We recently connected with Dolores Nemi Caldentey and have shared our conversation below.

Dolores, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

After finishing school, I was in a complex mental space and didn’t have clarity on what career I wanted to pursue. I had always been curious about psychology because I wanted to help people heal and feel better. So I initially started studying psychology with that intention. However, after only a couple months I realized a traditional psychology job wasn’t the right fit for me.

I’ve had a connection to art and creativity since childhood – playing piano from age 8, drawing and painting, and teaching myself design programs by 10 years old. But coming from a family of lawyers, accountants and doctors, it never occurred to me that a creative career was possible.

After focused personal work on my mental health and seeking professional support, I discovered the audiovisual design bachelor’s program at a nearby university. It’s been 4 years now and I’m in my final stretch of studies!

If asked, I would say I’m glad my path unfolded the way it did. My relationship with art had to mature over more years first before I could envision it as a career, which happened in tandem with some vulnerably formative life experiences. I also made wonderful friends along the way who helped me grow and better understand myself. At just 17 years old, I don’t think I was ready. Now at 22, having gathered all of these experiences, my art feels nourished by them. I realized that helping people heal is what I always wanted to do – I just found that I can achieve that through my art.

I’m thankful for every part of the journey that has led me here.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Dolores Nemi Caldentey, though most people know me as “Lo”. I’m a 22-year-old artist originally from Argentina. I’ve always had a passion for art in all its diverse forms and taught myself digital editing from a young age out of curiosity and natural interest. After departing from psychology studies, I began intuitively creating visual collages, taking photos, and editing videos as a creative outlet. Once beginning my audiovisual bachelor program, I discovered Instagram’s collage art community and felt drawn to share my own dreamlike pieces. To my surprise, my account quickly amassed an engaged international following, with supporters resonating with my aesthetic style and uplifting message.

I’ve also always felt a profound connection to cosmic imagery like the moon, stars, and galaxies. These visuals gave me immense comfort during the most challenging times in my life. This galactic motif carries through as a core stylistic element in all my artwork in dedication to their impact on me.

Essentially, The Stars Collector functions as a safe haven for anyone seeking to feel seen, understood, and reflected. My focus rests on visually encapsulating our universally shared human experiences – whether they be relationships, milestones, hardships, joys, vulnerabilities or anything along the spectrum of life. I aim to transmit comfort, validation, and companionship through this cosmic lens.

My worldwide community and those moved by my empathetic mission are what I’m most proud of. I create in hopes that my visual poetry resonates with others undergoing their own personal journeys through the maze of life in the same ways the stars resonated with me.

How did you build your audience on social media?

When I first started sharing my artwork online, I didn’t have a clear strategy – I was just creating visual art from an authentic place and posting intuitively. But over time and through intentional effort, I cultivated a wonderful community.

I made an effort to genuinely connect with supporters and get to know my audience rather than viewing them as just statistics. Think about what you would appreciate seeing from accounts you follow, and shape content with that human lens. Don’t get discouraged by slow initial growth – meaningful communities take time to develop. Post for yourself but observe what your followers lean into most. Balance playing into those interests with pieces solely for your artistic fulfillment to prevent creative blocks.

Utilize each platform’s built-in analytics. The data shows you what types of posts perform best, when your followers are most active, demographic breakdowns, and more invaluable insight. But be wary of algorithm obsession leading to overposting. I’ve found less frequent but more meaningful content retains value and doesn’t overwhelm people. Learn what posting cadence optimizes your channel while allowing space for your mental wellbeing.

Most importantly, this is a marathon, not a sprint – stay patient and let your distinctive voice shine through. By thinking holistically about everything from analytics to authentic connection to creative passion, you can organically foster an engaged following around your gifts.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The notion that art couldn’t be a viable career path was something deeply ingrained that I had to actively unlearn.

Growing up, while my family appreciated my creative talents, the predominant messaging surrounded traditional career routes – lawyer, doctor, businessperson. Making art felt like a hobby rather than something to devote one’s livelihood to. Even when I began sharing my cosmic digital collages online and gradually built an engaged audience, in the back of my mind I still didn’t see it becoming my full-time work.

While studying film and media arts in university, I think I still carried this bias. Art felt like more of an elective interest rather than the central pillar of my professional pursuits, even if unconsciously.

But to my surprise and delight, client projects, partnerships and collaborations emerged organically in tandem with my platform’s growth. Now I design album covers for musicians, participate in branding campaigns for global companies, and work on various custom illustration and animation gigs.

Seeing firsthand how my lifelong creative passion translated into not just emotional fulfillment but also commercial viability was the turning point in shedding limiting beliefs about forging an artist career path. I realized art and business don’t have to be mutually exclusive – and now champion this mindset shift for others hoping to turn their gifts into a profession!

The backstory is one of subconscious self-doubt being displaced by tangible real-world proof of what’s possible when you let your talents lead confidently. That mental shift – where creation becomes vocation – was the most pivotal unlearning lesson of my journey so far.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://doloresnemic.myportfolio.com/work
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.stars.collector/