We recently connected with Feliciano Mora and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Feliciano, thanks for joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

Even with the sometimes chaotic nature of being a freelancer, after twenty plus years of working in the corporate sector, I am much happier as a working artist.

That said, I constantly think back to moments I had full time design jobs, and how in many circumstances, I could not escape the stifling or immovable feeling of repetitiveness that so many times overcame me. I know that I often sat in my cubicle at my last job, and like a scene out of the movie Office Space (which is still very, VERY relevant to this day), I’d find my mind wandering off about projects sitting on my home art desk, and just suffering from an overall feeling of idea debt.

Idea debt for anyone that doesn’t know, is when you’ve got a backlog of ideas, dreams, concepts, and because of the rush of life today, one remains indebted to the unrealized potential of those things. Literally the sort of thing that when enough time goes by, you find yourself then mired in regret.

Because of that very thing, and the company I was working for initiating massive layoffs, I took a chance to strike out and only do freelance art efforts. It’s been a watershed moment for my mental health, but also has gone a long way to me finding the lost vigor and inspiration I so yearned for.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Mario Mora, I am known professionally as the Artisan Rogue, a freelance illustrator, poet, writer, and voice actor. As a child, I lived my early years overseas in Aviano, Italy, where I first witnessed Japanese animation series that were broadcast dubbed in Italian. The mix of these elements ignited a lot of questions, within my mind. Who drew these shows? Who voiced these characters? Who made the toys, and drew the art on the boxes I would see on the shelves of toys stores? Do people get jobs doing these things?

It took a school trip to Venice in my 3rd grade year, where I wandered off from the group for a moment to see what an older gentleman was painting. I stood there for a bit, and he noticed me watching him work. I remember he was painting one of the canals. He smiled and asked me if I was an artist. I recall nodding my head. He motioned me over and asked if I would like to paint something on it. It wasn’t much, just some blue green added in a single stroke as a wash over the area of water in the canal. But I distinctly remember how vibrant the color seemed, how foreign handling the brush felt, how this watercolor stuff seemed so different than anything else I’d ever used. Honestly, I was in awe of an artist even letting me put anything on the paper he had taped down on a wood board. I asked him if this was his job. He replied, “Yes. Ever since I was a young man.” That very moment I wanted to be an artist.

Fast forward many years, I attended the University of Central Missouri to pursue a BFA in Commercial Illustration at a time when desktop publishing and website creation were becoming standards, so I opted to pursue all three avenues to not only be more marketable to future clients and job opportunities. My first job out of college was in fact a combination of traditional illustration and graphic design applied to charitable gaming product creation, while I also started up Artisan Rogue Studios to build websites on a freelance basis.

I worked for a few smaller design firms afterwards learning copywriting, and eventually ended up at Hallmark as a production designer. During this time, I changed Artisan Rogue to be a brand that would be used to promote my self published works, and an identity brand for doing artist table sales at comic and anime shows. An unexpected boon that came with working for Hallmark was when internal auditions were held for voice acting talent. That led to me performing roles for audio greeting cards, and multiple toys.

After leaving Hallmark, I refocused all of the experience and skillsets at my disposal to re-engage my creative pursuits and enter the world of freelancing completely so I would have more flexibility and choice in the projects I would work on.

These days I have a line of self published comics, work on illustration commissions, work conventions, and run a website that focuses on my life and experiences as a working artist.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I rarely had success with social media. Struggles to grow organically, consistently engage with other accounts, and lack of understanding how much time to devote to managing my accounts were all too frequent issues I had to deal with. You’ll often hear things about “understanding the algorithm”, or see countless online coaches that claim to have courses to get you followers.

There’s no real pattern to follow except one.

Be. Yourself.

Like the art you create. Be true to who you are, what you love, and what you enjoy.

The exact same thing goes for engaging online, growing your brand, and allowing people to get to know a side of you.

People really want to know everything about anything, and when I joined TikTok, I was surprised that the more candid and honest I was, the better I got at devoting time to video creation, and the more I focused on telling my story as a creator, the better the engagements and eventually sales became for me.

I can’t say this works for everyone, but like anything, just spending time understanding what sort of goal you want from social media, and what kind of media you’re comfortable creating really will let you know what social media outlet you can flourish on.

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

Universal Basic Income would be the first thing I’d say. Not just for artists, but for people in general. The most stressful aspect of living life today, is financial.

But in the current facet of thought and reality we live in, if people understood how much the arts benefit society, how absolutely integral they are to everyday life, it would be far easier to be an creative.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theartisanrogue.com
• Instagram: @artisanrogue
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/theArtisanRogue
• Twitter: @theArtisanRogue
• Youtube: @theartisanrogue
• Other: TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@theartisanrogue Dreamstime Photography: www.dreamstime.com/theartisanrogue_info