Episode #18: Colombian Illustrator Natalia Cardona Puerta

Episode Summary:

In this episode, I speak with Colombian Illustrator Natalia Cardona Puerta. Natalia was born and raised in Colombia but now lives in Portland, Oregon. Her illustrations draw inspiration from her ‘90s upbringing in Bogota. Her favorite cartoon shows and toys, her love of the outdoors, and her ever-changing emotions and feelings inspire the playful nature of her work. Keep on listening to hear us talk all about her childhood in Colombia, why she decided to move to the U.S., and how she developed her style after graduating!

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Episode Links

Listener Survey: Take the survey to help me improve Season 2!

Guest Links: Natalia’s Instagram and Portfolio.

Host Links: Follow Fabiola on Instagram, Youtube, and TikTok

Episode Notes:

Sometimes one decision can completely change the trajectory of your life! That’s what happened to Natalia Cardona Puerta when she decided to follow her dreams of being an illustrator and uproot her life in Colombia.

In this episode, I chat with Colombian illustrator Natalia Cardona Puerta who creates colorful and playful illustrations inspired by her ‘90s upbringing, her love for the outdoors, and her innermost feelings.

Natalia “never in a million years” expected to leave Colombia, but after graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design she took a break and realized she wanted to reconnect with her creative voice. Eventually, her mom encouraged her to pursue a Master’s degree and it all happened very quickly from there. One thing lead to the next and she was on a one-way flight to Georgia to pursue a Master’s degree in Illustration at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Nowadays, Natalia is going through the permanent residency process here in the U.S. to be able to live and work here long term. The legal process has been slow and frustrating. She feels it slowed down her post-grad momentum but she is taking this time to ”plant a lot of seeds” that are sure to blossom in the future.

Tune into this episode to hear Natalia and I talk about growing up in Bogota, why she decided to immigrate to the U.S., and how she developed her illustration style after graduating.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Topics Covered:

1. Living a sheltered life in turbulent Bogota in the early 90s

2. Rejecting a fine art career path for an undergraduate degree in Industrial Design

3. Pursuing a Master’s in Illustration at SCAD after learning about the program a few week prior

4. The difficulties of being an artist in the US pursuing a Permanent Resident Card (greencard)

5. The impacts of not being able to work in the US as an artist

6. The pros and cons of receiving an art school education

7. Her current creative routine after graduating

8. Finding a better work-life balance after graduation

9. Developing her personal illustration style and tailoring her portfolio

10. The feeling of languishing during slow creative seasons

11. Working with an illustration agent for editorial and publishing projects

12. Completing a large-scale mural for a dream client

13. Working with The Washington Post on an editorial illustration

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Episode Transcript (auto-generated):

00;00;10;02 - 00;00;36;26

Fabiola Lara

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of [Draws in Spanish]. This is a podcast that showcases the creative journey of notable Latinx visual artists and designers. I'm your host, Chilean American illustrator Fabiola Lara. Right now, you're listening to episode 18 of Drawers in Spanish. I can't believe I've made 18 episodes of this show. This is actually going to be the last episode of Season One of [Draws in Spanish]

00;00;36;26 - 00;00;59;06

Fabiola Lara

And I wanted to ask you for a little favor. If you've been enjoying the show, please head over to DrawsinSpanish.com to take a listener survey and give me your feedback. I would love to hear from you so I know what to improve on for the next season. I'm taking a little summer break to recharge and work on the show behind the scenes to make Season two even better.

00;00;59;14 - 00;01;18;04

Fabiola Lara

I'll still be sharing my illustration work over on Instagram and focusing on my YouTube channel, so be sure to follow me over there. Just search for @fabiolitadraws or open up the show notes right here on your podcast app for some quick links. Now please take the quick listeners survey to help me make a better Season two for you.

00;01;18;12 - 00;01;43;26

Fabiola Lara

Go to DrawsinSpanish.com/survey that's DrawsinSpanish.com/survey of course I'll leave it linked below. Thank you in advance. OK, so back to today. I have Natalia Cardona Puerta on the show. Natalia is a Colombian illustrator and artist based in Portland, Oregon. Her work draws inspiration from her Colombian upbringing in the nineties.

00;01;44;05 - 00;02;13;07

Fabiola Lara

Her favorite cartoon shows and toys, her love for being outdoors and her ever changing emotions and feelings. Natalia's work translates her connection with nature, whimsical Latina flair and colorful emotions into poetic yet playful imagery of simple, everyday occurrences. Now, keep on listening to hear us talk all about her childhood in Colombia, why she decided to move to the U.S. for a master's program, and how she developed her style after graduating.

00;02;13;16 - 00;02;19;03

Fabiola Lara

Let's get into the final episode of season one. You guys. Let's go, let's go.

00;02;23;19 - 00;02;37;02

Fabiola Lara

Hello, Natalia. Welcome to [Draws in Spanish]. I'm so excited to be finally recording here with you. I know we both had really busy schedules leading up to this point. How are you doing today? How are you feeling ahead of this little interview?

00;02;37;06 - 00;02;54;05

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Hi Fab. Thank you so much for having me on your podcast. I've been such a huge fan of your work and thanks for having me here and doing well today. It's been kind of cloudy here in Portland, but I've been just painting away in my studio, having fun and excited for the weekend.

00;02;54;16 - 00;03;16;08

Fabiola Lara

Definitely, because we're recording on a Friday and feel like I'm very excited to just like enjoy the new weather. Yes, because we're both in in a weather chain and spring. OK, so I know you've listened to a few other episodes before, so I'm sure this is not a shocking question at all. Can you give the listeners a little introduction about you?

00;03;16;16 - 00;03;22;06

Fabiola Lara

Who are you? Who is Natalia Corona? Upwards so that they know what they're about to listen to?

00;03;22;14 - 00;03;54;07

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Yeah, so I am Natalia. I'm an illustrator and designer. I was born in Colombia and I immigrated to the States in 2000 616. I mainly do anything that can be applied to illustration and design, like I guess I consider myself more of a maker at the moment. I love just putting my R in any surface and any product that I can think of, and that has been like really fun lately, especially with projects such as like murals, cutouts with wood.

00;03;54;20 - 00;04;05;27

Natalia Cardona Puerta

And I will say that my work is like very whimsical and sort of children oriented, but for all audiences mostly, I guess I'm like catering to an inner child.

00;04;06;06 - 00;04;24;20

Fabiola Lara

I guess I love that I'm so glad you said that, because that's how I was like researching your work and putting together information about you and stuff. And that's how I also described your work. So yeah, we're on the same page, you know, so I'm very glad about that. OK, so I know you just said you were born in Colombia.

