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

Dots, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

The story behind Dots One is Connecting the Dots. Connecting with different types of people for art, healing, and everything in between. My mission with connecting the dots is to create a platform or tree of various artists to connect, work, collaborate and grow with each other.

“It takes a village!”, if I don’t offer the services you need from graphic design, printing, jewelry, chakra healing, I most likely know someone who does, thus connecting the dots!

I’m a firm believer in “You Grow, I Grow, We Grow!”

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

My real name is Jacquelyn Alvarez but I’m known in my community as Dots One. I first created “Dots One” in 2010, starting with sticker slaps, acrylic paintings, stencils and collages. Over the years, I started to brand my name into “Connecting the Dots” for my community. I now offer digital art, graphic design, logo design, home decor, jewelry, and personalized momentous.

In 2017, I began my healing journey, with the power of earth crystals I discovered Chakra healing. I learned that all of my knowledge that I used to be ashamed and confused of, was a gift. I offer aura readings in the form of digital photography, tarot readings and on occasion, chakra balancing.

I like to consider myself a “Jack” of all trades, but if I can’t help, chances are I know someone who can help you! I love to help my community (is my Aquarius showing?), meeting new people, and more importantly, GROWING AND EXPANDING THRU ART!

When I’m not behind the computer you can catch me doing pop ups at Centro Cultural in Balboa Park every third Sunday of the month for Tianguis, a free outdoor POC Artisian Market (theres always delicious vegan food, music and workshops!) or at The Urban Art Shop x Inscriptu where I work as a printer/graphic designer, helping other artist/businesses “connect their dots” with printing services, engraving, stickers, business cards, and that’s just to name a few of the things we offer at Inscriptu!

How did you build your audience on social media?

I build my audience on social media by being as real as possible on my feed, especially on my stories. I try to not use filters as often as I can, creating interactive story posts that touch on subjects that aren’t normally talked about. For example I recently did a segment on “normalizing period talk’ because I don’t want young ladies to feel embarrassed about their period; I asked and encouraged everyone, guys included, to share a story of their knowledge, first periods, time they had to help a friend or sister, cramp remedies, pads/tampons/cups/free, horror stories, accident stories etc. I was shocked on the feedback. I spend my platform as a Safe Space, and I’m still getting stories and remedies Dmd too me! (Check out my highlights on IG @Dots.One)

If I were to give advice to someone first making their presence known on social media is be yourself. DONT LET SOCIAL MEDIA FOOL YOU! Stay true to you, engage as much as you can, and don’t just add anyone or follow anyone! One thing I monitor on my page is who follows me. Genuine accounts mean genuine REAL people, meaning genuine sales or connections! Yeah, you can spend money on those apps that get you followers but who are they??? I have no clue!

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

NFTs are the future.

I personally am an NFT artist, you can check out my work on Paras, dotsone.near with Near Publish; Bringing the Digital to the physical and back. Twitter @nearxpublish

With my NFTs, I am trying to teach about chakras, zodiacs and healing thru art.
I created an art dedication to my black cat Sir Rufus Cornelius the First, who crossed the rainbow bridge in 2020, I wanted to incorporate teaching my knowledge of chakras, zodiacs, feelings to the meta verse. This is for all the black cat lovers out there!

Love you Roo! Thanks Near Publish!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dotsone.company.site
• Instagram: @Dots.One
• Facebook: Connecting The Dots
• Twitter: @DotsOneBH
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCzuBmo0ohTqDA_V0U93dcxQ
• Other: https://linktr.ee/DotsOne

Image Credits
Dustn Dign, Josh Rose, Dots One.