Meet Cecilia Odalys Mendoza

We were lucky to catch up with Cecilia Odalys Mendoza recently and have shared our conversation below.

Cecilia Odalys, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?

I’ve found this routine of creating many small sketches before diving into a project incredibly important to staying creative. Before I begin a painting, if I don’t have a clear image of what the final piece will be, I’ll create multiple thumbnail sketches to increase my creativity and experiment with compositions. As a multidisciplinary artist who primarily uses oil paint, if I ever hit periods of artist block, I create art in diverse ways. I make collages, watercolor illustrations, or I write out my thoughts into a journal to get my creativity flowing. I’ll have moments when ideas come naturally, but I often create an ‘artificial’ environment where ideas will begin to emerge through intentional art making. When I’m having a hard time creating, I usually try other hobbies I enjoy. I cook a new recipe, crochet a new piece to wear or I’ll visit a museum. Exploring other ways to create work or taking time to step away and enjoy the art around me always helps stir up creativity. Using all of these tools are essential to me for keeping my creativity thriving.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I began painting at the age of 10, inspired by my oldest brother who had picked up painting for a short amount of time. Art is a passion that never went away like other hobbies, I always found myself coming back to my brushes and paint. There is a special kind of excitement and satisfaction that creating a new piece brings, I find myself daydreaming about creating works of art.
My passion for art has pushed me to further my education, leading me to discover new paths for my career as a working artist. Right now, I am pursuing my master’s degree in Intermedia at the University of Texas at Arlington, which has allowed me to explore different traditional mediums in my projects. This incredible opportunity has given the perfect environment for growth in my artistic practice. Professionally, I am focused on becoming an independent artist while also teaching at a collegiate level in the future. My education is helping guide my career by pushing my artistic practice to constantly evolve.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

First, the most important skill to possess as an artist is consistency. Artists are fueled by inspiration and passion, two other incredibly important qualities, but consistency is the foundation that allows an artist to cultivate a successful creative environment. I believed that my inspiration and passion would be everything I needed when I first began pursuing a career in art. I felt that if I could not live without creating then this is all that was needed. It took me a long time to realize that creating work consistently, even if it was ‘bad art’, is the skill that generates the most growth in an artistic practice.
My advice to anyone beginning their journey, or even for anyone well into their practice who finds themselves struggling, is to go into your studio and put something down. Some days I go into my studio kicking and fighting myself to make something, but I had to learn that making no art is worse than creating bad art. Drawing nonsense on a piece of paper taped to the wall or making colorful streaks with watercolor helps create an environment for inspiration to swoop in.

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

I believe that going all in on your strengths is ill-advised. It’s incredibly important to not only be aware of our weaknesses but to build them up. By working on your weaknesses and becoming a well-rounded person, I believe that you can enhance your strengths. Through challenging yourself by working in fields you are unfamiliar with or even uncomfortable in, you will grow in every aspect of life.
There have been times in my life where I have found myself working within a bubble where I made the same things over and over again. I kept thinking to myself that there was something missing from my pieces. As I began pushing the limits of what I was comfortable with, like changing the subjects of my paintings or focusing on different rendering techniques, my work transformed. As I struggled through new techniques, I felt that my works had a new weight to them and as I continued working on my weaknesses, I saw my strengths shine through.

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