We were lucky to catch up with Liliam Dominguez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Liliam, thanks for joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

This is a tricky question because creativity is a bottomless well. You can’t use it up. However, I was trained as an artist from the age of 12 but was never instructed how to make a living from making art. I have held different jobs and engaged in various projects and careers. So, in a nutshell, I would have loved to enter the art world with a helpful tool kit to navigate the complex decision-making process of pricing the work.

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

My story is one of determination and drive. I come from a family of bankers and, mostly, numbers people. A path in the arts was not welcomed by my career-driven family, who viewed success as a synonym for quantitative experiences in careers related to science. Nonetheless, my mother always tried to approve of my decisions even though she did not understand them. I also come from a country where arts and sports were well-remunerated if aligned with certain ideals. In Cuba, art education is a career longer than medicine. Its extensive scope is rigorous, and specializing comes after learning the foundation of Art for many years. My passion was always to draw, paint, and print. I specialized in Lithography and worked under prestigious printmakers on the island. When I arrived in the U.S. in 1995, I enrolled at the New World School of the Arts as a Printmaking major. To the surprise of most professors, I was already familiar with most of the processes and, thus, engaged in a very long path toward finishing this degree due to being exposed to the American educational system, which invited students to experience other classes as electives. I thus discovered Oceanography, Geology, and the world of Environmental Science, which lured me into switching majors until I rediscovered Art through the lens of a scientist and quickly switched back to Art to apply this new, eye-opening vision. Since coming to the U.S., I have understood that a career in the Arts was far away from the mythic, dreamlike experience I was trained into. So, my journey as a student lasted a long time, switching paths within the Arts and later shifting toward Education and Arts Administration. Alongside going to school for my B.F.A., I started photographing commercially. This newly-found career opened doors and led me to a Masters in Photography from U.M. I found myself belonging within the academic circle and moved on to pursue a PhD in Education shortly after finishing the M.F.A. All the while I was enrolled in school, I worked in museums, art institutions, schools, and universities. Ultimately, finding common ground working as an art curator has been an uplifting experience that has provided me with an aerial view of artists and the management of opportunities, funding, and spaces.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Art is a natural yet complicated form of human expression. It is a way to cope, celebrate, mourn, rejoice, and make sense of our world, thoughts, and emotions. Every artistic expression is a small contribution toward the embodiment of a concept. These concepts range from universal ideas such as truth, life, death, love, etc., to observations and comments about life itself in real time. I am fortunate to have been an active participant in my own decisions and what seemed to be mistakes at the time. All of my journey has been carefully and intensely lived and documented. I have been and will continue to be an agent of change in my environment to achieve the community and belonging I have experienced so closely.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Being an artist and a creative individual is not an exclusive trait. Everyone can be trained to be innovative or tap into that potential. In my experience, it is a combination of seeing the world in more dimensions, changing viewpoints, and being self-resourceful and resilient. It is definitely a wonderful way to exist in this world.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.liliamdominguez.com
• Instagram: @lilidominguezm
• Linkedin: liliamdominguez