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

Madi, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I downloaded the app “Bazaart” in December of 2020 through the app store on my iPhone. For those of you that are unfamiliar, Bazaart is a very basic photoshopping app with features you may find on Photoshop. Each time I explored Bazaart, I let my intuition guide me, I listened to my heart and remembered my conscious ideas I briefly constructed. I also never forced my learning or creativity, so I never felt obligated or stressed when creating. Knowing what I know now, there is nothing I would change or have done differently to speed up my learning process. Creativity can never be rushed or forced, learning more about yourself and experimenting through various styles are ways we can find our own way. I remind myself that everything happens when it is meant to happen for my journey, my success and expansion will happen at the best time for me. I have not had many obstacles standing in my way with learning creativity. One obstacle is finances with purchasing subscriptions or having the time to really dive into Adobe applications. Working at a school consumes my daytime. When I am able to freelance independently, I will have the time to teach myself everything my heart desires. The most essential skill for me is lack of judgement. Being able to freely create without your own judgement allows your skills to grow. You are more willing to experiment using different colors and styles.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Madi ARTeaga, I am a self-taught Digital Artist, a Special Education Elementary Teacher, and Master’s student graduating in Fall 2023. I created Sunset Freeway as my creative outlet to connect with other international artists. The momentum I have gained through Sunset picked up when I moved from St. Louis, Missouri to California during the pandemic. Starting your own business takes risk, courage, and most importantly belief in yourself and the pursuit of your dreams. Sunset Freeway offers commission work for clients, sells prints on Etsy, showcases art galleries, and creates animations for Instagram. I essentially bring your creative visions to life for your business, album artwork, clothing line, or home decor. Each project has taught me more about myself and the direction I want Sunset Freeway to go. In December 2021, I also started an online art community on Instagram, which connects digital artists living internationally. Success feels most rewarding when it is shared with others, as a community we collaborate on artwork and share each other’s muse. The inspiration from my artwork comes from sharing divine feminine energy with spirituality and gratitude. The pin-up women are displayed as empowering, mindful figures in each artwork piece. Please check out Sunset Freeway on Instagram and Etsy!

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

One story highlighting my resilience is definitely moving from St. Louis, Missouri to California to pursue my dream of creating and selling artwork and to help an ill family member in Orange County. I felt called to move to California to tell my own story and share my creative talents with the world. I was told several times to not pursue my creativity and focus on what I went to school for. Additionally, that I would never make enough money to support myself. Not doing my best in life is a disrespect to myself, so I took this as a challenge. I decided to continue school as a Master’s student, a SPED teacher, and continue pursuing my dreams of becoming a full-time freelance artist. While assisting family members and living with my great aunt, I applied for jobs and continued studying. I landed a job as a Behavioral Therapist and moved into another relative’s apartment that unfortunately passed away from cancer and found a roommate. As a student fresh out of college and low on funds, I inherited all of her furniture, and saved everything I made. My family helped me pay to get my car shipped out to California for assisting them during the time they needed it the most. After almost two years of living in Orange County, I was finally able to make my move to Los Angeles to go all in on my art goals and journey. This is only the beginning.

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

My ultimate goal is to own my own gallery and host events containing artwork made my international and local smaller artists. My gallery will be a way to entertain and bring artists together to connect. My gallery will be a way for artists looking to get a foot in the door for the Los Angeles art scene. The gallery will have another room full of Sunset Freeway artwork, journals, clothing available to purchase. The independent artists participating in the galleries will be able to sell their pieces in the other room along with Sunset’s merchandise. I want to give others opportunities that I did not have or wish I knew about when starting my independent journey. Most importantly, I am driven to deliver peace in people’s journey through my digital artwork.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sunsetfreeway.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/sunsetfreeway
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Madison.arteaga10/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madison-arteaga-7872b8208
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/freewaysunset
• Other: etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SunsetFreeway?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=1306188354 VoiceHQ: https://www.voice.com/sunsetfreeway

Image Credits
Sunset Freeway via Instagram.