@withlovesindi
Designing and creating art is not easy. It takes a lot of time, patience, and persistence to create a piece of art that may or may not be well received. Fortunately for Sindia Martinez, an art project she recently created went viral and has received praise from around the world. The 29 year old artist out of Houston, Texas is the designer responsible for the custom Kanye West Graduation bear rug that is floating around all over Twitter. We had an opportunity to interview Sindia on how the rug came about and her artistic aspirations:
How long have you been into art and design?
All my life, since the age of 7. It’s all I’ve known.
Is art and designing for you simply a passion or you plan to turn it into a career?
Both! It’s my first love. I’ve been drawing and creating art at a very young age. When I was in middle school, I use to draw anime for my classmates and they would pay me in change and I would go and buy myself a cookie cone during lunch. My dream is to have a career in art. To be able to get paid doing what I love which is creating art sounds like a dream.
You made a custom Kanye West ‘Graduation’ bear rug that went viral. How did that project come about?
Well, I had been wanting to create a rug for a couple of months. There’s an artist that I follow on Instagram named Jynwaye. She combines anime and clothing to create her pieces. About a year ago, she had posted a rug that she had professionally made, not sure where but I remembered reading the comments and someone asking if she was selling it and she replied with a no because it cost too much to get it made. During the beginning of quarantine, like I’m sure many others, I was feeling sad because we weren’t able to live our daily lives and daily routines. During this time I was working from home and wanted to use my time wisely. I didn’t want to feel like I had wasted my time by the end of COVID-19. I started working on some projects the first couple of weeks of March and then I stopped and started to get myself into a dark hole. I realized I was starting to doubt myself, and my self-esteem was heading towards a bad place.
I feel like you can really get into a dark place when you’re stuck at home all day and all night with just your inner thoughts. I had already admired Kanye for his music and artistic design but during those darker moments I started to listen to Kanye’s music again, watched some of his older interviews and felt so inspired and empowered. Kanye makes me feel like anything is possible. He’s almost like an anime character to me haha. I wasn’t sure at first what I was going to create, I had other ideas but I went ahead and went for the thing that had been inspiring me at that time, which was Kanye. So one night, I told myself that it was time for me to do this rug, and I wasn’t going to let my time pass. I knew nothing about making rugs, I looked online, searched around Instagram, Google and YouTube. I ordered all the materials online to pick up the next day, came home, and got started.
How long did the rug take you to make?
The rug took me about a week and a half, about 50ish plus hours.
I didn’t know how long it would take. There was moments where I wanted to stop and ask myself, is this worth it? I don’t have a big enough desk, so I would have to work on the floor. Laying down on the floor for 4-5 hours is painful. But I would take breaks and kept going.
Have you sold the rug yet? What is the highest bid?
That’s a funny question, right now I’m trying to get the best deal that’s available, I did receive a lot of offers, I’m very thankful for all the DM’s and support from Twitter. I’m just waiting for the best offer, the highest offer that I’ve received so far is $1000.
Do you plan to make similar custom rugs in the future?
I do plan on making more, I have other projects in the works also, like clothes and bags. It’s hard for me to just do one project because I like to do so much. I didn’t know how the rug was going to turn out since it was my first try, but I really enjoyed the process, it taught me a lot of patience and I’m glad I got to learn a new craft.
Who are your art and designer inspirations?
There’s so many I don’t know where to begin….I love all art. Kanye for sure. Takashi Murakami, Johnny Cupcakes, KAWS, Frida Kahlo, Andy Warhol, Jean Jullien, Yayoi Kusama that’s all I can think of right now.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
In five years I see myself as a successful artist. Working with a creative company or creating clothes or both. The ideas of my future is always changing, I constantly want to gain new art knowledge and methods. One day I want to create a children’s book, the next day I want to create clothes, the day after that I want to design shoes. There’s endless possibilities. But if I had to summarize it all, I want to see myself living my dream as creator.
Sindia’s handmade Kanye West Graduation bear rug:
To stay up to date on Sindia’s latest art projects don’t forget to follow Sindia on Instagram and Twitter.
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