Today we’d like to introduce you to Anthony Medrano.
Anthony, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Growing up art was always more of an escape than a hobby for me. I’d always be in my own world with my Sony Walkman headphones, very fly I know, jamming out and drawing away. As I got older sports, friends, and partying took over my life, leaving my doodles to school work spirals, class desks, and old freight trains in my hometown. It wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I began to look at art as anything more than something friends and family just always told me I was good at. I had just moved to a new school and took an intro to drawing class as an elective. My teacher for this class took a liking to me and my work so much that she let me be her TA for that class and let me work with her AP art students during my study hall. Being in an environment with a bunch of creatives that really loved and dedicated their lives to art was so inspiring and had me wondering why I hadn’t gotten involved sooner…I was excited to get to class for the first times in ages for reasons other than my buddies or some girl I’d have a crush on. The following year, my first year of college I made sure to include at least a couple writing and fine arts courses in my curriculum. It wasn’t long before realizing how much more time, energy, and love was getting poured into all of my fine arts courses as opposed to the rest of my courses. The following year I switched majors to full fine arts….fast forward five years and here I am, still working on becoming a better artist then I was yesterday.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
All of my personal work revolves around a thesis of some sorts. I sometimes wish I didn’t get so deep about things I create because I get shy fully sharing the thought process behind it. I’m very much working on just sharing my best work and not caring about the feedback received. To me, art is exploring the deepest most intimate parts of the heart, body, and mind and then sharing it in some form to the world to make its audience feel “ok” or normal when they are having a moment of “crazy” in their own lives….therapeutic in a sense. That being said a lot of the content I create whether it be tattooing, painting, graphic design, etc. is done in such a way to satisfy the needs/wants of said client. I enjoy this as well because I still try to put my own touch on everything I create and pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone will only make for better craftsmanship.
As an artist, how do you define success and what quality or characteristic do you feel is essential to success as an artist?
For starters, I believe that success is less of a measurement and more of a mindset. As an artist we should always be setting goals for ourselves and working towards those goals…that being said I don’t think not attaining those goals is failure, I think it isn’t until you stop working towards those goals that you actually fail. Persistence, resilience, and passion are the key to success.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
People can see my work on my personal website www.tonydotsalot.com, I’m also working on a passion project with custom work all done by myself at the moment which is www.notyourtypicalmuseum.com……lastly I’m pretty bad about post my art on social media but you can follow me on Instagram @tonydotsalot. Thank you!
Contact Info:
- Address: Www.notyourtypicalmuseum.com
- Website: www.tonydotsalot.com
- Phone: 630.550.7775
- Email: tonydotsalot@gmail.com
- Instagram: Tonydotsalot
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