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

Alright, Estefania thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I was enrolled in a nursing program before becoming an artist. I remember I was miserable trying to fulfill a mothers dream. One day while we where sitting with a friend in a corner, i was looking at her doodling for a graphic design class she had. I said how cool is that, that you get to create and it clicked in the moment, I wanted to draw or paint. After a semester, I enrolled in an art class, I wanted to give it a try, i said if i like it i will stay, if not I will drop, turns out I loved the class. A semester was over and I spoke to my dad who at the time was the one supporting me to let me keep going with art classes. Of course, i did my research to explain to him and how I was well aware of what taking the artistic path was going to be and even though he was skeptical he agreed. I’m thankful for him for understanding what I wanted rather than be the typical parent with two choices to follow. He was so open that now he became my muse in my work. I was not there typical artist who knew since little she was an artist, i was the type to fulfill someone’s dream rather than becoming my own. I think is something beautiful, something that can let other artists know it’s not to late to decide what we really want to become as a person.

Estefania , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a Guatemalan artist, born in East LA but raised in Guatemala hence why I say Guatemalan artist. I like to say that as I grew up in a different culture one that I know best and one I’m proud of. For me it’s important to clarify that as my work involves personal memories of the places I grew up, involving my father. After a failed attempt to become a nurse, art became my all. At first I didn’t know what exactly to create but I was super crafty. When I was in Pasadena college, I started to be more inventive adding or subtracting things out of the canvas. The idea of adding is fascinating for me, i wanted to people to see the objects to possibly touch. When I transfer to Calstate Long Beach, everything have to paused because first you have to learn the principals of becoming a great artist, but for me it felt like they were trying to hide who I was as an artist. Before my senior show, I remember I was lost, each idea I bring felt like it was wrong. I remember I told some friends, everyone seem to have a style a path but I don’t. At the time I was experimenting, I was going back to what I did back at Pasadena college, i was just playing with materials until I did the table painting named, “ the new supper. A Covid 19 idea I had that showed a self portrait, a table in the front with many objects that reflected my frustration of me transitioning into what is having a chronically ill condition. The self portrait shows a 3D table that many liked and were surprised, in that moment i not only became the 3D girl but I became myself. During my senior year, I started to create more 3D it felt like I knew what I was doing that I decided to take the path of 3D combined with the stories of my childhood and my immigrant father. I wanted to share the meaning of absence a little girl had when her father had to flew back to U.S, to provide for his family. I want to honor his journey, the struggles and pain a father and a little girl went through to keep both together no matter the circumstances. I share my story because I know I’m not the only one out there who grew up without a parent who had to choose between love or hunger. I dive deep into the idea of separation and sacrifice, as we still go through this in the present in a different way. I want viewers to understand what take’s people to navigate outside their own country and to possible understand the whys of an individual and my father. I think what proud of is the idea in how I make my 3D elements and my stories have their moment in my art. I choose parts in my paintings with 3D to not only honor my memories, but make part of it have their moment to give an insight of the place or object that carries a meaning. I want to make the viewer come dive deeper, move around my work with the small details i add but also come back to the main point of the painting, my story. I always say, I know I’m not unique but my way of standing out is adding details, my feelings into my paintings so whoever is watching, feel what I feel.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

When I was attending Cal State Long Beach, i had a difficult time with my professors they didn’t understand what I was doing. I even was told to stop doing my 3-D because it was not considered traditional art but craft. It was a moment I felt like giving up on art, specially since Long Beach is known for a great art school. When I started my ‘“ crafty journey as I jokingly say” only two professors helped, but I wish I had more information or at least try, to help the student in me. Its embarrassing to say that google and instagram was more of help than my own school to research on artists but I understand that school is there to prepare for the basics. It’s why I continue the path as a 3D artist, to help other students in the future. Make them feel like a professor not only follows the traditional way but its open to the new current artists. It just something I wish I had as a student and not to feel lost most of the time.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Something I had to unlearn was having a school mindset. When I was invited to a show at Long Beach, the owner of the gallery said, you will do amazing in your art career, i said i dont think my professors agree. She said school is there to help, you shouldn’t worry about them, worry about you. You are amazing, don’t let anyone say the contrary. I smiled back and left quietly, i was to scare to say something because I knew she was right. Going to school is a great opportunity to grow in your skill but also it sets the mindset of what’s next, or to follow directions. It makes all the rules you learned get stuck in your mind. You start to doubt yourself. Is this going the wrong direction or my professor will say or do and it gets stuck in your brain, it’s impossible to move forward. As an artist yes, what we learn is key, but not everything needs to be follow. An artist can explore, can try something new and fail. I go through this all the time, I get stress but then I unlearn that just because I went to school doesn’t mean I will follow all. They won’t be there to see it and if they do who cares let go the mistakes. Move on with your work that’s how an artist learn to make mistakes until you feel it’s done.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Guamomo_steph