We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Roberta Alvarado. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Roberta below.

Hi Roberta , thanks for joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

Yes, I would love to. I am happy to say that I am celebrating my second year since opening New Bird Studio. Art has always been a staple in my life and opening my studio has finally allowed me to work full time as an artist and designer. I reflect on how much my life has changed and I can say that I am proud of myself. It’s been a journey with twists, turns, and pivots to get here but it’s always been my destination.

I remember when I was maybe 27 and working in a cafe. I would write notes to myself on an order pad and tuck them in my pocket. One note said, “I feel that unhappiness is when you swim against your current.”

Before launching New Bird Studio, I was a medical assistant for Kaiser Permanente for 20 years. It was a difficult and demanding job working in a hospital in surgical specialties. I loved my career. I was proud to say that I helped people every day. I was a single mom of three children and I appreciated the stability that it gave us. Right around 15 years, I started to see things differently. I realized my salary was capped and I felt I deserved more than they were willing to compensate and my happiness was declining. The stress was piling up, I was tired, burnt out, underappreciated, my retirement fund was a joke, and I was in a financial chokehold. I wanted to leave Kaiser. I wanted to live a creative life and be an entrepreneur like my parents. I knew to be happy, I needed to follow my current. I wasn’t doing that and it was taking its toll on my life physically and emotionally.

I started to plan my leave from Kaiser in 2019. I reduced my hours and transferred to Radiology so that I could have more flexibility to work on developing a new business and be able to pick up extra shifts when needed. I still believed creativity would not pay my bills, so I began a business related to healthcare because it was what I had grown to know as a way to make money.

In 2020, I opened a scalp micro pigmentation studio. As always, art and photography were a constant in my life. I used my wall space as a gallery. I would clear a wall to use for photo sessions. I did more photography sessions than SMP clients, and, almost immediately, I closed due to quarantine. Now I was working on the frontline, exhausted, sad, lonely due to quarantine, unprotected, and scared for my life. My hours were reduced. I was tired and tired of hearing myself complain. I told myself it was time to “put up or shut up.” I stepped away from Kaiser to see if a break would help me. It did, it made me realize that I couldn’t go back. The pandemic gave me the nudge I needed. I was surprised to learn that I was really suffering. All the years of fighting my current and all the stresses of working in healthcare piled up and buried me in a depression. Of course, that was in addition to the stressors of the pandemic. I had panic attacks, nightmares, depression; I had PTSD.

I sought therapy and I buried myself in my art. I collaborated with an artist, Tomas Montoya, and we mixed my photography and his poetry and moved what was to be an in-person exhibit into an online experience. The exhibit: “West to East: Travels through Nicaragua” was a live-streamed event and art talk that can be found on my YouTube channel. I started to focus on outdoor photography sessions and taking on more website design work as I waited for the industry to be open for business again. Which we know didn’t happen for a long time. Finally, I gave up my SMP studio. That was the best decision. I could wish I had done it sooner yet I’m not one to dispute my path.

I knew I loved photography and now I was realizing how much I loved building websites. I had gotten to know myself much better during this time. I knew that SMP was not something I loved. I was bringing in money doing what I loved while waiting for an industry I didn’t love to open because I still thought making a good living was doing something that you don’t want to do. I felt, that if I love it, then it’s not work or that I would grow to not like art, design, and photography if I was forced to do it for a living.

It became clear that my art, design, and photography is my obsession and that I was making money from it all along. I just needed to focus my efforts. It is my therapy, my hobby, and my work. I officially launched New Bird Studio on January 22, 2022.

But wait, who am I if I am not helping people every day in their time of need? I had an identity crisis until I realized that I am still helping people every day. It was no longer in their critical time of need, instead, it is to help people reach their goals. I didn’t know what was on the other side of healthcare. What was supposed to be a strategic leap became a sudden plunge. Listen to yourself. Be strategic. Find your current and go with your flow. Sometimes you make leaps and sometimes just a baby step. But every day enjoy swimming with, and not against, your current.

Roberta , 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?

Absolutely! I am Chicana. I was born in Pico Rivera and largely grew up in Sacramento, California. I would spend summers in LA working in my grandma’s Mexican restaurant and running around with my cousins. My dad and all of his side of the family are upholsterers and ran their own businesses too. They are all artists. They sew, macrame, work with leather, build furniture, paint, knit, and so on. But they never called themselves artists. I even remember my dad taking a photography class and coming home with darkroom prints. I was intrigued and that planted a seed.

We also took road trips. I remember driving through Arizona and stopping along the way through the deserts. I was a pretty deep thinker at a young age and pondered similarities and differences in people, places, cultures, and life, at 4 years old. The influence of this clearly shows up in my work.

I would best describe myself as a teen as hippie, punk rock, chola and much of that still survives within me. I was lucky to be surrounded by artists. I just recently started talking about my past. I was independent at a young age. By 14 years old I was going to punk gigs and on weekends I stayed at friends, and an art commune, The Stucco Factory. There were 3 generations of artists there. I was among the youngest. The art was very freeing, poetic, avant-garde, abstract, punk, large, industrial, and performance.

I was taking photography classes in high school and my photography teacher recognized my spirit and talent and gave me free rein in the darkroom. I would also assist him on weekend shoots, even weddings. I got my first job working for Deborah Goldstein Photography & Design. That’s right, I made a full circle. I would assist her, go on assignments, work in the darkroom, design logos, and work on local publications. My boss would knock on the door of the darkroom to make me take a lunch or a break or leave and go home! I also now know that that is called hyperfocus and I am indeed ADHD.

