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

Camila, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I’ve been painting and drawing from a very early age, although I didn’t know what art was at the time. I simply loved grabbing markers, tempera, or color pencils and a block of printing paper and just go through it with whatever came first to my mind, and it was so freeing. I am now ironically trying to unlearn things, and constantly trying to get to go back to that childish estate of freedom where you’re not thinking about what things should be or should look like, not even trying to understand them either, you’re just going where you want to go. It is very hard to ignore things you already know.

Learning can be education, or it can be knowledge from experience, or knowing yourself. These last two I find the most important in any creative process, which imply you believe in your intuition and you trust yourself (lack of either or both would be in my opinion the biggest obstacle in learning anything at all).

At the same time I am somehow also very grateful for my education. I studied architecture at Parsons and architects have such unique and beautiful way of looking at the world. It’s about learning from your surrounding environment and culture, adapting to it and creating a gift for the world to live with, perhaps forever. Later, in my MFA, I had some of the most exciting and at times controversial conversations with other artists, wild perspectives to look at the world, and lots of experimentation in between. That was wonderful and refreshing.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was born and raised in Colombia, and moved to New York 11 years ago to study architecture. Since then I’ve been working as an architect, artist and designer in multiple projects around the world.

Today I focus on my art, which is painting. I spend most of my time at the studio, working and then I get to show my work in galleries in the US and hopefully soon also in Colombia and around the world. Being a creative person is certainly fun and exciting, but not always easy, it requires a lot of “swimming against the current”, and believing that it is worth to swim against that current for life and for living is a tough mental challenge. Yet it is the designers’, artists’, and architects’ job to reimagine the world, and in order to do so we must live in a sort of limbo between being a part of a system and stepping outside of it to understand the bigger picture.

In my work, I focus mostly in nature, because I think it is in itself a perfect system, (ecosystem too), or harmony, balance and exceptional beauty. I see the world today and the people in it disconnected to each other and the world around them, and I want to focus on observing nature, living in it, learning from it, as a way to improve our society and ourselves.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I am a huge fan of books, and museums. Books, no matter what subject or structure, can only make us better humans. Through the process of reading we are able to practically go into another person’s mind, how they structure and communicate their thoughts is fascinating to me. I read a lot of novels, but there’s one book that guides me through and its “Letters to a Young Poet” by Rainer Maria Rilke. The book is a compilation of letters from Rilke to a young poet who is asking for advice on how to make his poetry better. Through these letters Rilke responds that he can’t really criticize his poetry or craft, but can give him lessons in life (about solitude, partnership, love and creation) that can guide him through his own artistic development.

Museums on the other hand, I would say just really take the time to read what things are about and you’d be surprised how much you can learn. The Met is my favorite, the Japanese Drawings, Impressionist paintings and Contemporary collection always pull me out of an artist block.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

After I got my architecture degree, I worked in architecture for a bit, but I felt that with all the screen time and computer softwares, a very important – hands on – part of me was slowly fading. I then decided to move onto exhibition production and was able to work with other artists and designers, I loved it and it really pulled me back to creating again, painting again and connecting with other artists. Eventually I decided I didn’t want to be on the production side of things anymore and rather being the artist myself and dedicate my time to my own work. It was a difficult choice not only because I loved what I did, but also because I knew that if I wanted to be an artist I had to drop everything else and focus on that. There was uncertainty, but intuition was a huge part of that decision, and I believe it was a wise one. There is a reason on why we were born with that little feeling in our gut, I would say always trust it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.camilavaron.com
• Instagram: @camilavaronj
• Linkedin: Camila Varon Jaramillo

Image Credits
Copyright Camila Varon Jaramillo.