We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sofia Borrero a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sofia, thanks for taking the time to share your lessons with our community today. So, let’s jump right in – one of the most essential skills for unlocking our potential is self-discipline. Where does your self-discipline come from?
I’ve often been asked this question in many ways. For me, discipline is the daily expression of passion. Weather you have a specific goal or just a vague idea of a dream, it is mostly up to us to work our lives around that passion. And if we keep on doing/working/learning, we’ll move forward on that path-less journey. It’s not about doing it all at once in a week, but working on little, tiny, seemingly invaluable things every day. Sometimes you’re sick or tired, so you only manage to draw a doodle on a napkin. But you’re moving forward without noticing. Oh, and there’s also rent. So, better get that passion wrapped up and work on those neglected designs gathering digital dust in your C: drive.
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?
I’m a professional illustrator and tattoo artist, currently based in Lisbon, Portugal. I was born in Bogotá, Colombia and built my career as an artist there. Since I was a child, I’ve been obsessed with everything science, be it animals or rocks or weird meteorological phenomena. That, added to my fascination for art, paved my way to become who I am and the art I make. Through my tattoos and illustrations, I express my love for this wonder that we call living as humans on planet earth.
I recently relocated to Lisbon as part of my personal journey, and I’m thrilled with the possibility of discovering a whole new continent full of wonderful people. So, if you’re close and would like to talk to me about any artistic/scientific projects, I’m all in!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
What has helped me most in my path as an artist are three things that may sound antagonistic but joined together work rather well. You should be optimistic, pessimistic and stoic, all at the same time. Be optimistic so you can dream freely, pessimistic as to be prepared for a very possible failure (we fail all the time), and stoic to be able to gather all the temperance to go out there and try, and to have the wisdom to embrace the outcome.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
The first “big” book I read was Lewis Carrol’s “Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass”, when I was 8. There’s one particular conversation that has stuck with me since then, between the Cheshire cat and Alice.
She asked the cat: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to walk from here?”
He answered: “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to”.
“I don ’t much care where.” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you walk,” said the Cat.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.borrerostudio.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/borrerostudio/
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/borrerostudio
Image Credits
Portrait by Emelly Borges