00;04;24;20 - 00;04;38;14

Fabiola Lara

Can you give us a little bit of background and how it was for you growing up in Colombia? If you want to share where you lived or what kind of neighborhood you lived in, just give us a little bit more color around your upbringing.

00;04;38;25 - 00;04;59;14

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Absolutely. Living Colombia was honestly amazing. I'm like very proud of where I'm from. I guess, like at this point in my life, I've been kind of like all over the place just because initially I was born in Bogota, which is the capital of Colombia. And I guess we lived like an upper middle class neighborhood like my whole life there.

00;04;59;23 - 00;05;22;24

Natalia Cardona Puerta

But then we moved to Breda, which is actually in the coffee region. And that's because my dad's side of the family. It's originally from there and it's actually such a beautiful region. My parents still live there, and our house is located on a rural area. It's like pretty much this outer area house in the middle of a bamboo forest.

00;05;23;04 - 00;05;55;10

Natalia Cardona Puerta

So I grew up with all my cousins, kind of like running around very into like being very connected to nature. My high school was like five minute drive from my house, which was completely different to Bogota. So we moved there, I guess when I was like 11 sort of. So that completely changed my outlook and like what childhood meant and like how I could express and like have fun with other kids because when we live in Bogota, I was very sheltered.

00;05;55;11 - 00;06;22;27

Natalia Cardona Puerta

So I guess my only best friend was my sister and my one causes. But living in poverty, that changed it all that I was like more free. I was able to make a lot of friends at my age and the connection with nature was very prominent there too. So that was like very fun. And I guess going more into adulthood I ended up moving back to Bogota because that's where I went to pursue my college degree since then.

00;06;22;27 - 00;06;27;22

Natalia Cardona Puerta

But they didn't really have anything very specific to arts in that time.

00;06;28;06 - 00;06;49;03

Fabiola Lara

Got it. So you grew up first, and with that then you moved to Benita and you had kind of this more deeper connection with nature. I'm surprised to hear that you felt like you had more childhood friends and stuff and Benita over about that because I would assume with with that being a bigger city, that you would just meet more kids.

00;06;49;12 - 00;06;52;07

Fabiola Lara

Why do you think that that wasn't the case?

00;06;52;10 - 00;07;22;06

Natalia Cardona Puerta

I think it was mostly like a security matter for my parents because Bogota is kind of like our I would compare like living like in the middle of like Manhattan kind of thing. Like my parents were very paranoid about like I was getting mugged or I was getting like, I don't know, like KCNA now because that kind of thing was happening in Bogota when I was when we were growing up, there was a lot of like bombing and like kind of violence because of all the things that were happening at the time, like in the early nineties.

00;07;22;14 - 00;07;43;09

Natalia Cardona Puerta

So my parents were like mega paranoid about all of that. So we were like super shelter. We kind of like just clean our house kind of thing. Whereas in Prada, since we were most in the rural area and we were among our family, they were like more lax about it. And all our friends kind of like live in the same area next to us.

00;07;43;17 - 00;07;59;17

Natalia Cardona Puerta

So I went from like having very few friends in Bogota and not being able to go to their house kind of thing to like being in our condo full of kids, like having so much fun and that like was like a big change for us.

00;07;59;26 - 00;08;19;27

Fabiola Lara

That's cool. I'm so glad to hear that because I can imagine like that stress from your parents trickling down to you guys as children. Just, you know, it makes sense at the time too, for them to be that way. But I'm glad you got to experience a little like childhood freedom in the country. That's always, like, so idyllic.

00;08;20;02 - 00;08;38;27

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Exactly. I thank them a lot. And it's funny because they like, we're hesitant to where to move to, like from Bogota because they were tire of that kind of lifestyle, like very like hectic and very stressful. My dad actually had like a kind of like a mini heart attack at some point. So it was not sustainable for us to live there anymore.

00;08;39;12 - 00;08;58;24

Natalia Cardona Puerta

So yeah, it was like a big change for all of us. And we had a lot more freedom to just be ourselves and whatnot. I like obviously have like fond memories living in Bogota, too. And I think that being with my sister and being so involved with like TV shows and our own toys have a lot to do with my work right now.

00;08;58;24 - 00;09;01;04

Natalia Cardona Puerta

But the Freedom in Potato was great.

00;09;01;14 - 00;09;07;08

Fabiola Lara

I know you said that you ended up going back to our dad for school. What did you go to school for in Colombia?

00;09;07;11 - 00;09;37;18

Natalia Cardona Puerta

I went to school here in Colombia for industrial design, actually, and that was like a very intense, weird experience because I guess I was like the closest thing I could think of are being applied to something more practical than just visual arts. Most of the people that I've heard, heard you interview, like have had the same experience of not having a lot of representation of Latino or Latino people being involved in creative professions.

00;09;37;18 - 00;09;51;06

Natalia Cardona Puerta

When they were growing up. I didn't know what to do with my life, honestly. I was super young. It's so that was kind of like the first thing I landed on and I ended up there, but it was not what I was kind of like more passionate about, I guess.

00;09;51;13 - 00;10;00;18

Fabiola Lara

Right? Do you feel like you learned anything from that degree that you use today, or do you think that most of it is not applicable?

00;10;00;21 - 00;10;41;06

Natalia Cardona Puerta

No. 100%. I feel like right now, like it's hindsight in 2020. I do believe that everything that I have done through my path has helped me have very created skillset that I can apply to anything that I'm doing right now. And I'm like very thankful that I went that way because being for industrial design only for me in like graphic design, but also gave me like a lot of different aspects of design in general that I apply to my everyday work so absolutely, I feel that it was not that I wasted my time is more so that in the moment when I was in there, I was not really enjoying it per say.

00;10;41;09 - 00;10;58;24

Fabiola Lara

And when you weren't really enjoying it, did you ever reconsider in that moment changing your major or going to school for something? Oh yeah. I don't know what it's like in Colombia. The school system. I changed my major four times, but I don't know if that's what you can do in Colombia. So give us a little recap, right?

00;10;59;03 - 00;11;24;19

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Yeah. I think that would have been awesome, but obviously where I went to school, like it's not very I guess the point that I was studying, I don't know how it's right now, but it's not at all like here that you can like switch majors, you are studying what you enroll for basically. And obviously I doubted myself so many times and I tell my parents like, oh my God, I just want to change to like graphic design because it's this is not my thing.

