Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Eliamaria Madrid. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Eliamaria, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

I started my traditionally-drawn webcomic in 11th grade. I was 17. The comic started with a silly moment that happened while being involved in the my hometown theatre’s production of “The Wizard of Oz” and the comic was made to be an end-of-show gift for the sound technician. The production team loved it, and introduced me to the world of webcomics, to which I then jumped in and started doing comics regularly. This, while still pursuing theatre and the performing arts. I ended up graduating high school and leaving to university to study theatre, not art. If you asked me then which I enjoyed more, I would have told you theatre but honestly art was always just a part of me as a creative. The amount of times I wanted to drop out, change majors, and just all out quit were many, but I never stopped drawing and creating art while in my theatrical studies. I even ended up getting the job for the University Newspaper illustrating the comics and cartoons which seemed a lot more promising than my “performance career.” The more and more my passion was fading for performing, the more I was just wanting to pursue art as a whole, but of course I didn’t want my family to see me as a quitter or failure, so I bullied myself into finishing my degree. By the time I graduated, I didn’t have any prospects or opportunities lined up for theatre, which was fine with me as my passion for performance was diminished.
I entered the workforce with an office job and decided to keep at it with the illustration work. I wasn’t a pro or anything, and all knowledge I had was from being self-taught, but I was trying to build up a name and portfolio within my power and background. Do I wish I went to school for art versus theatre? Absolutely. Not a day goes by where I don’t wish I had just changed my mind and followed my heart, but the fact that I was able to just hold onto drawing and illustrating for joy during my performance studies, was a sign that I was still on a decent path for it.

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

I got into drawing at a young age and never let that release of imagination leave me. Once I got into comics in high school, then more illustration work in college, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I love the ability to tell stories or assist in storytelling with the help of creating visuals to go along with it. I’ve always been a visual-learner and I love to put work out that helps as such. I am thankful I just stumbled into the industry by just taking a chance. The art community has always been so welcoming and have helped me grow as a better creator.
I personally love creating things that make people laugh and smile. Even when I was performing, that feeling was my favorite when you could hear laughter from something you said or did. I wanted to do that with pictures. The world is full of serious storytelling as well as negative events a lot, that we forget to take time to just enjoy the silly things in life and ourselves. I want to help remind people that it’s ok for comedy to be a way of expression not for the sake of landing a joke, but expression as a whole. I’ve never been one to be good at dramas and tragedies, but I sure will make a gag about a serious event to make light of a situation.
Beyond comics, I love creating illustrations for stickers, shirts, and posters as well as just little pieces of art on canvas, prints, etc., that just bring a little light to any setting. I also love that lately, I’ve been highlighting my Latine heritage in my work and connecting with other people in the culture from it.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I want to make an impact as a Latina, a disabled citizen, a member of the LGBTQIA community, and mental health advocate to show that no matter who I am as a person, despite the negativity brought towards these diverse groups, I am making things that matter and so can everyone else. I want to ensure that future generations of marginalized individuals see themselves represented so they know that the freedom of expression and ability to express their imagination is absolutely possible and can make amazing things.

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

Listen and share to magnify creative voices. Creatives and artists are creating so many things around us as a society, more than we know. Artists design the wallpaper used in your office and home spaces, design your office and home ambiances, design packaging for your favorite items, and more. Creativity goes out as far as designing the next fun architectural building being made to the next cinematic film you fall in love with. Without all that, entertainment would be gone and visuals would be Times New Roman text on white boxes. The artistic influence is all around us. So, if you help magnify the voices of creatives when times are rough, when new projects are being brought to life, when the job treatment is failing us, PLEASE LISTEN. The smallest pushback on a creative could result in something being taken away from society.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.spicedeliastrations.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spicedeliastrations/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Eliastrations
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SpicedEliastrationsTV
• Other: http://twitch.tv/spicedeliastrations

Image Credits
no other info