Today we’d like to introduce you to Manuela Montenegro.
Hi Manuela, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born and raised in Bogota, Colombia. It all started when my mom showed me a picture of Vicent Van Gogh, and that was it for me. I was mesmerized by the colors. I didn’t have the talent for drawing/ sketching, but I had a tremendous creative talent. Therefore I got into coloring books, which was perfect. I didn’t need to draw, but I could color however I wanted, and if I wanted to add to the image, I could.
It was in High School where I first learn what graphic design was. I had a class about it, and that opened my eyes to so many things. So after High School, I took a summer course in Florence, Italy, about Graphic Design. I was into it, but I changed my degree to Fashion Stylist and moved to Milan, Italy. Fashion has always been one of my most immense curiosity in the art world. As a Fashion stylist, I was mixing everything from graphic design to photography. After four years living in Milan, I went back to Bogota, Colombia, where I work as a freelance for a bit. But after two years, I moved to LA to start my degree in photography at New York Academy; I’ve always been looking for different ways to express my creativity. During my time at New York Film Academy, I realized that I like to: create interactive art, do alternative printing, collage art, and manipulate colors. It was just when the pandemic started when I started to look for alternatives ways to show me work and keep me moving during these unknown times. Furthermore, at this time, I went back to one of my old hobbies: puzzling. And that’s when it hit me I could mix everything I like in just one thing: puzzles. And that’s how Flower Power Puzzle came to life. The artwork is all designed by myself. All come from photographs I’ve taken throughout my travels worldwide or taken from a collection of illustrated books that I’ve collected throughout the years. Flower Power comes from a belief that flowers have the power to make people happy and give good energy to places, so I like to think of my artworks as flowers. The logo is a flamingo to represent life changes and that we are what we feed our body and mind.
Flower Power Puzzle is a place where you can get a unique eco-friendly puzzle. Our slogan is “More Than A Puzzle: A Piece Of Art.” We offer two kinds of puzzle experiences, one in our eco-friendly ESAKA board and the other in our wood puzzle made in Colombia. Depending on your expertise level, you can choose the puzzle with the number of pieces you prefer. We offer 1000, 500, 285, and only 610 pieces for the wood puzzle experience.
One of our mission is to be as eco-friendly we can. So we don’t use boxes to put the puzzles; we use organic cotton produce bags to store our puzzles. We operate the ESKA board, which is 100% recovered paper to form chipboard and send our puzzles in a compostable mailer bag.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been a smooth road for sure, but life is not supposed to be all smooth. Well, one of my biggest struggles is that I’m a shy person. Therefore interacting with people is very hard for me, and because of that, public speaking is one of please no moments. Learning how to manage a business has been an experience for me for sure. I’m more of a creative part, but starting my small business has taught me a lot and has to help me to over overcome my shyness.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a photographer and fashion stylist mainly. I specialize in portrait and fashion and fine art photography. I like to approach my work as an experiment where I’m asking the audience and myself questions. I get inspired by everything around me, no matter how simple it can be. I’m known for making very colorful and psychedelic art. I’m very proud of my small Flower Power Puzzle business and the Thesis project I made, which was on X-ray collages and light-boxes that I built. Based on whats gender means and that, in the end, we are all just humans and light.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
I like:
The diversity La has
The number of art galleries and museums La has
I love going to DTLA
The public transportation it offers is a big city so yea it takes forever.
I love the botanical gardens La has
There is always something going on
The Art Deco of DTLA
The diversity on the food
The Flea Markets
I dislike:
It is too big so going to places takes you forever.
The Traffic
Pricing:
- 1000 pieces – $60
- 610 pieces – $50
- 500 pieces – $40
- 285 pieces – $20
- Free Shipping inside the USA
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.flowpopuzzle.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flowerpowerpuzzle23_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Flowpowpuzzle
Image Credits:
Flower Power (Manuela Montenegro)