00;11;25;00 - 00;11;44;27

Natalia Cardona Puerta

But at the end of the day, I was just like so invested on it when I wanted to switch that. What I did was that I started focusing all my project classes into more graphic stuff, though. Like, give me that passion aspect that I was lacking at the beginning of all my kind of like foundation classes.

00;11;45;05 - 00;12;05;21

Fabiola Lara

You made the best of the situation that you were in, so you were aware that graphic design was like a career path. Because I think for a lot of people that I've talked to and just people in general, they don't know when they graduate high school that graphic design is like an industry, right? Because maybe you don't know any graphic designers.

00;12;05;21 - 00;12;12;26

Fabiola Lara

Did you know about graphic design and just not choose it or did you learn about it later? How was your introduction to that?

00;12;12;29 - 00;12;51;16

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Yeah, it was more organic. I think I learned about it way later when I was I guess maybe on my second year because the whole program was five years. So I guess Midway I started like kind of learning all this from my professors and I had friends from other universities that were starting in graphic design as well. I honestly, when I enrolled to that program, knowing nothing it was just because one of my friends was on it and he was like, Well, I've had this kind of classes and this boy kind of like the teacher, and I was like, OK, that sounds like maybe something I would like to do because it was basically bad

00;12;51;16 - 00;13;06;10

Natalia Cardona Puerta

or visual arts. And I knew for sure that I didn't want to do just visual arts because I wanted to do something more concrete with that art knowledge or than just doing paintings, if that makes any sense.

00;13;06;10 - 00;13;19;24

Fabiola Lara

Yes, that makes so much sense. I love that. It was just like a friend who you knew that did industrial design and you were like, OK, yeah, that sounds like I could do it too. I feel like that's so common. We all like, we're like, Oh, that person did it. Like, I guess that's a good idea.

00;13;19;26 - 00;13;20;17

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Yeah.

00;13;20;26 - 00;13;41;05

Fabiola Lara

That's like such a common thing, especially when you don't have like a big network of, like, creative people. Why is it that you feel like you were so set on pursuing something more practical because you did considered visual arts, but then you did industrial design. So why was that like a focus for you?

00;13;41;10 - 00;14;03;28

Natalia Cardona Puerta

That's a really good question. And to be honest, I had no idea. I think it was just something that I felt inside, and I think it had a lot to do with my upbringing and the things that I kind of gravitated towards, like artistically that I thought he was like interesting in a very like unconscious way, obviously, because I didn't know anything about art at that point.

00;14;04;08 - 00;14;29;00

Natalia Cardona Puerta

But I will say mostly because even though my mom is a lawyer, she always was very hands on with art in my house. She took a lot of time off when my sister and I were born. So she was the one that was always making art birthday decorations, like giant Styrofoam, like Disney characters. You will just like doing from Scratch or Sol, she will paint them.

00;14;29;00 - 00;14;45;03

Natalia Cardona Puerta

They were super cute. She will make our Halloween costumes. She will make clothes for us. She was the one helping us do or like big presentations for school that you had to just do by hand. So I think just looking at her doing that.

00;14;45;03 - 00;14;47;06

Fabiola Lara

She was very creative very involved.

00;14;47;07 - 00;15;14;28

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Yeah, she was extremely creative. And I think also we had to do with very unconsciously, again, me being so involved with TV, with Cartoon, where with Nickelodeon when I was growing up with my sister and we had like a ton of like Polly Pockets and My Little Ponies and Barbies and like Hot Wheels. I think all those aspects of design that I like was living with.

00;15;15;09 - 00;15;38;24

Natalia Cardona Puerta

So they're very like ingrained in my brain were all like examples of art that were applied to something that I could, like, consume in some way or that I could be like dress or no hair and I can like having my birthday parties. So I think like very unconsciously I wanted to do something like that. And probably that was the way I felt in trying to doing something similar.

00;15;38;24 - 00;15;48;19

Fabiola Lara

What were those shows that you were watching? I'm curious, like on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, do you have like a couple shows that you remember being extremely influential?

00;15;48;20 - 00;16;24;00

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Yeah, absolutely. I was such a big fan of Hey Arnold, for example, all the nineties TV programing and Cartoon Network of like Dexter's Lab and The Powerpuff Girls. I was super into anime too. Well, my sister and I and my cousin were always watching anime. We love Sakura or Copters and some Cartoon Network Dragon Ball and see like all these like Super Nineties iconic cartoons were super embedded in my childhood and we were like obsessed with TV.

00;16;24;09 - 00;16;37;04

Natalia Cardona Puerta

I think it was mostly because of what I was saying earlier. Since we were so sheltered, our outlets were TV and playing with all our collection of toys in a way and that definitely had a big impact.

00;16;37;04 - 00;16;49;11

Fabiola Lara

That is so cool. I'm glad to know that you're also into those cartoons. I was definitely really into Hey Arnold. I think it was more Nickelodeon than Cartoon Network, but yeah. Hey, Arnold and Cat. Dog.

00;16;49;13 - 00;16;52;02

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Oh my God. Cat Dog was crazy.

00;16;52;03 - 00;16;55;21

Fabiola Lara

I think Cat Dog was a Nickelodeon were like. And Rocco's modern life.

00;16;55;22 - 00;16;57;24

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Yes, all those.

00;16;57;24 - 00;17;03;01

Fabiola Lara

Do you think that those TV shows and stuff like that have any influence on your work today?

00;17;03;11 - 00;17;21;21

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Yes. 100%. And I'll say so. I sometimes look back to those things and I'm like, I don't know. Sometimes when I'm working and I'm kind of like fixated on like a color palette or a certain I don't know, the subject matters. I can just look back to those years and I'm like, well, that's why I like those things.

00;17;21;21 - 00;17;39;20

Natalia Cardona Puerta

You know, it's because that was my happy place or the happy moment in my day where I was like back from school and like having fun with my sister and eating our snacks and just watching all these crazy TV and having fun with it. Right? So definitely 100%.

00;17;40;06 - 00;17;56;12

Fabiola Lara

OK, so before we go on to more about your artwork, I wanted to ask you, what's one thing you wish more people know about Colombian culture here in the U.S.? Because I feel like here we have a very limited understanding and stereotypes on Colombia.

00;17;56;21 - 00;18;38;25

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Right? Colombia, such a beautiful country in a way that like for me, at least in my own experience, with my family and my friends, it's such a warm country in so many ways. Not only the weather, but the people are so sweet. Our food is like freaking amazing. That's something that I really, really miss from home. And just like how diverse and not only how many ethnicities we have but also all the biodiversity that our country has and how many different places have different type of weathers, different type of environments, and that's something that it's actually it's funny that you ask me this because I feel that when I first met my husband, he had

00;18;38;25 - 00;19;12;27

Natalia Cardona Puerta

no idea about Colombia, and he had like a very narrow vision of it to mostly because of obviously how it's portrayed in the States. And now he understands why I am the way I am and because of all this warmth that I bring from my country. And that was obviously instilled. But my mom and my dad and my sister and I feel that that's something that I really will like people to know more and how hardworking, dedicated and passionate we are, because every Colombian that I meet here in the States is just like that.

