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The prestigious internship with a major animation company took me to sunny L.A. I soon fell in love with the city and found the internship a great experience. Working for this animation firm opened my eyes to the numerous job possibilities a cartoon artist could pursue. A year later I graduated from the School of Visual Arts and got a call from the animation company. My old internship boss offered me a job as a digital ink and paint artist, what a lucky break! Like a "True Hollywood Story", I immediately quit my job, packed everything I owned and moved out to California! Within 2 days I was back in my old office, sitting in front of my old boss only to learn that the position never existed. “Welcome to L.A.” I muttered as I walked out of his office - stranded and jobless - what a Hollywood irony! My confidence was smashed and my desire to create disappeared. I spent hours looking at blank pieces of paper. Why exactly was I in L.A.? Two college degrees and working for $6 an hour in the local video store in L.A. did not add up. I needed a plan B quick! I fired up my engines and my dogged persistence paid off. Within three months I landed a job at Walt Disney Feature Animation. Finally the job I deserved - and my creative energy returned. Hard days work were followed by very long nights of designs that I posted to herediadesigns.com. I took a stab at everything, realism, pop art, and even pin up gals - but nothing I did really represented me well - the Dominican kid from NYC. I couldnt define my individuality as an artist. I felt like I was trying too hard to fit in. I needed to find my niche. Art reflects life it seems as I tried to discover myself as a Latino artist living in L.A. The biggest obstacle was ignorance. Nobody here had heard of the Dominican Republic. Why did I always have to explain the differences between Dominicans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans? Did anyone understand that each country has it’s own island, richness and diversity? In L.A. I had to constantly explain my rich Dominican heritage so much, I became an extreme Dominican Patriot. I had Dominican bumper stickers, Merengue blasting out of my car, Dominican flags pinned up in my office at work, joined Dominican social clubs, started a Dominican community blog http://www.drnla.com so that I could build a Dominican online community. My world did a 360, overnight it seemed as I welcomed ignorance and the chance to explain my heritage. My Dominican pride infected my art and along came “Dominicano”, “Dominican Island”, and “Dios, Patria, Libertad” T-shirts. I posted these on herediadesigns.com and BANG all of a sudden the website blew up! Thousands of hits a week and multiple sales nationwide! My Dominican products flew out of my studio. The Caribbean themed spring line of shirts flew off of the shelves on Melrose Ave. Los Angeles. It appeared that in pursuit of my heritage I had inadvertently branded my website and burgeoning product company as a hip, urban, Latin design company. This was great, but I needed to create a platform that would educate people about the entire Caribbean and it's diverse music and history. At first, the collection of artwork was entitled "Colores del Caribe." (Colors of the Caribbean) With so much diversity in the world, I thought on a broader scale and changed the name to "Colores de Nuestra Cultura." (The colors of our culture) This is where the series began to take off as people from several countries responded immediately to Series one of four. They say that “ignorance is bliss”, and my career in L.A. has proved it. I am grateful for the ignorance of the Caribbean culture in L.A. because it gave birth to Colores de Nuestra Cultura. Published (7-21-2006) |
