We recently connected with Ari Uberti and have shared our conversation below.
Ari, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
AriUberti is the name of my business and my signature as an artist it is something that I have always wanted to explain since sometimes people tend to get a little confused. Arianna Cristina Leon Uberti is my full name, Ari is Arianna’s dimuntive, and Uberti is my mom’s family name. I have always been very close to my family, both on the part of my father and mother but for reasons of living in different cities, I grew up being more close with the family on my mother’s side: the Ubertis.
My nonnos, who are my maternal grandparents, are the people I have loved the most and who have loved me the most in the world, I have never felt such a great love as the one they felt for me every time they saw me. Before my nonno passed away, I promised him that I would keep his last name alive, since by having two daughters, his legacy would end in fact one of the first tattoos I got was “uberti” on the same side of the heart.
Using their last name as my artistic and business name makes me feel that they always accompany me and that they feel proud of everything that little by little I have been achieving.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is AriUberti and I’m an illustrator from Venezuela. I’ve been doing art since 2014 but I became a FULL TIME artist in July 2021 when I decided to quit my job to follow my dream.
How everything started its a little bit crazy: Since I was little I had always liked art, everything that had to do with creativity, painting, drawing, but being from a Latin American country being an artist is not a goal that many people set for themselves. Although I always liked everything related to the artistic world, I never saw myself doing art as a way of life, I imagined myself as what they teach you in class: being a manager of a large company, working for someone else.
In 2014 I had an accident that changed my life. In that year I was about to graduate from the university of “marketing management” but I always felt a great emptiness and I was a bit lost. While I was trying to figure out what I really wanted, I went to the beach with some friends and that’s where it all happened. After going to the beach it is tradition to go to the freshwater river and then return home, I decided to jump from the top of a tree that I never reached and I fell. I was in the hospital for a couple of weeks and then in recovery for 6 months… which led me to start creating this magical illustrated world that now has life.
Today I dedicate myself to making art full time, I work for large companies like Amazon and the University of Florida and I also work with small companies that want to have unique art in their installations or products. I have also won art awards for hotels such as Moxy hotel of the marriot chain and CitizenM that have my art hanging on their walls.
This experience taught me that you never know when you will find what you are really passionate about and that you don’t have to be a certain age to start something totally new… it can hit you at any time. Don’t ever stop dreaming.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Being myself. art allows you to do that and the more authentic you are, the customers who identify with you will stay and be loyal. Today it doesn’t work to pretend that your company or business is something that it is not, much less pretending to be something that you are not. Customers like to know that those behind a brand are also normal people, who started from the bottom and made themselves known little by little with truth and honesty.
Being myself has allowed me to reach incredible places, I have beautiful clients who today have become my friends and I have also had the opportunity to connect with people I never thought of like Riawna Capri, a hollywood stylist and Jennifer Love Hewitt who He has acquired 3 of my pieces and is a very sweet person . Being authentic is the best thing you can do for yourself and your business
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
Of course, it was a constant struggle… but as always, the sun shines at the end of the storm. I am from Venezuela, there I began to make art, little by little I was uploading it to social media and I realized that my friends liked it, so I decided with the help of a friend to make merchandise such as t’shirts, phone covers, cups and calendars to sell. In 2015 I decided to migrate to Spain and it was very hard there, I felt that nobody liked my art so I had begun to give up and accept that perhaps I could not do that for a living and I was feeling devastated but I honestly, never stopped dreaming. In 2016 I participated in an international online contest to decorate a Hotel in New Orleans Louisiana… and WON! I traveled to the United States and here I began to write a different story… at the beginning for 5 years I worked for many things, as a waitress, a housekeeper, a cleaner but every night I came home to draw and continue with the social media exposure. I was also looking to improve my English and my adaptation to this country which I feel its been a success. I must say that I am infinitely grateful that it has been the place where I am being able to make my dreams as an artist come true.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
I always ask for permission to my clients to take the pictures and upload them to my social media and website :) I took all the pics!