Today we’d like to introduce you to Jose Velasquez.
Jose, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in a small town called Zapata, TX along the US/Mexico border. The nearest city, Laredo is about 50 miles away. The makeup of the town is about 95% Hispanic and generally conservative.
I really wanted to get out and see the world so I knew I had to get into college. I decided to sign up for Architecture school at Texas A&M University to make sure my parents were happy. Besides, I figured Architects draw a bunch so at least I’d still get to do what I loved. On the first day of orientation my advisor asked me what interested me. When I mentioned computers and drawing he pointed me towards a small section within the architecture school that did 3D design called The Visualization Lab.
The Visualization Lab at A&M was really inspiring. I was surrounded by super talented students that were focused on creating beautiful, groundbreaking art. This really pushed me to explore and develop my artistic practice.
After four years, I was accepted as an intern at Pixar. There I got an idea of what it was like to work in industry. I realized that a career in the CG industry would allow me to be creative and push me to work on my own art.
I came back to A&M for grad school and took a summer industry course. This introduced me to one of my first mentors (who I still work with every day). She really guided me and helped me develop my work so that I could eventually get a job at Disney Animation and I’ve been there ever since.
Now that I’ve got a job that pays the bills, it’s really given me the opportunity to explore my own work and I’m really lucky that my day job influences my personal work. I don’t think I would feel satisfied if I wasn’t able to work on my personal art as often as I do so I really appreciate where I am right now in life.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road to where I am has been full of self-doubt and personal growth. The first challenge was being self-aware enough to know that in order to pursue my passion, I had to think of it practically as well as romantically.
I knew I wanted to be an artist from early on, but my parents really instilled the idea that first I needed to be able to have a career. This guided me to move my passion beyond a hobby. It also helped me set long-term goals that kept me focused and got me to get a degree in a related field so that I could develop a career that supports my personal art.
This all comes with its own set of challenges. Time management has been the biggest struggle lately. I’ve had to really strip down a lot of what I do in order to be able to dedicate enough hours for painting and drawing. This has meant changing the way I think of my time and its value. I now use my time it to either work on my art or to strategically recharge so that I can have the energy to create more work.
It involves a lot of sacrifice and focus, but I’m super happy with the amount of work I’m currently putting out. I feel like I’m finding a balance between wanting to create more art and having a sustainable life where I don’t completely exhaust myself.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I am a part-time illustrator focused on lowbrow and typography that sells merchandise and paintings based on my art.
I am proud of my slow growth as a merchant and that (through many experiments) I’ve honed in on a sustainable model for selling my art that I’m implementing in the next coming months.
I think the thing that sets me apart is the combination of my stylistic influences. I think of it as lowbrow cartoons and graffiti mixed with the attitudes found in counterculture all jammed up in a blender and applied to print design.
What were you like growing up?
I grew up drawing a lot as a kid. I hated school so my art really helped keep me out of trouble.
A couple of years before highschool I was able to get online and I was introduced to the world of counterculture. That really influenced my taste. I gravitated towards hacker culture and artists like Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Faile, The Gorillaz, 123 Klan, and directors like Katsuhiro Otomo and Spike Jonze. These are still some of the things I draw on for inspiration today.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weecho_forever/
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