Daily Inspiration: Meet Juan P Soto

Hi Juan P, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Back in Venezuela. My home country, Cinema and animation always intrigued me. From the day I got a VHS that my grandma gave me. I would watch and re-watch “The Sword in the Stone”, “Tarzan” and specially the Behind the Scenes of “Monsters Inc”. Fascinated not only with the film itself but with people behind it. In class, I would grab my math book and draw doodles and create comic strips until not one single math problem fitted in it. One particular day, one of my classmates asked me for the book, he spent the whole morning break looking at it, he loved the sketches. I felt, for the first time what I really wanted in life, that I had to do something like this for the rest of my life. Around fifteen, I started thinking about what to study after High-school. The majority of my friends already decided what to do.

Some of them would be Engineers, doctors, etc. Venezuela at the time had culturally taught (specially middle and high-class generations) that arts was a huge risk and won’t get you to have a stable or wealthy life. Luckily my family had musicians and many artists. So I got huge support specially from my parents. Still, I was indecisive on what to do. Loved film but loved to draw as well. But almost by destiny, I encountered a documentary called “Waking the sleeping beauty” about the struggle and joy of Animators in the so called Renaissance era of Disney. It got me hooked and said to myself, “I want to be an animator”. So, I told my parents and again, fully supporting me I applied for an animation degree in Florida. Now I know more what are my professional goals, what I would like to achieve in the next few years. I came to Los Angeles looking for opportunities while I had my Optical Practical Training (OPT) it gave me great experience and made me decide to finally narrow my field and concentrate on Directing, which now I’m studying at UCLA.

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 been pretty rough, I got to say. Many of my obstacles have been professional and very personal. The hardest years started in 2018. I remember perfectly, two weeks before my graduation date, my brother being a flight student decided to practice a little one morning, the negligence of his teacher decided to give him a chance to flight alone, knowing the weather was not in condition. He passed away after suffering an accident on the plane. That, for me and my family, has been the worst period of our life. I was shocked, traumatized, but my mom changed completely after that day. And me not being in the same country, figuring out how can I help them emotionally and economically has been especially difficult. They had the opportunity to come to my graduation, but my brother was missing, I don’t think, even though we all wanted to be happy that day because of me, really could have a good time knowing that he was not with us anymore. I’ve distanced myself from my family and friends because of being in another country, because of what I want to achieve professionally.

That has been really difficult to get used to, I miss my family all the time, my father has been really sentimental about me being far away from him, he and I are best friends and it really has changed his day to day life as well as mine. Being an immigrant has also been quite a ride, the process of getting a job in the U.S was much more complicated than expected before I decided to come here. After my temporary work permit, I could not find a way to get a work visa, and any other route is incredibly difficult to achieve as an artist (especially at my age, with not much experience). With the pessimistic and insufferable dictatorship in Venezuela, it is very unlikely that I could help my parents which are in great need, if I go back. But, I’m still positive that life would get on my side in that perspective, I don’t move aside the help this country has given me along the way. I firmly believe that the US, especially its citizens, have been more than welcoming and good with me. Although I’ve had very difficult times, the ride that I’ve had in general has been incredible, I’m incredibly lucky to just achieve doing what I love, which is film. I can spend my whole life thanking everybody that has helped me on my path.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m currently specializing as a story artist, but my final goal is to direct and produce films. I’m normally known for my animation experience, I got to be an animator first, but then decided to write my own stories and do storyboards. I’ve also taught animation back in my country too and do photographs from time to time. My recent work is what I’m most proud of right now. It is a children’s book, which is written and illustrated by me and is in the distribution phase right now. It will probably be out soon later this year. I think my combination of being super energic all the time and have these really strange but fun ideas to create makes me stand out sometimes. I can be drawing and avoiding people on purpose, as well as I can wake up one day and create a thousand things with everybody I know.

How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Well, if I get really passionate about a particular work from somebody, I’ll be likely drawn to ask them if I can participate in it. I really enjoy working with others, so if someone wants to be in my projects and we get along well, I would love for that person to participate in the project! They can contact me through my social media or E-mail at any time.

Contact Info:

• Email: johnpetersabr@gmail.com
• Website: https://jpsaart.wixsite.com/mysite
• Instagram: @juanpsotoa and @jpsaart
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanpsotoabr

Image Credits
Guilherme Lessa, IG: @lifeofguigo