two animations for two fellow rapper friends and painting.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The mission is to prove that anything is possible and make every day count. There are no limitations, but yourself. And the only person in your way is you. My hope is that if someone sees any of my creations whether it’s my animations or portraits, they feel empowered to create their own creations and tell their own stories.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

When it comes to entrepreneurial or management books – I’m a huge fan of Unf*ck yourself & Do The F*ck by Gary John Bishop, I highly recommend listening to the audiobook version because there’s nothing in the world of life than hearing a Scottish man screaming life advice at you. Another good one in terms of philosophy is a podcast called The Heartful Truth by 7Octoberz & Melly – the podcast talks to different creatives and discusses heartfelt topics that are very relatable when it comes to living the life of a creative – dealing with family, dealing with loss — just to name a few. The podcast always leaves me with a lot of food for thought and helps my creative juices go and when I’m dealing with self-doubt as a creative it picks me out and helps me realize there are other creators out there who experience similar things.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://inkeater.org/
• Instagram: instagram.com/inkeater
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alethearocks
• Youtube: youtube.com/inkeater
• Other: Shop – Inkeateroriginals.com

Image Credits
Inkeater