We recently connected with Bianca Pastel and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Bianca, thanks for joining us today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

I want to start this question off by saying as a black girl moving through a creative space using multiple mediums digitally and physically in your work being misunderstood or mischaracterized comes with the territory. I often get put in a box or labeled very quickly by most people. People usually don’t know exactly what I do or what my process is and its hard for people to grasp that artist aren’t all using the same methods to present their artwork. So the first thing I usually get labeled as is a “mural artist”and I have never gotten the opportunity to do a mural. People who want graphic design email me for illustration, people who want illustration hit me up for animation and people who want animation hit me up for graphic design. People who want merchandise for a t shirt ask for fine art! I do all of these but the lack of understanding and knowledge of each medium is scarce. I love being able to do it all! But educating everyone on what I do over and over again is the hardest part. Its really hard to be seen and I’m learning that it’s all about presentation on the internet and being able to show people how to perceive me. It simply starts with interviews like these. Explaining that we as artist are multifaceted not just because we want to be but are survival depends on it.

Bianca, 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?

I am Bianca Pastel, I graduated in art/design from Columbia Chicago.. Once I graduated college I worked as a intern for Hebru Brantley and became one of the greatest assets to his team. Eventually, I was hired as a digital illustrator. With my help we were able to move operations to Los Angeles, continue Hebru Brand Studios work and also start a film company called Angry Hero. I would consider myself a Chicago-based artist whose playful and nostalgic art centers the black female experience. Finding influence in 90s movies and cartoons, I create to remind people of the joy and complexity of childhood memories while unpacking my own childhood trauma and using my art as an outlet to be vulnerable. I have a dynamic creative and thought leader possessing a proven track record of superior performance in Graphic Design & Illustration. I seek to leverage expertise in Content Development, Creative Collaboration, Branding Strategy, Stakeholder Engagement, Resource Alignment, Solution Delivery, and Communications Management to support key initiatives and goals to achieve top-shelf product deliverables across various mixed media projects. While working with Hebru, I still worked as a freelance artist. My network of creatives from Chicago to Los Angeles allowed me to work with some major brands such as Nike, NFL, Disney,
The Chicago Bulls, Soho House, HBOMax, Snapchat and many more.

Right now I am most proud of my created concept idea for a cartoon called, “Binky” as a way to make a black girl character with relatable experiences. Often times, animated little black girls are made to be seemingly perfect characters. I wanted to
model my character after many of us who are flawed, imperfect and to highlight that there isn’t one type of black girl experience. We are not a monolith. The stories I will tell will be focused on family, friendship, coming of age along with funny moments that many people have shared growing up in the 90’s era. This is one of my biggest near term goals – to bring this character to life via installations, merch, figurines, digital art etc before Binky hopefully one day makes her on screen debut. That is my dream. As far as potential clients, I want them to be aware that I am multifaceted in my artistry. I can make your logo and paint that portrait you want in your living room all in the same month . I have multiple characters and stories and merchandise and a million different ideas shelved for the future waiting for their moment so I hope you all stay in tune and pay close attention to the journey.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Hire them! Hire creatives based on their skillsets instead of their popularity on instagram. To keep it very blunt… I don’t care about my face on a billboard if I can’t afford my rent at the end of the month. The performative advertising of black/brown artists means nothing if we aren’t getting hired for our work.

Also actually be knowledgable of the artist skillsets when reaching out to them for work.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I want to be the creator that enters multiple worlds – even dabbling in more adult and darker animation concepts, a few of which I already have in the works. These concepts will not only dive into the black experience, but also the LGBTQ experience and other issues that marginalized groups deal with in this country. I’d also to love highlight and further normalize mental health issues and prioritizing dealing with them as a part of a person’s self care. I’ve been able to connect with so many other artists with mental health struggles and witnessed how they’ve been able to heal through expression. Everyone is dealing with some form of anxiety, depression whether it’s chronic or situational. Centering animated characters with mental health issues would, I hope, allow viewers to see themselves in these people and get a laugh out of it as well.

My longer term goals are focused around creating spaces to expose kids to the digital art process, NFT’s and illustration. The world is evolving and how we consume, purchase and archive art is happening more online. I’d love to collaborate with more digital artists in a studio house where we create animation and various projects. A place where it’s less of a corporate feel
and more of a place where we’re in charge of our own ideas. I’m trying to be the next Hayao Miyazaki (of Studio Ghibli). Why I love him is like me, he was very involved in the creative process and nothing was green lit without his approval. I want to model myself after his story and create a body of work that will transcend time all while elevating others in digital art.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.yo-binky.com , https://verticalgallery.com/collections/bianca-pastel
• Instagram: @biancapastel , @yobinky
• Facebook: bianca pastel
• Twitter: @biancapastel_

Image Credits
Amber Millan, ig: @ambercita Sebastian Berlin, ig: @SebastianBerlin