We were lucky to catch up with Daniela Blanco recently and have shared our conversation below.

Daniela, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

One of the goals and dreams of my art career was to be able to do live art for community events such as music festivals and parties. In 2021 I was able to accomplish this by going to parties in San Diego and festivals like Lightning in a Bottle, Desert Hearts and Joshua Tree Music Festival. I also had the opportunity to meet the artist community that make all these parties and festivals even more exciting and immersive for people attending. Being able to paint with live music in cool environments while interacting with people and getting real-time interpretations, feedback and reactions from them, is one of the funnest things I’ve gotten to do in my art career.
However, I soon realized that being a part of all these events is not sustainable for an art business.
Artists are given a free ticket to the event, but rarely get paid for their time and energy.
Even though we get the opportunity to sell our pieces, prints or items, people don’t usually go to music festivals and parties to buy art so it is not a sure thing that the event will bring any revenue.
Realizing all this, I had to take a risk and I started to ask for compensation. I started to turn down invitations because my time and energy spent were not being acknowledged. I ran the risk of not getting invited to paint at parties anymore and not getting the chance to attend a festival and get together with my art community.

The next risk I took was to do something I haven’t seen anyone do before, I started a dual-sensory media and performance art piece using Youtube and Spotify. Running the risk that people might not even understand what it is about or how it works, I kept at it and now I already have five videos ready to watch on my Youtube.

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.

My name is Daniela Blanco and I am the owner of Casa Boho, a place and space where I create mixed-media whimsical paintings. Casa Boho is also a live-art performance space that I bring with me to music festivals, parties and/or showcase on my YouTube page for people to experience my live art without having to attend a festival or party. I was born in Cochabamba,Bolivia and moved to Miami, Florida when I was 15 years old.
I have a major in Art and minors in Art History and Marketing from Florida International University.
By using expressive colors and surreal imagery, my pieces tell a story without relying on realistic depictions and are inspired by my intention to interconnect my South American background, my Miami upbringing, my traveling, and my California surf lifestyle. I use a self-taught and self-developed technique of using oil, acrylic, spray, and watercolor paint.
I utilize contrast in my chosen colors and shapes to tap into the elements of divisionism, impressionism and, maximalism to create optical illusions in the piece and pull in the viewer into an uplifting mood.
My intention is for the viewer to be able to connect outwardly to the elements of art that captivate the logical brain but also the inward emotional states triggered by connecting to a sense of wonder, nostalgia, and the excitable possibility of one’s inner child traveling through cosmic landscapes and mindscapes.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I am able to connect to my inner-child and get to know myself more. My art also helps me process what I go through mentally and emotionally throughout the different stages in my life.

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

Yes sure! I had to pivot when I realized that doing live art for parties and music festivals wasn’t sustainable for my art business. I started asking for compensation for my time and efforts and soon, not surprisingly, I stopped getting invited to paint at parties in San Diego. People stopped reaching out knowing that my live art wasn’t “free”. This, instead of alienating me, actually empowered me even more because I stood my ground and gave myself and my time worth.
As fun as it was to go to a music festival and connect with my art community, I had to start thinking if the expenses for me to go were really worth me being a part of it, and more often than not, they weren’t.
I’ve met so many talented artists and we all experience disillusion about this. We want to be able to connect and participate, we want to be able to be a part of something special and provide an experience but people are still not used to paying live artists. Even though we provide such a special service for the events by channeling creative energy in real time, we barely get anything in return. We interact with guests and bring culture to the whole experience but still we barely get acknowledged and paid for our work.
Seeing all this, I thought of a new way of showing up in integrity and build community.
I started recording myself painting at home and using my own curated playlists. This way, I could keep working in my place and space, “Casa Boho”, and give people a chance to see my live painting with the same music I was listening to while painting making it intimate and unique. Everyone can watch these dual-sensory media and performance pieces (videos) whenever it is convenient for them and sync it to the Spotify playlist I provide. I call them dual-sensory because one can see but also hear the music, making it a piece that travels through time and spaces.
People in other places, like my family and friends in Miami, are able to see me live paint and listen to the same music I was listening to while painting and they don’t have to travel to go to a party or a music festival.
They also have a chance of doing art with me by playing the video and music in the background.
I feel like this way I’ve been able to build community through time and space and it is an ongoing media art project.
Since establishing an appointment system on my website, I’ve gotten to be a part of two events already where I have gotten compensated and I have been able to connect with people again.
This media project is obviously not the same as actually being at a festival and interacting with me live, but we get interact nonetheless. I feel like my time and energy are valuable and the people that also value them and appreciate my input and potential for their events are the ones that get to benefit from my ability to enhance and elevate the ambiance.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://casabohocreations.square.site
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/casaboho_/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/casabohocreations/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@danielablancoart

Image Credits
Nicole Shek