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

Fernanda , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

Yes, thankfully I can live off my work, but it’s been a journey with many peaks and valleys. When I moved to NYC eight years ago I started waitressing, bartending and picking up gigs to help support me. On my way to work I would walk by a ceramic studio and wished to take classes as I couldn’t afford beautiful things for my home. I eventually saved some money and started making my own pieces.
The first person to purchase some of this new work in clay was my boss at the restaurant and little by little I got commissions from friends and colleagues. It got to the point where, even if minimal, I could live off of selling my pieces & by teaching/ tech-ing at the studio I worked at. Soon stores started picking up my work, they promoted me, invited me to Design events, shows and exhibitions in North America, and Europe.

Today,I do live off my creative work, though it’s not necessarily things that I always like to do, but it is in the creative realm of my capabilities. Sometimes you can ride on the wave of just selling your work, but there is a time where sales stop coming and you have to reinvent your aptitudes while still being an artist & find ways to compensate for the gaps. In my case it has been teaching, modeling, renting out my studio for shoots etc.

I don’t think there is a special golden key for speeding up the process of living full-time from your work. There is a saying of the Tao Te Ching: “When the student is ready the teacher will appear.” I feel it’s a bit like this, it pays to be disciplined, to go to the studio everyday, to do the good and the bad work. To show up for yourself and be very very patient.

Fernanda , 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 from Hispanic Ancestry, My mother is Cuban and my father is Mexican. I grew up in the multicultural town of Tijuana, Mexico. When I turned 17 I moved to Europe and went to do my BFA and MFA in Milan Italy.

There is a lot of Mexico but also much of that classical beauty from Italy in my work. I mostly work with painting and sculpting although I love installation art, conceptual photography and have secret passions like floral design, dancing and poetry. Sometimes, when the project allows, I merge some of these mediums together.

I see my ceramic work as three dimensional paintings or functional paintings you can eat/drink out of. The Canvas is flexible, malleable and three dimensional. The “back of the canvas” becomes part of the story. All my pieces are sculpted by hand, are painted and signed as unique pieces. I want people to own unique artworks that are accessible and functional on many levels.

My inspiration comes from fables, books, fairy tales and mythology. Stories of love, desire and life cycles that give meaning to who we are. Traveling and being in nature also is a source of great inspiration as it opens the way for my creativity.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I broke my right, dominant hand in April this year. A Couple weeks before I had decided to take a leap of faith in my work, start my dream project of having a studio on my own, production work and classes…. I couldn’t even hold a spoon or dress myself. Classes were impossible, the creation of work wasn’t a possibility as I couldn’t even hold a pencil…I went into a deep dark place of depression, uselessness and self loathing. All of a sudden, my work wasn’t good enough and I wasn’t a good artist anymore. Should I change careers, or give my dream up? All the voices of insecurities, imposter syndrome and my devils’ voices became true.

When your career or your living comes from a body part, it’s very difficult not to associate your life without it. It’s difficult not to identify as a ballerina without your feet or an artist without their hand. That is when I valued how important my hand was not just for working but to put my pants on, to brush my own teeth or cook and clean for myself. I don’t think we truly value the “little, great things” until things like these happen.

It has been a journey of absolute growth, frustration, sadness and loneliness but nonetheless so much learning. Little by little, through therapy and allowing myself to be sick, to ask for help, and to be sad; To be patient with myself, and by finding other ways of expressing myself; Meditation, walks and talking to my loved ones made me realized that my lack of economy wasn’t coming from my lack of talent. I gave voice to my fears but understood ultimately that everything hard is scary, everything worth fighting for is not easy and that even with fear risks must be taken if the intention is to live the life you dreamed of.

Six months later today, my writing is not the same and I still can’t sculpt. Finally I can do small chores, cook or open my own door. Work wise I have found soothing emotions in watercolor painting and know that it will take the time to be the same, but even if it’s slow, I am grateful for all the teachings. I now know that my value isn’t in my hand but in who I am and the other things I can do. Great things take time.

The thing I am most proud of is not giving up. Though the road is difficult, I am still here. All of my life I was told women couldn’t be artists, that they needed a rich man to survive and that once you had one, you had to choose between your art or a family. That I could never make a living out of it, and that being an artist was not a career. So to keep showing up for myself, believing or obsessing over that expression of my world vision… to be where I am now and have my studio in NY, for my dream, the thing that makes me feel alive and with meaning….that is something I am super proud of and wish for all the artists out there to keep that courage and perseverance always.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Yessss! I like to live a happy, serene life, and though that isn’t the description of living in the city, there are ways to create a desert of silence in my head when I meditate or look for inspiration. I love reading poetry/mythology/ fables or creation stories as they inspire me a lot, my father taught me to read by reading Greek myths and studying the stars. I find that collaging is an immediate way of putting colors/ ideas on paper for those who are visual. books, well I’m a bookworm so it’s hard to cite them all but here are some of my fav:

• Anything by art critic Jerry Saltz, gorgeous art history book by Katy Hessel called The story of Art without Men, Gaston Bachelard, Poetics of space. Austin Kleon Steal like an artist is a great little pocket book filled with knowledge. The artists’ way, Krishnamurti on Freedom, Susan Sontag on Photography. Just kids by patti smith & ways of seeing by John Berger

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fernanda___uribe/?hl=en

Image Credits
Ward Roberts & Evan Rummel