Today we’d like to introduce you to Miranda Trujillo.
Miranda, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My story began long before I had even realized it was influential to my work. I was born prematurely. Being born four months early at just one pound and fifteen ounces and undergoing heart surgery really makes a person question their existence. I wasn’t supposed to live and with the slight chance I did survive, it was predicted that there would be extreme complications and I’d be blind, deaf, and possibly unable to walk. Yet, I survived and managed to develop healthily. Now everyday, I question my existence. Is there some deeper meaning as to why my body fought so hard to stay alive? Are their underlying forces guiding the existence of every individual? What is the relationship between me and every other life force? These are trivial questions I think about frequently and often times they influence my work.
I work with several mediums including ceramics, acrylics, oil, watercolors, and charcoal. However, all of my work is centered around the same themes and is reflective of the questions posed. My work is expressive of the human form and aims to relate it to all other organic forces. In doing so, it looks deeper into the interconnectedness of all living things and all the phases of life, including death. Often times, I will incorporate some form of organic material into my pieces to further convey this. I place emphasis on the intuitive and organic nature of my art by allowing the natural process of creating to remain visible, such as the finger indents in my ceramic pieces and the contour lines in my drawings. Leaving these marks is important in showing that these pieces were created by a human and show the transfer of energy from my hands to the surface of the piece. I believe that being able to empathize is one of the most important qualities in a human and it allows us to be aware of the deeper connection between us and everything else, resulting in my work being emotionally charged. During the creative process, new interests arise and lead to the next body of work, allowing my pieces to be just as connect to each other as they are to every other life force.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has not been a smooth road but I feel like that’s just part of the journey. Being an artist and being self-reliant comes with extreme self-doubt, at least in my case. I’ve struggled with thoughts of feeling like my art isn’t good enough and being extremely self-critical, especially in the beginning of this journey. I was a Biology major and chose that major based on the security of a job in the health field. However, I wasn’t happy with it and wasn’t happy with myself, so I changed to an art major and started pursuing that. The change wasn’t easy and it was scary putting faith in my art and myself like that, but now I realize in hindsight it was absolutely the right decision.
The struggle doesn’t go away though. It’s a constant ebb and flow of feeling extremely successful and then feeling doubtful. However, I think I’d feel that in any field so the fact that I get to learn and grow in this one is a blessing. Being an artist is forever going to be a journey and a learning experience and that’s humbling.
Lunefemme – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My business is just me. Right now, it’s something I do while also going to school, but eventually I’d like to delve deeper into it. I make art and sell some of it on my website lunefemme.com. I also attend a bunch of art shows within the LA area and showcase/sell my art there. I make a wide array of art but I’d say at the moment I’m most known for my contour drawings and my ceramic eye dishes. Recently my eye dishes went viral on Twitter so I’ve gained a ton of new supporters and a lot more people have been interested in my art, which I’m beyond grateful for!
I’m most proud of being true to myself and continuing to make the work that I’m connected to, even when it wasn’t doing well and no one was interested in it. Continuing to stay true to myself and exhibiting my thoughts and emotions through my art has allowed me to develop my own style. I think that genuine sense of self and the feelings that I put within my work sets me apart from others. It’s a constant act of self-exploration and working through both positive and negative emotions allows me to place my individuality within every piece I make.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success is very subjective to me. I’ve been working more on having goals for myself and thinking about them as if they’ve already happened. I have goals and accomplishments that I think about in immense detail and then my thoughts and actions follow, allowing me to manifest things that seem far out of reach. I know I’m successful and on the right path when I feel good about what I’m doing. Success and the journey to success is extremely intuitive to me. It’s not about how much money I’m making or how many likes I get, it’s all about how I feel. And that’s how I navigate a lot of things in my life, it’s all very intuitive…
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lunefemme.com
- Email: mirandatrujillo94@gmail.com
- Instagram: @lunefemme
- Twitter: @lunefemme_
Image Credit:
resilient_photography
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