Here’s this month’s edition of The Dose with studying cartoonist, Jose Molestina. Enjoy!
Introduction
My name is José Molestina and I am an art student. I’m from Ecuador and I’m 33 years old. This is actually my second career since I got my BBA (Bachelor in Business Administration) back in the year 2000. I’m sad to say that although I’m from a beautiful country, which I love dearly, art is not considered as a career. Of course there are artists who produce stunning pieces of art (mainly paintings in oil or acrylic) but there are not enough, especially if we consider other careers, tendencies, or mediums, such as mine. My story is kind of hectic since I had my epiphany just recently in February 2010. As I said before, I studied business and in the year 2000 I went back home to work in my family business. We had farms and I was making a good name in the industry. The only problem with this is that I didn’t love what I did. I think I hated it but I couldn’t tell myself that, so I
convinced myself that I was happy and that that was my destiny. My future became stagnated and as I grew older I became more miserable each day. Luckily I decided to follow my dreams and be a comic book artist even though everybody thought I went crazy to pursuit a career that wasn’t considered worthy over there. I decided to go to New York to study at the School of Visual Arts.
What are you creatively addicted to? When did you start?
I’m a potential comic book artist (cartoonist) and a frustrated writer. In other words, I’m addicted to drawing and writing. I’ve drawn since I can remember. You can see the proof of this in the newest entry of my blog (I will provide the website later on) in which I uploaded a drawing from when I was a child and also a picture of myself creating a valuable piece that may not exist anymore. Even in high school my Math classes were studio classes for me because I was always drawing my teachers or my classmates. In a way, it was figure modeling. Then again, I never had any instruction on drawing, so what I learned was simply a matter of inventing. The rules were my own and of course, totally wrong. In the case of writing, I have always enjoyed it. I remember when I was a teen boy and wrote love letters to my girlfriends. Some of them thought they were cheesy and
corny, but others (the more intelligent ones) really fell in love with them back then. Ironically, when I graduated from high school and needed to get a college degree, I didn’t even consider art or literature. Like I said before, Ecuador was not a good place to be if you wanted to be an artist. Even teachers told us that an artist is a starving artist. Luckily all changed, a little bit late, but now I’m happier than ever creating. I love to draw human figures, creating characters and plotting comics.
Why do you create?
Well, it is a very broad question. I could give an easy answer on why I DIDN’T create for ten years. What I’m trying to say is that an artist is born an artist; you just have to accept it and not think on banal stuff such as money or a false sense of security. Happiness and perseverance is what makes you succeed in this world. Like sir Ken Robinson once said: “If you are afraid to be wrong, you’ll never have anything original.” I couldn’t agree more! It’s a fact that everybody makes mistakes, but when you make them in the path of your dreams, you learn from them to become a better person. My inspiration comes from within me. I think it is encoded in my DNA. Now more than ever I’m exposed to art everywhere, and that inspires me further. I want to share my thoughts with letters and pictures.
Where can people find your work?
Since I’m a student right now I’m making lots of work but they are mainly homework projects. There is a lot of stuff that I want to create, projects of my own, and I guess I’ll have more time when I get my degree. Still, I not only upload my work on my blog, but I also comment about my experiences in studying art at my age. My blog is www.masterartskill.blogspot.com and my twitter account is @bielero if anyone wants to follow me. The interesting thing about my blog is that I’m counting the hours I spent either drawing or painting. You see, there is this theory that people have to spend 10,000 hours in order to master a skill. It’s not an exact science but I intend to do just that. Now I’ve spent 609 hours so 9391 to go. It’ will take around 10 years, maybe more, but I will be writing and drawing, hopefully.
Name one thing you would like people to know about you.
Just that I’m a dreamer lost in time. It is never too late though so I’ll make the best out of this ride, and hopefully touch a little bit of heaven when I reach my goals.
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