Art & Life with Wendy Rodriguez

Today we’d like to introduce you to Wendy Rodriguez.

Wendy, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley. I am a child of immigrants, raised with the pressures of “making it” and “becoming someone.” I have dealt with depression for the last few years (and I am happy to report I am doing significantly better than in the past) and often have themes of mental illness in my work. I went to school at UC San Diego where I pursued visual arts. In my time there, I came to discover a part of myself that was aggressively vulnerable, and appropriately brave. By that, I mean that I consistently found myself alone with my honesty in my relationship with myself and in my relationships with those around me. In facing this honesty; I breathed it in and spit it right back out in the work that I made, which is completely vulnerable and honest work, and work that I proudly share, despite it being so private and personal.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I work across multiple creative mediums, including animation, acrylic paintings, comics, watercolor, embroidery, and more recently, zinemaking. I enjoy making work that can tell a piece of my story. I think it is a great thing that someone will see something I made and can know something personal about me. For whatever reason, it doesn’t feel like a big deal to me.

A lot of what I make centers around my experience with love and friendship, both things which can come with an extreme amount of pain. I hope when people come across my work, it is something that they can relate with and that it encourages them to be honest with their feelings with others and themselves.

A comedic way that I describe my art is “work that exclusively comes for all the people who have hurt me.” All jokes aside, my art comes from a place of pain, love, and severe honesty.

How do you think about success, as an artist, and what do quality do you feel is most helpful?
As an artist, above all, I value honesty. I know this is something I’ve talked about a lot, but it is the thing I feel has defined me as an artist, as well as a person. If I can display my work and know that I have put an honest part of myself in each piece of work, then I have succeeded. Honesty is essential to being successful, and in my opinion, the best work comes out of a place of honesty and vulnerability.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
People can see my work on my website, wendyandthevoid.com, which I update regularly. My work can also be seen on my Instagram (wendyandthevoid), and in person at SoCal zinefests.

If anyone wants to support my work, they should follow my Instagram and come out to zinefests!

Contact Info:

• Website: wendyandthevoid.com
• Email: wendyandthevoid@gmail.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/wendyandthevoid
• Twitter: twitter.com/wendyandthevoid
• Other: vimeo.com/wendyandthevoid

Image Credit:
Wendy Rodriguez

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