Inspiring Communities Through Visual Art
Art is a way to express an individual's creativity through their chosen medium. In our third guide, we interviewed visual artist, photographer, and creative director Como Hombre. She discusses her vibrant, abstract and unconventional artwork. Though living in the city of Vancouver that lacks black representation. She talks about how blackness influences her creativity, learning to acknowledge her title as an artist and her perspective on digital collages.
IG: @como.hombre
What inspires your art?
My biggest inspiration definitely has to be the people that I'm around. My community especially, is what inspires my art. Honestly, the everyday things that I'm consuming really inspire my art, like music, books, and fashion. Also, other artists like on Instagram and social media. My human experience overall really inspires me.
What challenges did you have to overcome in order to get where you are today?
Every day, there's a new challenge. But specific ones that I can point out from the last three years is really just acknowledging that I was an artist; was probably the biggest stepping stone to a huge step towards my career and now is just really confidently allowing that title to carry me through my life. It's just like being aware of that living situation as well. I'm a young artist, and I just moved up to Vancouver last year. So just finding safe homes where I could really create and feel like I could get into that focus mindset and the flow was a huge challenge. Also, just meeting people and now that I'm in a new neighbourhood, I feel like people really inspire me. So, getting to know more black creatives and black individuals really was another challenge of mine.
Is there a specific style that you're most comfortable with or your favourite?
My favourites have been digital collages just because it takes so much time, and so much focus. And there's a lot of tedious things that I have to be aware of while I'm creating these collages. There's an infinite amount of possibilities to where I start from where I'm going to end up. So, I don't really know the story. I'm going to tell it until I'm really there. So, it's a really exciting process. Honestly, I'm very in love with this medium right now.
How would you describe your style of work?
I would describe it as Black, abstract, vibrant and my work is the opposite of technical, really. I think those keywords are unconventional.
How is it being a black woman living in Vancouver?
Honestly, I feel like from a young age, I've been seeking to be around people who are like me and who are black or a person of colour. Just because that's what I really was raised around was just a lot of black people, a lot of Afro Latinos, a lot of Asian people. So, being a black woman in Vancouver now that I actually live in downtown Vancouver, I just want to express how many levels there are in this community. I really feel like there's a lack of representation here. So it's fun being a disruptive artist and being black. But my art is for black people and It's black as hell. I think it's been a really exciting journey really to be a black woman here just because I'm also inspired by so many black women and I see the type of work and impact that they create in their own communities and cities.