We recently connected with Wendy González and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Wendy, thanks for joining us today. 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 wouldn’t speed up the learning process, because it is a process that needs to be learned. Learning the craft has been an adventure, from child to present, drawing has been a skill that I’ve always enjoyed growing up. I did not learn how to draw properly until college, but before that, I would re-draw cartoons I enjoyed watching, I repeatedly kept drawing the same character until I was able to draw without reference. I studied the characters’ anatomy so that I can draw my own characters, like a pro. I never thought about making this into a career since after high school. But from there to now, learning any craft always takes patience, practice and love for it.

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

My name is Wendy, I also go by the name of Gwendolina, and I love being an artist because I enjoy expressing myself through it. At first as a child, I wanted to act, imagination was everything to me, getting myself out into a world of my own imagination was super fun. But drawing was something that always stayed in my life. I kept drawing all the way through high school, and luckily my high school offered animation. Took that for three years and that led me to wanting to study cartoons. At first, I did not know what school to attend and where to go, so the first school I attended was to study Visual Communications where I learned the fundamentals of art, attended there for about 3 1/2 years and then transferred to study Media Arts and Animation. After graduating I was excited to start my life as an artist.

I was lucky at first to have a job after graduating, animating commercial ads and color backgrounds, until I was let go and since then my luck changed as I was not able to grasp another solid job in the animation industry. I got disillusioned because I felt I was not able to practice my skills and learn new things to help myself grow. So, I had to turn to different alternatives for income and inspiration. The inspiration died for a little while until the year 2015 when I had a strong urge to get back into drawing. To ignore all the negative beliefs, I gained throughout my years and just drew for myself. Ignoring judgment, ignoring my own criticism and perfection and start using my skills with what I learned in school and just draw. Drawing every night for almost a year led me to attend art-walks. Nervous and scared at first but art-walks opened an opportunity to express and show my artwork to the open public.

After a while, being able to see people connect with my work has been inspiring to keep creating more art for people to get lost for a little while into a different world that only exists in the imagination. I never thought about having a career as an artist, but it has taken me into a world of endless creativity. My inspiration comes from nature, music, color, movies, people and anything that excites me which then motivates me. For example, I was attending an art-walk as a vendor, and I always tend to take my sketchbook with me to practice anatomy and gesture on people. A lady with a nice pair of beautiful fashion sunglasses passed by my table and quickly inspired me. Something so simple led me to draw one of my favorite drawings of a character with the same sunglasses and I called it “Fashion Mermaid.” Another example was a hummingbird that flew and stood right in front of me, and looked like it danced and then quickly flew away. That experience inspired me to draw my own hummingbird as it was dancing. Other inspirations come from drawing challenges like “Inktober & MerMay,” which are themed topics for each day of a month. When I create, I try to have a story in my work. Taking my audience away for a moment from reality is one of my goals when I do commissions, projects or when having an idea.

I practice digital art as well, but not as much as drawing on paper. Drawing on paper and getting my hands dirty with color pencils, charcoal, pens, oil pastels or any other media I can combine contains a rawness to the artwork, and that is what I love to keep alive. Most of all, keeping the tradition alive is challenging of course because a lot of people enjoy digital art, 3D art, AI’s or NFT’s while everything traditional is being forgotten, but there is nothing like having and seeing the work raw, like painting.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Work with the Heart. Opening and connecting with your heart can open a whole new world of compassion and motivation. I heard this from another artist I follow, Rha Azul. When I first read his quote, things clicked, because I never thought of applying that action to my work when I create, since I tend to think first before paying attention to my heart. You tend to add an extra ingredient to your work once you let your heart take over.

Not everyone will like or love your work or be able to connect with it, and that is ok, if you love what you are doing, if it makes you happy, or excited, then that is all that matters because it is you who is creating. What you do is valid, and the people who do connect with your work, you are able to see in a different perspective the beauty it is to see people laugh, get excited or get inspired with your art.

If you come across an art block, stop and take a break from whatever you are doing. Don’t rush things, as the old man in Toy Story 2 says, “You can’t rush Art,” and to me that is true. With a bit of patience and practice, you can create and do anything. As you take a break, do other things that you enjoy doing, and whenever you feel ready go back to the project, see it in a fresh new perspective. Never give yourself a hard time with your work, nor give-up, we’re not perfect and everyone is creative in their own way, we just need to tap into the Heart.

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

Be open minded. I understand that art is not for everyone, just like onions are not for everyone. People may think that art is easy in which it is not, it takes as much energy as any other job or career. Stealing people’s work or judging it as if art takes no effort to create is unfair. It is a creative expression and people being closed minded shouldn’t let their ego take over and think they have the right to steal because they can or judge because they do not understand. Just understanding that it is a creative expression, a voice that has value.

“Support the artist by following, tagging them or hash tagging them with images of the artist’s work that you’ve purchased on your social media accounts. That way word gets around and you help by putting their name and work out there for everyone else to see. Artist’s get by with your help and support.” – Quote from a female artist.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.gwendolinaart.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gw3ndolina/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-gonzalez-0a6a87239/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzpaObME55ZBM7FNIEizCDw