Fast forward to now, and New Bird Studio is photography and design. I strongly feel my life as an exhibiting artist gives me a different perspective and approach. I get to know about the person behind the business. What are their values, and what are some of their life passions? How does their business align? Every business also has an intriguing story and values to share. Some are written and some can be told visually. There needs to be an emotional component to imprint a memory.

An example of this is a client who roasts and sells single-origin, sustainably sourced coffee from a farmer cooperative in Chiapas, Mexico. He loves coffee and early morning walks along the river to be with nature and the trees. We met up at dawn one morning at one of his favorite walks. He brought coffee beans, and a moka pot. I brought coffee mugs and my camera. We took photos of the sun, water, trees, the beans, and freshly brewed hot coffee on a chilly morning. The results were the early morning sunrays piercing through the trees on a chilly morning with steam rising from a hot cup of coffee, and from the river as the sun provided that warmth. We took photos of him enjoying this morning ritual when he is his most authentic self. He loves his site and he loves to share it. Of course, it’s also a high-functioning site that funnels his workflow, and organizes his contacts, team, and schedule. We created his branding kit, and updated his logo. We integrated secure payment options, keywords, SEO, and the works!

I also work with other artists to create their online presence, portfolio, and e-commerce. I can go through their work from an artist’s perspective and I feel that is very valuable. I’m having a blast with this current project. I’m working on a website for a photographer who covered the punk rock scene, classic rock, and heavy metal. It’s extensive! Since this is all film photography we used his old contact sheets for his landing page with wax pencil circles. The font, colors, and style all say punk rock and it’s authentic because even though I didn’t know him then, I was at a lot of these shows!

As much as I love design, art is where I am most passionate.

I would say I am most proud of my exhibit work when I get to include art installations. A few recent highlights would be an exhibit at The California Museum for “Día De Los Muertos 2021: Espíritus Creativos De California”. I was given a 28 ft wall to hang 7- 3’x4’ images from my travels through Yucatan, Mexico leading up to Hanal Pixan (the Mayan version of Dia de Los Muertos) and an 18 ft case to build an altar. I chose to replicate the cemeteries I visited during my backpacking photography journeys through the Yucatan to document Mayan burial rituals while connecting with my ancestry. The next year I had a solo exhibit at The Consulate General of Mexico, Sacramento. I expanded upon that body of work with the full gallery space.

I just finished a solo exhibit at The Brickhouse Art Gallery as a commission with the City of Sacramento as an art ambassador for the Del Rio Trail. Inspired by community, this exhibit celebrates the commonalities among Indigenous people from different regions around the world that now call Sacramento home. Sacramento is one of the most diverse cities in the nation. I featured 6 individuals as they practiced a ritual connecting to nature that they value preserving and passing on to the next generation. When walking this new trail to be, I’m hoping people will remember the mindfulness of Indigenous ways and how similar each of our Indigenous rituals are which is evident when the images sit side by side. Being that the trail goes along old railroad tracks, I created mixed media installations using pieces found along the trail.

I would like these to be traveling exhibits and they are ongoing series. Inquiries are welcomed!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

There are so many answers I can come up with for this. Maybe the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is that your job is to stay in tune with your authentic self and express that. That means walking this life aware of your surroundings and acknowledging how what you take in makes you feel. The way I create art is by being aware of my physical reactions to things. Being an artist makes you sensitive. This hyper-awareness of self and your surroundings are a part of who you are and they are necessary to hold on to.

Being an artist is also being aware of community and being the voice of the people. Being storytellers gives us this skillset that the world needs. There is a fun, expressive side and a serious side to art and both live within us and there is obligation.

Photographs are one of the few items in this world that grow more and more valuable with time. They do not lose value, ever. They link us to our past. Photography is critical. It tells our story with evidence. I enjoy it and I embrace the responsibility that comes with it.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

This year in place of making New Year resolutions, I decided to evaluate my values and realign with them. My mission is to contribute to documenting history from my perspective as a Brown woman. I believe we all have a story to tell and I want to help people tell theirs. My goal is to be unifying. I used to be embarrassed to say this for some reason, but in light of all of the violence that keeps happening in our world, I am not anymore, my goal is to do my part for world peace. I believe if we all use our skillset to move in the direction of world peace we will make a significant cultural impact. I feel the majority of people in the world are ready to seek more peaceful solutions.

I strongly connected with my last exhibit which celebrated cultures. I am continuing that journey focusing on our commonalities and their place in enriching our communities. I can do that through my art and my business.

An example of this is one of our clients that is from Ethiopia and their cafe serves traditional coffee ceremony. I photographed this and told a visual story educating people who are not familiar with this tradition in all of its meaning and beauty. I also highlighted cooking techniques and common ingredients.

Over the last few years, I have been writing a sci-fi drama. It intertwines my experience working on the frontline during covid, neurology, and humanity, with the underlying message for peace. In other words, I get to release all of the creativity that I held back on for so long and I finally feel rich. I would encourage others to delve into their authentic self embrace their voice and uniqueness and work toward a career that allows them to build upon that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.newbirdstudio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newbirdstudio/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RobertaAlvaradoPhotography
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/roberta-alvarado-0b3653ba
• Youtube: @newbirdstudio1074

Image Credits
Roberta Alvarado