We recently had the chance to connect with Ydaly Mer and have shared our conversation below.
Good morning Ydaly, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
I definitely value strategic intelligence over everything else. Intelligence allows you to analyze a situation and figure out a system that allows you to create an efficient process. Energy and integrity are definitely very important but intelligence is the tool that allows you to navigate all three. You can plan, anticipate outcomes, plan enough rest or breaks and also how integrity gets applied in any situation.
It’s basically the skill to solving the puzzle of life instead of reacting to it, with intelligence you can equally balance everything in life out.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Absolutely, I’m Ydaly Mer, a visual artist and illustrator as well as now a community builder, muralist and advocate. I was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico, raised in the Dominican Republic of Dominican descent and I came to the United States in 2012. Being an immigrant and from the carribean shaped so much of who I am, it taught me independence, resilience, and how to navigate spaces where I had to figure things out on my own. I’m a self-taught artist, and for a long time, I was just experimenting, learning, and trying to find my voice but most importantly myself. Over the past few years, my practice really started to take shape, and I’ve been able to build momentum and a presence in the contemporary art world on my own terms and it has been a path that has tremendously shaped the woman I am becoming today.
This past year has been a major turning point for me. I’m working full-time as an artist, selling my work to galleries, participating in major events like Art Basel, and connecting with established collectors who are helping me build my legacy.
At the same time, I’ve been doubling down on community engagement, working with colleges and univerties such as Swathmore and Drexel, including youth, emerging artists, and other programs through workshops, murals, and collaborative projects. I want my work and knowledge to continue reach people directly, but I also want to continue to give back, teach and create spaces where other artists and our communities can grow, share, and finally be and feel seen.
My work itself is contemporary and personal. You’ll see my culture in the colors, the energy, and the sensibility of what I create but it’s not literal. I’m not creating historical or traditional representations, we have enough of that. To me It’s about emotion, memory, ancestry, and presence, that expressed in a way that feels alive and relevant today because our history is who we are today.
I want my art and everything that I do within my artistry to connect with people on multiple levels, wether that is visually, emotionally, and conceptually while carrying a part of who I am, where I come from, and the journey I’ve taken as an artist.
Right now, something really special I’m working on I would say is my participation at Miami’s convention center for Art Basel. This is an incredible opportunity for me to present my work to a wider audience next to established names in the art world. This moment is a culmination of everything I’ve been developing over the past few years and overall a representation of my growth as an artist from the very moment I picked up a brush. Having my own wall at an event like this was a dream, so It feels like a full circle moment.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
As a child, I believed that many of the things I wanted weren’t actually attainable especially living outside of the USA. Growing up in poverty, seeing my grandmother and parents work tirelessly just to get by, it felt like life was predetermined for people like us. Especially once I left college and moved to New York, being limited to the roles I was able to receive when applying to jobs, the loop of paying rent and just consantly wanting better for myself, TRYING to do better but simply not getting ahead because there are always things showing up.
I remember having so many conversations with friends about feeling like our paths were set. Even as a woman almost like being a housewife or just surviving had a role based on your etchnity and background. I never really allowed myself to fully imagine the life I wanted, the luxury or freedom I craved, because it felt out of reach and for a while it was just an illusion, before I even started to dive into my creativity. I used to doom scroll like “damn I wish I could do that one day” but at the time took little to no action into doing those things I wanted but its simply because I believed working, etc. was more important without realizing how easily that can put you on an endless loop.
Over time, life has taken a different turn and has shown me that those things are possible. I’ve learned that I’m capable of achieving what I once thought was impossible and much more. The difference then and now? Mindset, lots of prayer and living in purpose. I wanted to customize clothes and be a designer and here I am creating paintings today. Now, more than ever, I believe in my ability to build the life, career, and legacy I’ve always wanted and that belief drives everything I do as an artist.
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
When I began creating work that came from a truly internal place. Early on, I connected with music in a very personal way and I always have since a child, the way a song can move you because it speaks directly to something inside you that you can’t put into words. My art functions the same way. When I make a piece, it’s almost like a conversation between me and God. I have to dive into the deepest, ugliest, and most vulnerable parts of myself to access that energy, because that’s what allows someone else to feel it too. It’s never just my pain. It becomes something larger.
I’ve learned that my experiences, my struggles, my emotions resonate with other people, whether I realize it or not and that’s where the power is: to take what has hurt me and channel it into something that can reach, move, or even heal someone else. That’s why I push myself to be honest, raw, and unflinching in my work thats also why I hate that people tell me I am too emotional at times, that is partially my gift, to be able to FEEL in order to transmute it into my work.
Art, like music, has a way of bypassing everything else and connecting directly to someone’s soul, artists are the catalyst and that connection is what transforms pain into something alive, something empowering and relatable. That is why you get goosebumps when listening to a voice or you cry while watching a movie it is because it deeply resonates with internal emotions or pain that we deeply carry. I need to use my pain as power in order to touch others, that is the only way I can make it truly impactful.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
I think the biggest lie the art world tells itself is that artists can’t succeed unless they’re validated by a handful of institutions, whether that’s galleries, agents, auction houses, or high-level collectors. There’s a whole system built on gatekeeping. Platforms that are supposed to uplift art often only allow participation through galleries or agencies, which already shuts out independent artists who are doing serious work. “New” agencies are really ran by gatekeepers just launched under new names with newly groomed interns.
Even in the auction world, there’s this idea that being ‘sold’ or ‘listed’ defines your value. But what people don’t see is how often emerging artists are asked for free work because of someone’s status, or pressured into deals that benefit everyone except the artist. The market tends to reward what certain collectors choose to validate, not necessarily what is actually innovative.
I’ve learned that the traditional path isn’t the only path. Artists today are finding success through prints, murals, partnerships, public art projects, community programs, and social media through product launching. All work that actually builds connection and a sustainable audience. You can build a real career by being intentional, consistent, and self-guided. You just have to work much harder, thats the hard truth. Lots of sleepless night but that’s what I’m doing with my practice and with initiatives like Framed Echo: creating spaces for artists who don’t want to wait for the old system to decide when they matter. We matter now, not when they decide that we do.
We’re in a new era where independence can be just as powerful, and sometimes even more sustainable than playing by the old rules.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What do you understand deeply that most people don’t?
What I understand deeply that most people don’t is that the systems around us, in art, in life and in work are not fixed.
Most people see gatekeepers, platforms, and expectations as barriers they have to wait for or accept, but I’ve learned that power is in creating your own path.
You can build your own audience, your own opportunities, and your own legacy without asking for permission. That’s something I see clearly because I’ve done it. Coming from being self-taught, an immigrant, and building my career from the ground up. Most people accept the rules and most times are okay with being told what to do. I understand that the rules can be shaped and indeed sometimes need to be bent and that understanding changes everything.
I don’t wait to be given the knowledge, I go get it because that is what I want and I never looked for validation or confirmation to do so. Most people make excuses or wait for permission, but the truth is really that simple: just do the work, and everything else follow.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ydalymer.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ydalymer/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ydalymer/
Image Credits
@tjddndoesart
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
