We were lucky to catch up with Yola Gilibert recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Yola thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

If could go back in time I wish I had started my creative career sooner. I have always loved painting since I was a kid. I would paint at school, would take afterschool art classes, like painting and photography. I later became an architect which I loved, specially for the creative aspect of it. I always stayed connected to the right side of my brain. Always looking at the creative and asthetic side of thinks. It was until I had some challenges in my life that I started using art as a way to become centered and grounded. I would say art became my therapy. It was on 2020 with the pandemic when I started becoming more serious about my art, and this is when I became a professional artist. I took an intensive one-year program that elevated my skills, and gave me the tools to market, promote and sell my art. I would not change anything in my experience. Looking back I feel like this was the path I was meant to follow. I am currently working as an architect, and a professional artist. I believe this two careers complement each other in many ways.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am Yolanda Gilibert. I am a Mexican mixed media artist, and I got into the art business after studying a Mastery Program at the Milan Art Institute. I create paintings on mixed media oil, and usually my clients contact me to buy artwork or a commission. People come to me with an idea in their mind, and I drive them through the process, and try to get them think about a special meaning for the painting or the color scheme, theme, size, space, etc. I am mostly proud to meet my client’s expectations with commissions. Sometime they just come to me for a specific artwork that I recently created and posted in my social media. The purpose of my art is to encourage others to go deep into the thoughts and try to take them to imaginary places. My recent inspiration are doors and windows, as a transition to other places/spaces and to wonder what’s the story behind them. I want people to feel passionate about my artwork, and to encourage others to find their passions in life. I believe that love for ourselves and love for what we do is the energy that drives us as human beings, if we love ourselves, we are capable of loving others.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Yes. For me it was a little hard at the beginning. To post about your art can be intimidating specially when you start doing it seriously with the purpose to get exposure. The fact that I started the Mastery Program helped me to force myself to post my artwork to get feedback from my coaches and some other artist colleagues in the program. I began posting all those pieces that were completed with each lesson. Little by little, the program gave me the confidence to post as my skills were improving every day. It got to the point that the process became familiar and was actually fun. It also takes courage to show artwork, as this is the result to become vulnerable. It is like showing a part of you that is very deep and personal. I would recommend to anyone in this field to start little by little and post work that you love. Post about your process, about your studio where you work, and also about yourself as an artist about what you mostly love doing. Posting about your passion and what inspires you to create art is a great way to connect with your audience. You need to build credibility on what you do. This will come natural if you are determined to do it and have some sort of plan of idea to schedule your posting. This can be really fun!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The goal for my creative journey is to connect with myself and my emotions. Staying focused and grounded is a way to meditate, to be in the moment. I believe we all struggle sometimes with challenges, so art becomes a very important part in the healing process. When painting I feel a love for myself, and my mission is to be able to connect with people through those emotions, and inspire them to love themselves. My goal is to help people stay in the moment by focusing in the creative process and the final result.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.yolagilibert.com
• Instagram: yolagilibert_art
• Facebook: Yola Gilibert Art