00;19;12;27 - 00;19;17;16

Natalia Cardona Puerta

So I will say that that will be something that I will like people to know more about.

00;19;17;26 - 00;19;44;15

Fabiola Lara

I love that. I think that's beautiful because Latin America in general is more warm than the U.S. I would say the U.S., by comparison, is pretty cold. But besides from the weather, just like the culture and the people. So I love that you mentioned that. And I am like excited to hear that. You mentioned the biodiversity in Colombia, because I feel like people always have a very narrow vision of countries and they just think like, you know, it's one way.

00;19;44;25 - 00;20;01;25

Fabiola Lara

And Colombia has jungle, I think. And also, like you said, the coffee region and everything. So I really appreciate that you bring that up and they do have amazing food. And I'm sure my next question was actually, what do you miss the most about Colombia? But you already mentioned the food.

00;20;02;23 - 00;20;37;15

Natalia Cardona Puerta

I mean, so many things. I think like top one, I miss my mom's hugs, obviously, my sisters and my dad, but talk to obviously the food. Oh, my goodness. Like nothing tastes in here, like it tastes there. And that's something that I'm really excited to take my husband there so he can experience it for himself because even the food, like the eggs and obviously like all the typical dishes, like I miss entire leave, but I guess the quality and the warmness of the food and the people that cook it, it's so beautiful.

00;20;37;15 - 00;20;51;29

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Like, I feel the love of my mom and the love of like, for example, the lady that cooks in our house every time that I eat their food, you know, and that's something that sometimes it's rare to feel it here so I do miss it a lot.

00;20;52;00 - 00;21;04;24

Fabiola Lara

Totally. What's one, if you had to pick one dish you have today brought into you straight from Colombia, one dish, what would it be? That way people can go try it if they have a Colombian place near them.

00;21;05;06 - 00;21;29;13

Natalia Cardona Puerta

I think today, since it's kind of gloomy here, I would definitely be eating and I hear cool and I hear cool is sort of like a very hearty soup. It's made out of three different type of potatoes. So it's kind of like a like a soup potatoes thing with chicken and this like leaf called Costco. It's kind of like a potato soup.

00;21;29;13 - 00;21;47;01

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Stewie thing. The consistency is kind of like, I guess kind of like a clam chowder ish. And it's very creamy, super warm, like, I'll definitely have that. If any of our listeners have a Colombian restaurant next to them and they have a Jaco Go truck.

00;21;48;01 - 00;21;57;01

Fabiola Lara

So I know we're just talking about all the things you miss about Colombia, all the food, the people, the warmth. Did you ever imagine that you would leave Colombia and be a foreigner?

00;21;57;24 - 00;22;09;04

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Not in a million years. If I will go back in time and I tell like not be from like, I don't know when she was 20 years, like I'll be where I am today. It's crazy how.

00;22;09;04 - 00;22;12;08

Fabiola Lara

Did you end up deciding to leave? Tell us about that story.

00;22;12;10 - 00;22;46;22

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Well, I don't know right now that I see like my life more like I'm almost like 31 and I can like kind of look retrospectively at my life. It's funny how things happen. Sometimes they just happen, you know, and it's kind of crazy to understand why. But the main reason was because going back to our previous conversation about industrial design and graphic design, when I finished my college degree even though I was like working in graphic design at the time, I still felt that I was lacking like that passion element.

00;22;47;03 - 00;23;20;05

Natalia Cardona Puerta

I always been like a very, very emotional person, and I felt that through industrial design and graphic design, I couldn't let my inner voice kind of talk through my work. So I started doing a little bit more research and I took a year off. I asked my mom if I could take some classes on fundamentals of art and get more into drawing again, and I ended up taking some illustration classes, and that's when I understood that illustration was actually a profession.

00;23;20;23 - 00;23;39;23

Natalia Cardona Puerta

And when that happened, it coincided sort of with a timing where my mom had saved some money and she told me like, nothing, I have this money saved, and I really want to do something that makes you happy, and I want you to have a master's degree. So if you want to do it anywhere in the world, just do it.

00;23;40;27 - 00;24;00;25

Natalia Cardona Puerta

So it was all because of her, honestly. And I ended up finding Savannah College of art and designs just by pure like I don't know, like I don't understand how I found it. I think it was my sister, actually. She was like, oh, yeah, my friend's sister goes to this school. And they seem to have like a nice, like, illustration program classes.

00;24;00;26 - 00;24;25;04

Natalia Cardona Puerta

You see, like, classic, like, Latina thing. And I ended up contacting this girl she, like, talked to me a little bit more about it, and I contacted the school and the program because I had so many questions about it. And their response was like, Hey, this week we actually have some people interviewing potential students in Bogota in case they want to enroll in the program.

00;24;25;06 - 00;24;56;03

Natalia Cardona Puerta

And I was like, Maybe March 20, 15 or 16. I mean, and I went to the meeting like not knowing anything about SCAD. Like all the kids there in line was super prepared. They have known Scott for years. There was like their dream school kind of thing, and I was like super underprepared. I have no clue about anything and I ended up kind of like passing the interview and the people were like, Well, we really like you, just like you need to transfer all this papers and bring it to us.

00;24;56;03 - 00;25;01;07

Natalia Cardona Puerta

And pretty much in the span of a week, I got accepted to the college.

00;25;01;07 - 00;25;03;13

Fabiola Lara

Amazing. That's so exciting.

00;25;03;13 - 00;25;29;23

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Yeah. Just having like these tiny seed of an idea of my mom, like, wanting me to pursue my dream. And in the span of, like, a week, I had already decided that I was going to leave my country and just notice somewhere completely different that I've never been and do and do this master's degree in illustration. So as I said before, like, I don't know why it happened or how it happened.

00;25;29;23 - 00;25;54;23

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Like, I guess it was like the place that I needed to be at the right time, you know, so because of that, I ended up coming here in September of that year, and I was like, obviously super hard because I didn't know like how long I was going to be there, if this was going to be like a long term thing, if I was going to go back at the time, I had like a really long relation ship with my ex.

