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

Amalia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Art is the root of humanity, to be an artist, you have to be really good at empathy. Technique is important, but technique comes with putting the time. Theory comes with putting the time. The thing that really matters to me, as an artist, the differentiating factor in art for me, is the ability to connect with humanity,

A lot of us are set in our ways, but outside points of view are important. You don’t really grow when you allow yourself to be constrained. The more stories there are to draw from, the more they widen your understanding, it widens your ability to come up with ingenious answers to a problem, to create something relatable, to work in a team, to connect with the collective genius, the collective spirit.

I’m a student, a student of my craft. I haven’t mastered anything, and I hope I never get to the point that I feel that I mastered something. I want to keep learning, always having millions of possibilities rather than one. I try to always be open and curious, willing to wake up from the slumber that is a narrow mind, that is selfishness.

Art is all about how people feel, you have to care about that.

Amalia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Amalia Restrepo Aguirre, I am a Colombian Architect with an MFA in Illustrator with experience in creative production and marketing. As you can see, my path is not necessarily a straight one. It’s been a summary of opportunities and a very curious and restless mind. I’ve always been passionate about art, but my brain has always demanded structure and numbers. That’s why architecture was my career choice. A perfect summary of the two. As an architect, I still wanted more art in my life, so after a couple of years of working, I got an MFA in illustration at SCAD.
Since then, it’s been an amazing journey of finding myself as an artist, specially finding my place between the worlds of commercial art and fine art.
I mostly do lifestyle editorial work, but I love illustrating books, patterns for fashion and luxury products.

I have been very lucky, and my work has won a Latin GRAMMY and awards from the Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, 3X3, Communication Arts, A Red Dot Award, the A’ Design Award among others and has been exhibited in the US, Germany, Colombia, Mexico and London.
As artist and art director, I have been part of projects for Youtube, HBO max, The Jimmy Fallon Show and NPR. And my list of clients include The Washington Post, The Frost Science Museum, DC Bar, Washington Lawyer Magazine and Bal Harbour Magazine.

This year I had my first solo show as a Fine Artist in Colombia and I started a marketing company where I get to do all the creative for B2B marketing.

The majority of my work is an exploration of extremes, testing how much I can push an image in terms of proportion, scale, unusual combinations, and sometimes nonsensical scenarios in order to deliver a message. I am an avid reader and that’s where I get a lot of my ideas for my work.
I try to evoke dreams, magic, nostalgia, and a sense of strange familiarity, similar to the sense of returning to your childhood home, or a smell that transports you back in time.

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

I think the most rewarding thing about being an artist is being able to be vulnerable and putting myself out there. I am not a very extroverted person, but with my art I am able to tap into my experiences, my opinions, my thoughts and share them. It’s very rewarding to let myself speak through this medium and connect with people who feel the same, or in most cases, don’t agree at all. It’s my calling, and it fulfills me to be able to do it everyday.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

You don’t create art to please people. You create art to express yourself and connect with people. I was working on a big project for a big client, and my only goal was for him to like me. I started creating work that didn’t resonate with who I was, just to I could get a yes and a pat on my back. I needed his approval so much I was unfaithful to myself.
This didn’t turn out well. I let him crush me, and the disappointment was deep and hurtful. It was a really important lesson. After I came back. to myself stronger than ever.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.amaliara.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amalia.restrepo/?hl=es