We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chris Gomez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Chris , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

Being a creative in any field is hard for so many reasons. I think that the main one, when your young, is the self-doubt. Even when you are just starting out as professional, you’ve already spent years learning and practicing and it get’s to the point that you have no idea if other people want to see the fruits of your labor. As I entered my junior year of college, I was drowning in that self-doubt.

I was majoring in Cartooning at the School of Visual Arts and I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my work. I was surrounded by extremely talented artists and though I would like to say that it had a strictly inspiring effect on me, but that wouldn’t be true. It was hard not to feel outclassed by the sheer amount of skill around me at all times. Many of my fellow students had already been tabling at conventions or had self-published successful zines. I was barely handing in my homework on time.

On top of all this, money was short and I needed to figure out some ways to supplement my income. I turned to Craigslist and found little success. I would apply to every kind of visual arts job that was posted: illustration, package design, tattoos, logo development, mural painting, and anything else that I saw, but I rarely if ever got any kind of positive response. I had given up and started applying to part time jobs outside of the arts, but one day I got a response from a lovely woman who worked at a local university.

Not to be too specific, she wanted to develop a comic book about children who were differently abled and who had learning differences. Her goal was to make this series for young children so that they could learn about the many kinds of people that live around us, and she would interview the children to see if the stories had a positive effect on their thinking. She was a psychologist and approached the work like one. She would handle all the interviews and measures and testing and she needed someone to do the fun part.

Anyone who has drawn a comic knows that it’s a lot of work, taking hours upon hours. However, as a cartooning major, I was specifically equipped for this job, though I hadn’t ever worked with kids before and the majority of my comics at this point were drawn for adults. I met with the woman, got an understanding of what she wanted and got to work. It was the first time that someone had wanted to see my work and wanted to see what I could do! I was so excited and wanted to put my best foot forward.

Looking back, like most artist, I am embarrassed of my early work and am eternally grateful to my early patrons. Maybe this woman saw something in me that most didn’t or maybe she just needed affordable art produced quickly by a young art student. Regardless, I tried my hardest and produced a finished comic and she paid me handsomely. I also got to learn about how the comic actually did encourage empathy in young readers. The comic was also developed into a stage play for the elementary aged children and I was invited to watch along with a few classes. I had an amazing sense of pride in the work, that I originally attributed to finally being a professional cartoonist. I was blissfully unaware that this was the first step towards my career as an arts educator and that it planted the seed for my love of working with and teaching children.

Today, I am lucky to be a working artist, but I am also an arts educator. I have been a teaching artist for years and currently work as the Associate Curator of Museum Experience at the Bronx Children’s Museum, overseeing a number of arts programs and teaching artists. Through my years of teaching, I have had to learn a great many more forms of art and I have expanded my work to primarily be portrait painting.

Because of my work with children, much of the self doubt in my work is gone (I don’t think any good artist can be completely sure of themselves all the time). I have found the things that I love about my art, and I have found the way I can use it to enrich the lives around me. I think back to those days in college, when I was scrounging for cash and taking any job I could get, and I am thankful that the only job that would have me is the only job that I would ever choose to take today.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

At the moment, I am primarily and illustrator and portrait painter. I like to tell stories and I find that comics and portraits are the best ways to do that .

I’ve always wanted to be a cartoonist, and so that became the focus of my studies. The first few years of my career and my teaching revolved around comics. However, I eventually took up acrylic paints and fell in love with painting people. I think that there is no better way to learn about someone than to paint their face and there’s no quicker way to realize that everyone around you is a beautiful than having spent a few years painting people.

When it comes to my clientele, I tend to work with every day people that want a portrait of family or community figures around them. The challenge I am often presented with is how to depict someone in a way that is truer than life, how to express that humor that is often gone in a still photo. And interestingly enough, when I’m asked to create an illustration or a comic, the challenge is often the same. How can I express an idea that seems impossible to put into words?

The points of my career that I am proudest of are are the times that I have been able to offer my clients some kind of emotional relief. When it comes to portraits, we often ask for them when it’s too late to have someone sit for them. It helps us come to terms with reality. I sincerely believe that people should use art to celebrate things and commissioning art isn’t just for the rich.

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

The best way that society can support artists is to create a culture that values artists and their work as necessary to having a healthy culture. To this day, commissioned art is seen as a luxury that only the rich can afford, or should budget for, but everyone deserves to have art in their homes, on their walls, of people and things they love and care about. Artists and art lovers have to work together to create this shift.

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

The most rewarding part of being an artist is working with someone to make their ideas a reality. I have spent countless hours working with people who just want to see their ideas become tangible, so that others can understand them more. Though I love working on my own projects, there’s something so great about seeing the look on someone’s face when a project comes together.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Chrisgomezart.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/chrisgomezart