00;25;54;23 - 00;26;15;02

Natalia Cardona Puerta

We had been together for years. We had a cat together. We lived with my sister in an apartment, so I had to like quite literally uproot my whole life. And go to us with the promise of me finding myself in a way. Right. And I think I guess like a lot of immigrants can relate to that.

00;26;15;09 - 00;26;31;29

Fabiola Lara

Yeah, for sure. I think it's always you're like in the pursuit of something bigger and you know that all these little things that are really hard to do, like unpacking your life and, and taking what you can in a suitcase and you don't know how long you're going to be there and you don't know what's really going to happen because now you're in a whole new country.

00;26;32;08 - 00;26;46;20

Fabiola Lara

Are all things that like are worth it for the dream that you're pursuing, which for you was finding your passion, finding your voice with your artwork and kind of pursuing visual art finally, right after doing industrial design and kind of avoiding it?

00;26;46;26 - 00;26;51;25

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Absolutely. I was like, oh, you're way to go into it. But yeah, I got there.

00;26;51;25 - 00;27;06;10

Fabiola Lara

So how what would you say has been the most challenging part about the immigration process? Now that you've been in the U.S. and schools, you graduated from SCAD and you're still here, what has been the challenges there?

00;27;06;24 - 00;27;30;29

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Well, I think the most challenging part, it's obtaining and maintaining your business that is has been like a very, very, like hard working process is very stressful just because when I initially came here, I was in my student visa I got my work permit for some time after I graduated, and after that, I pursued to have my work visa issued.

00;27;31;08 - 00;27;56;11

Natalia Cardona Puerta

However, because of the pandemic and bad timing, that visa got denied and I had to like jump through a lot of hoops to get that process, kind of like be appealed and on hold. And right now, because I got married to my husband, we are in the process of getting our green card approved which hopefully it will be approved probably next month.

00;27;56;11 - 00;28;17;23

Natalia Cardona Puerta

So please, all listeners have us on your thoughts I've been waiting for this for so long and I send so many hugs to everybody that's struggling with this process right now because I know how heartbreaking it is and I see you and I love you and you can do it too.

00;28;18;20 - 00;28;22;18

Fabiola Lara

How has it affected your everyday life? Doing this whole process?

00;28;22;22 - 00;28;48;10

Natalia Cardona Puerta

It has affected every part of my life. I've been very depressed and very anxious about it, honestly. And obviously I haven't been able to really work in the States at all, like have like a full time job or like really have like like major clients come to me because of that. And I feel that that has hinder a little bit like very professional growth and obviously my savings account.

00;28;49;05 - 00;29;21;21

Natalia Cardona Puerta

But I feel that thankfully since I am in the industry of art, I can still be making art right and I can still be making art for my portfolio. And keep advancing my skills. And I see it as like in this space in my life where I'm planting a lot of seeds and soon all those seeds will become a really beautiful garden that will blossom and I will reap all the benefits of all this, like very long waiting stressful process.

00;29;21;21 - 00;29;36;16

Natalia Cardona Puerta

And I know in my heart that it's worth it. And I just keep that in mind, even the days that I just want to cry about it. And my husband is always holding my hand through it and my parents are super supportive and I know they will it will come to an end at some point.

00;29;36;21 - 00;29;57;05

Fabiola Lara

Yes. That's a really, really good way to look at it. Like right now that's the benefit of being an artist, right? Like you can still make artwork for yourself and that is still going to empower and feel your career once you're able to take on big clients and bigger names because of this whole legal red tape. So I'm so glad that you're looking at it that way.

00;29;57;05 - 00;30;28;07

Fabiola Lara

And I really sympathize with like this period of time that you've been in because I know it's so just like it feels so heavy and endless and like you're just kind of at the mercy of the government and all their, like, bureaucratic processes. So I totally just like really feel for you. And I can't wait to see like if you've been able to accomplish this much while being in this, like, gray area, I can't wait to see what you do once you know, all the red tape is lifted and you can really move forward with force.

00;30;28;15 - 00;30;46;07

Fabiola Lara

So I feel for you and I feel for any other listeners out there who are struggling with this. It's real and it's like a real problem. And, you know, you just have to power through. I'm shocked that you didn't research more schools, but also, like when you don't know what else is out there, you're just kind of like, this is a really good option.

00;30;46;07 - 00;30;47;14

Fabiola Lara

Why would I go anywhere else?

00;30;47;15 - 00;31;16;05

Natalia Cardona Puerta

So I think I had like a couple more options in Spain, actually. So my life will have been completely different. But I ended up going with SCAD, mostly because I enroll in this like scholarship program in Colombia. And they needed you to be on a program that could be certified as a master's degree and SCAD was like the only school that I had in my mind that could do that for that scholarship like requirement.

00;31;16;14 - 00;31;21;15

Natalia Cardona Puerta

All the Spain ones were just if you will convert the title, it would be just like a minor.

00;31;21;18 - 00;31;23;14

Fabiola Lara

Yeah, a post-grad or something like that.

00;31;23;16 - 00;31;27;12

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Yeah, exactly. But not like a master's degree. So.

00;31;27;15 - 00;31;40;04

Fabiola Lara

So once you were here, once you were in Savannah, Georgia, of all places, God, what are some things that surprised you about the US? Like, do you have one thing that you remember being like, what the hell is happening?

00;31;41;00 - 00;32;09;23

Natalia Cardona Puerta

It's so many things. Oh my goodness. The very first thing that I was like completely traumatized about was the understanding that here in the States people don't really eat rice that much less is like an Asian restaurant or a Mexican of Tex-Mex restaurant. There was nowhere in Savannah that I could find rice, and that broke my heart because I was like raised as a rice eater.

00;32;10;01 - 00;32;14;20

Natalia Cardona Puerta

So that really was like a very heavy thing to process.

00;32;14;20 - 00;32;15;26

Fabiola Lara

I totally feel that.

00;32;15;29 - 00;32;34;27

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Once I started to like cooking the rice, I was like, OK, OK, I feel more at home. And the other thing that I don't know, I guess like not not somewhat culture shock, but I do have this like kind of core memory of when I arrive to my friend's apartment because at that time I didn't have my own apartment.

00;32;34;28 - 00;32;57;14

Natalia Cardona Puerta

I left my friend's apartment. I put my bags down right after I came from like a I don't know, eight hour flight. And I said to myself, like, what have I done well here? Like, where is this last word on my hard line? Like, what am I doing in this city that I've never even heard about? So that was like really shocking to me.

00;32;57;14 - 00;32;58;07

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Yeah. Because you.

00;32;58;07 - 00;33;01;16

Fabiola Lara

Went to Savannah, Georgia, like, you never see that on TV.

