Today we’d like to introduce you to Meleny Pichardo.
Meleny, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Last year, I moved to Los Angeles so that I can pursue my career in animation. As a storyboard artist, illustrator, and character designer, this city is the forefront of opportunity for me. Since an early age, my art has been a medium for expressing and escaping the hardships of growing up in a low-income neighborhood of Miami, Florida. I love to depict the strength of will and cleverness it takes to pull yourself out of poverty, as well as the fragility and anxiety that comes with it. I have been painting and designing art pieces for people, participating in art events, and hustling to make money with my art skills since I was a teenager, but never had any formal art education. Finally, I decided it was time to really dedicated myself to my dreams of one day creating my own cartoon show. I sold and gave away almost everything I owned and drove across the country. I’ve been fortunate enough to study under great teachers at the Animation Guild, formalize my understanding of the show running process, and hone my animation chops over this past year.
Has it been a smooth road?
When you grow up poor and Latin, it is hard to ever believe that you will actually get to achieve that American Dream that everyone learns about while in school. You watch your family face so many day to day struggles and have to help in any way to just pay for basic necessities. So how can you even begin to think about the future or lofty plans? Not when you are consumed with just survival. I knew I wanted to pursue my mixed media art, and later my dreams about animating cartoons, but my early years were fraught by just subsisting. Slowly I started to find ways to hustle my art. I participated in more art events, learned how to use social media to market myself, made connections, and eventually I was invited to have my art featured in galleries. I started to realize that I was able to make my art into a career. People were receptive, it could pay the bills, and my story ideas were being taken seriously. That’s when I knew I had to make the leap of faith, and yet again give everything I had for my art to thrive. That’s when I knew I had to move to LA if I was ever really going to have a shot at becoming an animator.
Please tell us more about your art.
Mayomelz is my artist pseudonym. If we become friends maybe I’ll tell you what it means.
I do both freelance mixed media art and animation services; including commission paintings, storyboarding, cleanup, illustration, and comics.
My visual mixed media artwork stems from characters, places, and moments in the stories I develop. My style is soaked in old retro comics, space wonders, and vibrant colors. Each piece and story is brought to life with an amalgamation of acrylic paint, markers, spray paint, inks, watercolor, and gel pens. I work on reclaimed vintage art frames, wood panels, and stretched canvas.
As a physical medium artist, I also love bringing in that texture and depth into my animation, storyboarding, and digital design work. It’s been fun to experiment more and more with digital art and animation tools so that I can incorporate my love for mixed media art.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
LA is one of the most important locations for modern art and film. That goes without saying, and I am sure many people have already made this point a million times better than I can ever detail. It has all of the opportunities for education and career advancement that you can imagine. However, the industry still has a lot of maturing to do and lessons to learn about inclusivity; both in their hiring and storytelling. I was lucky enough to come to LA at a time when there has been a lot of positive strides to diversify the groups within a network. I think there have been a lot of recent gains and changes with networks trying to include more women, trans, and people of varying backgrounds into what has traditionally been male-dominated positions. It will be interesting to see how this evolution plays out alongside the rise of competing streaming services.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mayomelz.com/
- Phone: 7863423115
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mayomelz/?hl=en
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/mayomelz/media
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6rxv24OGmdq0cikyQY6AfQ
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