Conversations with the Inspiring Crystal Dominguez

Today we’d like to introduce you to Crystal Dominguez.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Crystal. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’m an artist, designer, and educator but most importantly, I’m a mother. My passion for helping others and creating art have merged to create Crystal Domi, a brand that is dedicated to empowering and enlightening women so they can live their best life and be the moms our world’s needs. My art and designs are inspired by my gratitude for my womanhood, motherhood and my Mexican-American heritage.

I started out designing for the crafting industry after I had my second child. I fall in love with paper crafting especially scrapbooking because it provided me the opportunity to document my family memories and be creative at the same time. I became co-owner of a paper crafting company called Sabor Papel. We designed the first Spanish scrapbook paper int he industry. My culture and heritage are important to me and having a way to preserve my memories in a way that helps reflect where I come from was what motivated us to create Sabor Papel.

I took my passion for crafting and my culture with me after leaving Sabor to pursue designing on my own as Crystal Domi. I launched Crystal Domi at the beginning of 2017 and knew that my Latinx community needed more representation in mainstream American culture especially with what the political climate was at the time. I focused heavily on creating designs and art that showcased some of my favorite foods not well known to most outside of my Latinx community. Much to my delight, my ‘I Heart Pan Dulce’ collection was a huge success and helped start the Concha Craze happening in the Latinx community in LA. Soon, I was having many POC owned business hiring me for graphic design work.

My journey as Crystal Domi has been amazing, to say the least! Thankfully, I began building a solid reputation and work was pouring into my inbox. I love working and collaborating with other WOC to produce meaning art and designs. I’m grateful for the steady flow of design clients because that income allows me to also create art that’s for myself and my followers.

I’m currently working on a series of paintings called, Golden Goddesses, that depicts women’s bodies as golden goddesses and highlights our “so-called” imperfections. My hope is to show these women bodies as masterpieces. I’m focusing on body positivity and the love/hate relationship we have with our own bodies.
In addition to creating and owning, Crystal Domi, I am also co-owner of Canna Create.

Canna Create is a brand that provides craft and self-love events that are infused with cannabis. We host monthly craft seshes and also provide private events for special occasions like birthday parties. Launching Canna Create was another dream come true for me. Like I said, I enjoy creating with other women and combining crafts with cannabis is amazing. We are dedicated to helping women live creative, authentic lives through the healing powers of crafting and cannabis.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
In my experience, growth is hardly taking a smooth straight route. I’ve had a few setbacks over the years but mostly I have found it has been my own self-doubt and self-sabotage that’s held me back most. My best advice for other creators and business owners is to dedicate time to healing and loving yourself as much as needed. Success starts with self-love and self-acceptance. Be very clear about why you are doing what you do and the only way to know is by knowing yourself. Be honest and authentic with who you are and what inspires you. When you see yourself honestly and love yourself, things will fall into the right place and you will achieve your goals.

What should we know about Crystal Domi? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My work is very much driven by my passion to enlighten others around me. I’m inspired by my own journey of self-love, my Mexican heritage and the power of our intuition. I create illustrations and paintings that reflect the beauty of womanhood and shed light on social issues like body positivity, feminist, and discrimination. Aside from creating illustrations and painting, I also design graphics and surface designs for companies dear to my heart like WOC owned businesses, non-profits, and the crafting industry.

It would be great to hear about any apps, books, podcasts or other resources that you’ve used and would recommend to others.
I couldn’t do what I do without the amazing Adobe Creative Cloud Apps! They make creating and designing so seamless, I can go from my sketchbook to my desktop to production with ease!

I’m also grateful for Instagram! This app has helped me grow my loyal following and makes it easy or me to keep in touch with them.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.crystaldomi.com
• Email: hola@crystaldomi.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crystal_domi/
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/canna_create/

Image Credit:
David Repreza, Karissa Raya

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.