00;33;01;16 - 00;33;25;20

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Or ever. Yeah. I had no idea anything about it. Thank God I had some sort of acquaintances, not personally friends from my college in Bogota that were attending SCAD. So Hernan, one of my like close friends right now, he was the first person that the same day that I arrived there, he, like, took me out for a dinner and he was like showing me around.

00;33;25;21 - 00;33;38;11

Natalia Cardona Puerta

He was like super sweet about it. So I do appreciate all that. Like, my mom says that I always have angels, like, taking care of me and even though I'm not, like, super Catholic anymore, I do believe that that's completely true.

00;33;39;07 - 00;33;59;24

Fabiola Lara

Perfect. Yeah. You always need that person when you first get somewhere to kind of, like, ease you into the new place that you're at because it's so different, especially for you at that time, going to a different country and then going to, like, such a southern city that you've never heard of and you don't know, like, what's necessarily going on there for sure.

00;33;59;24 - 00;34;00;06

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Yeah.

00;34;00;06 - 00;34;05;04

Fabiola Lara

So what did you end up majoring in? In art school at SCAD?

00;34;05;19 - 00;34;48;24

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Well, the master's was only an illustration since it was not like, I guess like an undergrad. I did. I had like, I mean, a minor or a major, so it was an MFA and illustration and it was two year program. So it was all like hands down, like illustration we had like foundation classes at first, I think my first trimester, and then it was full on like kind of like project classes that taught me a lot about all the history of illustration, specifically on the states that I had no idea about and a lot of information regarding the different illustration markets, how to kind of like price your work and whatnot and a lot of

00;34;48;24 - 00;35;02;15

Natalia Cardona Puerta

technique classes. And those were the ones that I like most enjoyed, I guess. And I guess the last part of the second year was completely focused on your thesis. So that was pretty much the whole program.

00;35;02;22 - 00;35;21;13

Fabiola Lara

That's amazing. That sounds like you really got a chance to dig into your visual voice and style while you're there. Would you recommend attending art school or a master's program like the one that you did at SCAD? What do you think about about it now in hindsight? Right, because you've been out of school for a bit now.

00;35;21;16 - 00;35;48;08

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Well, that's a good question because I feel that it depends on case by case. I feel that where I was when I was I don't know, I guess like 23 and the fact that I didn't really had any representation courtesy of the that specific profession in Columbia, I was in need of having all that kind of like very structured education.

00;35;48;08 - 00;36;17;06

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Right. I guess it depends where you're at, right? I feel that nowadays I love how expansive the Internet is of like how many examples you can get of people doing creative careers at the moment and how many educational resources you can get from the Internet right. And obviously you don't have to pay like a massive tuition or getting to a student that or at nine.

00;36;17;18 - 00;36;46;12

Natalia Cardona Puerta

So in a way, I feel that it depends, right? If you are the kind of person that is very good self teaching yourself things and getting into online resources and do it by yourself, go for it. I feel that I do need a lot of structure when I'm studying, and I love the accountability of being on a classroom and having like grades and having specific projects to work on that really help me improve and get to the point where I'm at.

00;36;46;23 - 00;37;04;04

Natalia Cardona Puerta

But obviously it's not for anybody. Most of my friends that I know that I really admire their work and their path have not really gone to art school, right? So I don't feel it's like something that you need to do to work in this kind of industry anymore.

00;37;04;12 - 00;37;33;13

Fabiola Lara

Totally. Yeah, I think it's very dependent. Obviously, there's huge advantages to going to art school and like you said, having the structure, having the mentorship of professors. If you click with any of your professors and the clear path, like you said, but there are downsides like tuition in the U.S. specifically. But if you can teach yourself, you can get really far because it's not a requirement to be an illustrator no one's going to ask you specifically for like your diploma to do a job.

00;37;33;21 - 00;37;46;04

Fabiola Lara

It just comes down to your work and there are different ways to get there. Would you recommend to someone to study abroad from Latin America despite all of the kind of challenges and struggles that that comes with?

00;37;46;19 - 00;38;26;00

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Yeah, I think so. I mean, even if it's just like I don't know, exchange it programs or even just to visit or countries, I feel like everybody, not only like people in Latin America, like getting out of your country and seeing different cultures and commingling with like other ethnicities and seeing like different cities in the world and how people live and in it's so eye opening of like how broad life can be and like all the possibilities that are out there and specifically for Latin American and I guess teenagers or young adults are looking for expanding their education.

00;38;26;00 - 00;38;52;17

Natalia Cardona Puerta

I feel that it's like a really beautiful experience to do it. It's obviously really hard to be away from home, but it does give you a lot of perspective, and especially when you are somebody that wants to be in the creative industry. Sadly, some of the Latin American countries, the industry is not established. So the pay rates are not the best or the work conditions are not the best either.

00;38;52;24 - 00;39;17;16

Natalia Cardona Puerta

So when you get to like a country such as like the US, where illustration has been stylish for so many decades and like people have an understanding of like how to fairly pay this kind of like projects, then you get more confident on your work as well because that was what happened to me, you know, when I understood how much I good get paid for certain things, I was like, Wow, this is amazing.

00;39;17;16 - 00;39;33;26

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Like, I'm not just like this caricature of the starving artist. We're in Colombia. Like sometimes like sadly that's how they see you real. So you start seeing yourself as a any other professional, like a doctor or a lawyer or whatever, you know?

00;39;34;09 - 00;39;52;12

Fabiola Lara

Yeah. So how has it been now that you graduated, right? And you left the structure of SCAD, the structure of being in a program, how has it been for you to have and maintain creative routines, creative habits, and have this creative career?

00;39;52;23 - 00;40;15;26

Natalia Cardona Puerta

I think in a way it's been obviously challenging making my own routine and keeping like some sort of a structure that allows my work to keep evolving. But I feel that also in another way it's kind of freeing because I'm not like constantly being like stress about grading or like if I'm going to pass a class or not.

00;40;15;26 - 00;40;40;05

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Right. And I also feel that in SCAD, I don't know, the students are very proud of being like working until very late hours or not having any boundaries between your work and your life, you know, kind of like overworked in a way. It's kind of like a thing to be proud of. So I feel like when I left school, I could finally draw a very strict boundary between my life and my work.

00;40;40;16 - 00;41;17;16

Natalia Cardona Puerta

And I allowed myself to have free time, which will in return nurture my work as well. Right. And, like, help me not be burned out all the time because I felt very burnt out during school. So that obviously has been really good. I feel that also when I left SCAD, I had found like more of my style and more of my voice, but I felt that when I left and I started doing projects for myself or my portfolio or for clients in Columbia abroad, I feel that I started really developing my voice like very clearly.

