Introduction

I joined the Zoom room, waiting for her to come in. As an outsider to the artists’ subculture, having only taken one art class during the past four years, I did not know what to expect. Suddenly my interviewee, Kaitlyn Antigua, came on. Her brown eyes and black hair exuded enthusiasm, her skin shone like the sun, and her sweater reflected a light gray. Soon after she joined, I began the interview.

The Tiger and the Wolf

I asked Kaitlyn a barrage of questions, and she bestowed upon me information about her subculture. She explained her love of sketching and how she lacked friends in her subculture. Then an idea popped into my brain, and I inquired about her artwork. She answered by chatting about her drawings of a tiger and a wolf and revealed them to me (see attached image). I was stunned by their excellent quality. We conversed about some of her other works. She said she had lost them but that her mother may know their location. After the interview, Kaitlyn found some of them. Assessing these drawings, many contain doodles of characters from shows and movies such as Timmy Turner from The Fairly Odd Parents, demonstrating her love for animated media in addition to her passion for drawing. 

Impressionable and Hopeful Youth

Soon after I looked at the tiger and wolf, I began to understand her subculture. With restrained enthusiasm, she reminisced about how she entered it, “When I was little, I used to, like, draw and stuff, like, I would draw little pictures for mom on her birthday … and in … sixth grade, I entered this art competition and I didn’t think anything of it, I just did it for fun and I actually ended up winning it.” This quote demonstrates her competence at a young age and her low confidence in her talents early on. Subsequently, her restrained enthusiasm continued to come out when discussing her creativity, when she said, “I’m not like outspoken creative, but like, art helps me, like, channel my creativity.” Then the status of her future art career came up in the interview. She pondered out loud, with an eye towards the future, “I really do want to continue it but I feel like that it’s already too late for me to pursue it fully which I regret but I think if anything, it will still be a hobby for me, if not more.” 

The Expressive Tattoo on her arm

I conversed with Kaitlyn on potential art careers. She wanted to be a tattoo artist, but her family did not think she should work in that field. I asked her why she wanted to make tattoos. She passionately responded, “I really love them like, I got one last year and … I … like having art on your body, like, it’s so interesting to me…. Everytime I see someone with like, tattoos, I’m like, Wow!” She then revealed her tattoo. It contained a rose and a name. She said that the name is her mother’s name, Digna. Curious about tattoos, I asked Kaitlyn if she wants more tattoos, and she responded that she desires her whole arm tattooed. She wished to have the tattoos on her arm because “I want, like, my arm to tell a story.” I then wondered what her arm will look like once her tattoo story is complete and what it will tell people looking at it.

The Process of Finesse

I inquired about her artist’s process, as that is integral to understanding the artist. I questioned how she made the wolf and the tiger, and she said that she learned the process on YouTube instead of an art class, which she never took. For the other drawings, she went on Pinterest for models of art to draw and where she works toward her goal: “to be … so good that I can just draw from my head, but I can’t. I have to look at a reference for me to be able to do that. Like, if you were able to tell me oh, ‘draw a sweater,’ I’d be able to draw a sweater, but I can’t. I have to look at a sweater first” I then asked her to tell me what she wants to make in the future, but she did not know what piece of art she will make next, but if something catches her eye, she will recreate it, implying that she is an artist who makes art on the fly, not an artist who creates through a concrete plan. This improvisation gives her freedom in creating art, something that artists value a lot. I finally requested to know her favorite piece she made. She thoughtfully explained, “Probably the tiger because it was the first thing I actually like full on, like, drew and it’s,like, the most realistic … in regards to shading … which was fricking annoying.” Soon after that answer, we said our goodbyes, and subsequently ended the interview. 

Conclusion

This interview taught me a lot about the artist subculture. I learned that anyone can be an artist no matter what and that tattoos are a form of art, like painting or sketching. Also, I found out about the struggle artists have in expressing their talents. Through this, I learned that the subculture’s lack of viable career options and society’s stigma towards the subculture reflects society’s failure to nurture people in the arts. If society paid more attention to artists and their works, art would be better positioned than it is now, helping to improve life through an increase in creativity. If I could, I would have had in-person interviews instead of going on Zoom, as interviewing on Zoom is less intimate than interviewing in person. Finally, I acquired plenty of material from the interview, which was more than enough to learn something comprehensive about her subculture, resulting in an increased awareness of it.

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