Meet Mauro Murillo

We were lucky to catch up with Mauro Murillo recently and have shared our conversation below.

Mauro, 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 keep creating paintings even if they don’t turn out to be the greatest because I make them in order to get to the best ones. There is always something to do every day, and if I am not painting, I am researching, writing or practicing the guitar. When I play my guitar I come up with ideas just by running the scales and it is the same when I am sketching or painting, I allow my creativity to flow.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

Part of my childhood I lived in Mexico until we moved to San Antonio when I was eight years old. I was undocumented in the US until I could apply for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), a program that allowed the opportunity to pursue a better future for myself. After graduating with an AAS in Communication Design I then focused on making my career as an artist.

Since then, I have been creating paintings in the styles of fauvism, expressionism, realism and abstract. At the beginning of my career I was painting iconic figures of the Mexican Revolution and the Golden Age of Cinema. Lately, I have been focusing on creating more abstract paintings while composing my own experimental music. One of my goals for the near future is to have an exhibition where my music and visual art can complement each other.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Staying focused and confident has helped me overcome the obstacles I encounter throughout my career. I think it’s important for an artist to envision the future and imagine where they would like to be. Critical thinking is another valuable skill that has been impactful in my career, I am constantly resolving tasks while creating opportunities to showcase my artwork. Managing money is also important, when I sell a painting I invest the money in useful tools for work rather than spending on useless things, and save as much as I can to travel and visit other places. My advice is to believe in yourself, because that is the key to developing strong qualities that can create opportunities throughout your artistic journey.

Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?

Just growing as an artist in general for the last 12 months has been important to me. My work has been selected to be exhibited by art organizations in San Antonio and I’ve traveled outside the state to exhibit my work in other cities. Also, I have visited new art museums, met new friends, created artwork with new approaches, and did plenty of writing. I am very thankful for all these experiences because they have helped me grow as an artist as well as enriching my career.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: @mauromurillo_art