00;41;17;16 - 00;41;41;22

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Like I had had all this introspection in school and had had all this like realizations that my work is like very tied to my Colombian heritage. And all my childhood memories. And now I can't, like, freely just be like, this is me. If you like it, then hire me for our project kind of thing. And that was super nice to see how many people could connect to my work.

00;41;41;22 - 00;42;10;09

Natalia Cardona Puerta

I got like very into building my Instagram presence and that gave me a lot of confidence because a lot of people will be was resonating a lot with my work. I feel also that in Scott, I didn't feel as confident of my kind of whimsical, childish style because a lot of my peers were doing very realistic, kind of like concept art or very serious illustration for books.

00;42;10;16 - 00;42;31;29

Natalia Cardona Puerta

So I always felt that I was like kind of doing this childish, naively like work that was not so, like, serious, I guess. Which is kind of funny because right now, like, I don't really care. Like, as I said in the beginning, I'm catering to my inner kid and my inner, like, teenager girl, and I love that people can relate to that.

00;42;31;29 - 00;42;51;17

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Even adult people, you know, not only for kids and it just makes me really happy when people my age see my work and they're like, Oh, I love this. Like every time I see your work, you like make my day a little bit warmer or a little bit happier. So that's basically like the reason why I do art.

00;42;51;17 - 00;42;56;27

Natalia Cardona Puerta

And it's been very nice having that coming up after I graduated.

00;42;57;05 - 00;43;05;08

Fabiola Lara

Do you have any creative routines or habits that you have now to maintain your process and like make sure you keep creating work?

00;43;05;08 - 00;43;40;28

Natalia Cardona Puerta

I guess like I don't have like a very established routine. As I said briefly before, I am very strict about my free time, especially now that I'm married and my husband made he works kind of like a weekly 85 kind of job. I have like been using his structure as my structure as well. And I feel that the fact that I can allow myself those free moments during my week to go hiking or go watch like a nice movie or have time to read my books or sketch just for fun is what keeps that kind of flame alive, right?

00;43;40;28 - 00;44;13;13

Natalia Cardona Puerta

And it gets me out of that burnout state. I will say also that just keeping up with projects per say, kind of like always having a project in my plate, even if it's for a client or just for myself, also helps my routine. I feel like ideally I would like to have a more structured daily thing where I can take care more of my body and like exercise more in the morning and then like, I don't know, do a little bit of sketching in the morning, but sometimes that's not like super realistic, right?

00;44;13;13 - 00;44;18;03

Natalia Cardona Puerta

So I try my best to keep my mental health intake.

00;44;18;10 - 00;44;32;29

Fabiola Lara

Yes, for sure. So back in September of 20, 21, you shared on your Instagram that you felt like you were languishing. Do you still feel that way? And if not, what were some ways you were able to move forward?

00;44;33;16 - 00;44;54;09

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Oh, yeah, I love that comic that I did. I don't feel that way right now. I go through like I guess ebbs and flows of things. I do struggle a lot with anxiety and sometimes depression, and I think I'm very vocal about that on Instagram, but I feel like at that time I did feel like languishing for a long time.

00;44;54;09 - 00;45;27;12

Natalia Cardona Puerta

I felt we all felt that with the pandemic specifically and how chaotic life was at the moment. But thankfully right now I feel a little bit more motivated. I feel my life have a little bit more structure right now, so that helps as well and just kind of keeping myself busy. Like, I feel that there are times where I don't have a lot of projects during a month is when I start getting a little that feeling of languishing that I'm kind of like lost and I don't feel motivated and it's hard to get out of that.

00;45;27;12 - 00;45;32;25

Natalia Cardona Puerta

But thankfully right now I feel like pretty good.

00;45;32;25 - 00;45;48;06

Fabiola Lara

I'm glad to hear that. So I also know that you are represented by Island Zoo and you have an agent. So what's your experience been like working with an agent? And can you tell the listeners a little bit more about kind of that relationship?

00;45;49;05 - 00;46;18;26

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Yeah, I mean, I feel like obviously as anything that we have touch base here is not for everybody. I feel for me, it's worked in a way that it's I guess another way to keep like projects coming to me and like keeping my work out there. Like they help people like like see your work, you know, like clients that might not really find you by yourself, I guess, like on your Instagram page or buy your portfolio online and whatnot.

00;46;18;26 - 00;46;39;11

Natalia Cardona Puerta

So in that way, it's like helpful. Obviously, like any other relationship, either with a gallery or with an agent, they will obviously have a commission for every project that you do. But other than that, I mean, it's been like a good relationship. I haven't had like a lot of projects with them in the past since I've been like signing up with them.

00;46;39;20 - 00;46;49;04

Natalia Cardona Puerta

But the ones that I've had so far, it's been like pretty fun to work with. And, and all my experiences with the art directors that I've been assigned have been pretty positive.

00;46;49;12 - 00;47;10;24

Fabiola Lara

So cool. Whenever people like know that someone has an agent, they want to know everything's OK. I also more recently saw that you completed a Dream Project, quote unquote, that's what you said. A mural for a family owned toy store called Hammer and Jacks in Portland. Can you tell us a little bit more about how this project came to be.

00;47;11;05 - 00;47;37;08

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Yeah, that was such a good experience. Definitely a dream project. I've been dreaming of making a mural for I don't know how long, probably since I graduated from SCAD and it came to be, as most things saved my life just by asking a friend who has so many. I had this like, like vision that I wanted to paint any wall and really close friend of mine that it's also a very prolific artist here in Portland.

00;47;37;08 - 00;47;56;05

Natalia Cardona Puerta

His name is Mike Bennett. He's kind of like my mentor here, I guess. So I like asking him about things, and I was like, Hey, do you know anybody that will, like, feel like a wall painter anywhere? And he is very close friends with the owners that hammer and drug dealing, and Andrew and he put me in contact with them.

00;47;56;05 - 00;48;23;11

Natalia Cardona Puerta

And then after that, we just kind of really clicked for some reason. I always end up having like really good relationships with brands that cater to kids and they're like always like the sweetest people ever and I end up being like really close friends with their kids as well. So that's really fun. And with them, it was like a very organic, very nice process because I told him from the get go, like, Hey, this is my first mural.

00;48;23;11 - 00;48;47;01

Natalia Cardona Puerta

I have no idea what I'm doing. Like if you guys can be like super patient with me, they provide it every material that I needed that you invented as a scalpel thing. They got a projector so we can predict the image to the wall and he was amazing. I mean, at first I was kind of like scared because I've never projected my art in anything so big.

00;48;47;01 - 00;49;06;20

Natalia Cardona Puerta

It was like 130 or 13 square feet. I don't know, it was like a massive wall. And after we project that around that, like ended up being like, OK, and I have my sketch like already like drawn into the wall. I was like, well, OK, now from now on, I know what I need to do. Like, it's like any other painting that I've ever done.

00;49;06;20 - 00;49;12;14

Natalia Cardona Puerta

So that's like, OK, I can do this and it took us sort of like a week.

00;49;12;14 - 00;49;30;12

Fabiola Lara

That's so cool. Can you tell me what you like about working in such a large scale? Because I know you this was your first mural, but you've done like other cutouts that are really large personally to me, I find it so intimidating to work outside of like a large piece of paper that I can fit on a desk.

00;49;30;18 - 00;49;34;12

Fabiola Lara

So I'm just curious, like, what do you think you love about working at a big scale?

00;49;34;27 - 00;49;55;02

Natalia Cardona Puerta

There's something like, so, I don't know, magical like I feel just like you honestly have until like maybe like two years back because it was all because of Mike. He's the one that do, like, those really large cutouts and because I join one of his projects that I started doing that and I was like, Oh my God, this is like amazing.

00;49;55;08 - 00;50;15;26

Natalia Cardona Puerta

I should do this more. And that's when I got like, really geared up to do my, my mural. There's something about being very interactive. I think that's what I love about it, that you can actually, like, be swallowed all those by this space full of art or touch that cutouts or like, like stand next to them and take, like, really cool photos with them.

00;50;16;05 - 00;50;19;20

Natalia Cardona Puerta

I think it's the immersive nature of it that I feel very appealing.

00;50;19;23 - 00;50;37;26

Fabiola Lara

That makes sense. I know you just recently shared an illustration that you did for The Washington Post, which I know that is like super exciting. It's a really big newspaper and publication here in the U.S. So can you tell us about that project and maybe any challenges you had with working with like such a big name?

00;50;38;05 - 00;50;59;25

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Yeah, that was like so out of the blue too. I got that project assigned, like things to my agent. I lose two and it was those kind of like dream projects that you don't know. It's a dream project until you actually get an email about it. And I was like, Oh my God, I've never been like on a major anything like Cool engaged in like this crazy.

00;51;00;09 - 00;51;27;07

Natalia Cardona Puerta

And it was honestly super smooth. The director that I got assigned was the sweetest lady. She just gave me like the briefs. She gave me the text and just basically from the get go that she said that it was something related to poetry and spring. Those are like two things that I'm super passionate about. I love poetry, so the fact that it was that plus poetry written by kids I was like that sign me up.

00;51;27;07 - 00;51;55;08

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Like, Yeah, I would love to do that. And it was like a very quick turnaround, I guess. Like that was the only thing that was a little challenging was because I was just getting out of the mural project. But all that, it was super easy. Honestly, I kind of had like a very clear vision of what I wanted the illustration to be she was super receptive with the sketches we chose the one that ended up being the one, and then I just got on autopilot and finished it and she loved it.

00;51;55;08 - 00;51;57;20

Natalia Cardona Puerta

So that was really cool, honestly.

00;51;57;26 - 00;52;10;07

Fabiola Lara

OK, so looking ahead a little bit, right? So to today and beyond, what is a dream project for you that you feel like this would be kind of like a really huge milestone for your career?

00;52;10;18 - 00;52;33;29

Natalia Cardona Puerta

I just like kind of take two really big ones out of my list. So I guess I need to do a new list, but I would love maybe to work with a really big maybe where a whole company there's something about like bands that I think will be really cool to maybe do a collection with them and kind of paired that with something in the store.

00;52;34;07 - 00;53;01;12

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Very immersive, kind of like mural or cutout or some sort of thing, I guess like dream thing that I would love to do. It's like my first solo show somewhere here in Portland. I love Gallery, new clues, stuff like, like show my work there and they are specialized in illustration. So maybe something there will be sweet and I guess lastly, I would love to write and illustrate my own book of poetry because I do like writing a lot.

00;53;01;12 - 00;53;10;15

Natalia Cardona Puerta

I do like sometimes I just write for fun when I'm like not doing a lot of work and that would be like a really cute project to work on in the future.

00;53;10;15 - 00;53;17;25

Fabiola Lara

Yes, exactly. OK, so last question here, how can the listeners support your work and your career?

00;53;18;01 - 00;53;43;22

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Well, you guys can find me on my Instagram page, my handle it's nuts and me and I also have my own website. It's cool. It's like I think it's Natalia dot com, but my Instagram is like pretty much where everything is updated. I very soon will probably be launching my online shop, so fingers crossed that that's going to be something that you guys can reach me as well.

00;53;43;22 - 00;53;45;20

Natalia Cardona Puerta

But for now, Instagram is the best way.

00;53;45;23 - 00;53;58;04

Fabiola Lara

Thank you so much, Natalia, for joining me today for answering all my little nosy questions. I really appreciate it and I can't wait to see what's next for you. Thank you so much for being on the show. Yes.

00;53;58;04 - 00;54;02;29

Natalia Cardona Puerta

Thank you so much for having me, Fab. Muchos gracias. And I think everybody.

00;54;06;06 - 00;54;30;12

Fabiola Lara

Thanks for listening to the last episode of Season one of [Draws in Spanish]. That was my conversation with Colombian Illustrate Natalia Cardona Puerta. Now I want to go ahead and follow her work on Instagram @Natsande, or you can find her linked in the show notes below. Once again, if you want more from me while the show is on break, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel to keep up with me and get sneak peeks of Season two.

00;54;30;21 - 00;54;51;12

Fabiola Lara

You can find my channel linked below or search for @fabiolitadraws in the YouTube app. That's @FabiolitaDraws in the YouTube app. Now remember to take the listener survey so I can make an amazing season two for you. Head over to DrawsinSpanish.com/survey and give me all your feedback so I know what I can improve on for the next season.

00;54;51;12 - 00;55;10;06

Fabiola Lara

I'm really looking forward to hearing from you and like always, if you enjoyed this episode, please make my day and hit subscribe so you don't miss the next season of [Draws in Spanish]. Thank you so much for listening and supporting season one. You guys are the best. Please don't be a stranger. Come find me on Instagram or TikTok

00;55;10;14 - 00;55;20;27

Fabiola Lara

Just DM me or whatever, hasta la proxima! I can't wait to be back here soon with you. Thank you for listening. Ciao. Ciao, amigos. Ciao Ciao