#sofia enriquez

Could you introduce yourself to everybody? Where you are based out of?  Hello, I’m Sofia Enriquez and I’m an artist based out of the Coachella Valley. I like to paint murals and found vintage items you can wear or decorate spaces with. I speak both English and Spanish, but I feel more comfortable when I speak Spanglish.

How did you first find yourself creating art or being interested in art? I first started drawing characters I liked on tv like the PowerPuff Girls or Power Rangers when I was really little, I want to say age 7. I’d always make my doll’s clothes and make their “Art houses” with shoe boxes, magazine cutouts, glue, fabric, and a bunch of paint. I got into art when I was 9 and I would go to work with my mom to clean houses and I was inspired by the art that the home owners had on the walls. Some of those homes had original Rothko’s, Picasso’s, even ancient Egyptian paintings on papyrus. I didn’t realize what they were until I got older, I just really liked them.

I had depression pretty early in life, so art became my way of communicating or trying to understand what I was going through, so I started painting pictures when I was 12. I’d always carry a black book with me as a journal and a place to just hide. Art was one of those things that felt fulfilling and helped me feel a part of something bigger. I felt so strongly about creating that I enrolled in Otis College of Art & Design after high school and got a BFA in Communication Arts with an emphasis in illustration. After graduation in 2014, I started painting murals and have painted about 30 large scale pieces and murals.

Being from the Coachella Valley, what do you love about that community? How did that community foster your interest in art at an early age? I really like how the valley is so spread out from each other, but it still kind of feels like a small town and people are really supportive of each other in the art community.

At an early age, I made a lot of stuff for myself and my closest friends, I didn’t really share what I was doing until I got to high school because it was so personal. After I moved back to the desert from LA, after graduating from art school, I found my people: artists, curators, collectors, and musicians. I started volunteering at art organizations, art museums, and discovered what I really wanted to do and started working as a freelance artist.

How would you describe your work to someone who perhaps is just coming across it for the very first time? What would you want that person to maybe take away from it? I would describe my work as symbolism, surrealism, and graphic art. I use a lot of text, portraits, and iconography.

When I paint on smaller scaled pieces, i paint really personal memories, emotions, and experiences, some of them contain a lot of self portraits and figures. The murals I paint hive very bright colors, embellishments, paisleys, faces, text, almost as if I were mimicking a textile pattern.

I also paint on clothes and that gives my art another platform to be bold and loud, and demand attention from strangers which is kind of the opposite of my smaller works. I would want viewers to take away that they are just as much a part of the painting as I am.

In your art, you often create various faces and people in all different shades and color tones. Themes of interconnectedness and diversity comes into mind. Can you talk a little about how these themes?   So I get the question, “what are you?” a lot. It’s kind of a weird question, I think. So I started drawing faces that are timeless, androgynous, and in a variety of colors. I’m influenced a lot by the facial details in ancient Egyptian art, the facial features in greek sculptures, the old paintings of the catholic church, and the black and white American illustrations from the late 19th century. I like how all of these cultures, in different time periods, painted faces very similarly. SO I’m taking my spin on it. It’s a way for me to self reflect and since they dont look like anyone specifically, I hope the viewers can see themselves in it too.

What’s a typical day in the studio for you like? And what are you currently working on in the studio? A typical day in the studio for me starts with a short meditation, a fruit smoothie, a cup of coffee. Depending on the upcoming mural project I have on deck, I sketch out a few ideas for new murals and work on proposals. I’m gonna release my first set of prints pretty soon, so I’m pretty excited about that! I also thrift a lot so I have large variety of objects, clothing, or even found canvases I can reuse and upcycle. Then I work on my lesson plans for some of the art classes I teach for the YMCA, I teach art for students that are in 1st-8th grade.

I’m currently working on a few paintings and painted vintage outfits for an solo show I plan to throw. Earlier this year I had the opportunity to throw an independent fashion runway show here in Palm Springs, so I want to essentially throw another event that combines my three practices, murals, fashion, and wall hangings.

When your working developing a new painting or piece, how does it begin - take us from sketchbook, to color choices, to finished painting?   Usually some of my works come to me when I am experiencing something complicated or difficult, it’s almost like my mind takes a screenshot of my subconscious and that will be my next painting.

If I ever get blocked, I start by writing little things that I hear in public spaces that stick out to me, find some song lyrics that stick out to me, I get in tune with what I’m feeling and what do I want to say, and I jot it down in my sketchbook. I’ll add little drawings of animals or things I’ve seen in my dreams. Then I find the canvas, shirt, or whatever surface I want to paint over and just do it.

How do you unplug yourself so to speak? What do you do to center or re-focus yourself if you find yourself stressed out about deadlines, art shows, and the sort? I straight up have to meditate when stress creeps up on me. I  just recently started practicing meditation and it really helps when I’m trippin on a project or just life. However, I love to work under some pressure because I get to crank out a lot of work in a small amounts of time which helps me trust my first instinct. Working fast is how I approach painting murals, and it’s also a peaceful way for me to unplug.

You recently participated in the Swatch booth at the Vans US  Open of Surfing. We loved your piece, can you tell us a little about the day and the live painting? I had such a great time painting by the beach and having so many people come around and check out my process. Just driving up to the event, I was so excited and grateful to be painting at the Vans US Open of surfing. I made a nice little commute from the desert to the beach and got to experience the skate and surf culture in the OC. I initially showed up with a sketch I made up a few days before, but once I hit the paint cans I kind of just flowed with the colors i was given and painted as much as possible in a couple hours. Needless to say it was my zen zone.

Not only do you paint murals and works, but you also paint clothing. Can you tell us a little about how this came about, what you enjoy about it, and how it differs from what you typically do? I started painting and sewing in high school, so like 2006-2010 and started dressing up my friends in funky outfits. Ever since then I started a small clothing line called Mucho– it’s like a fun little way I keep my art active even when I’m not painting on walls. I really enjoy the way people react to it when I’m out in public. I get great feedback from strangers, they come up to me and “ask me what it is?” and it’s such a nice way to interact with people. It’s different from my murals because the murals are staying in one place, usually the viewer stands in front of it and poses, but when it comes to wearing the painted clothing, the confidence level just goes up and I can see how my models and customers begin to change their body language and attitude too to a much more empowered one. Clothes are an easy way to blend into a crowd, but I’ve seen how the MUCHO clothing elevate street wear and bring a high energy in the people.

What’s been one of your most rewarding projects? And what kind of challenges did you face and how did you overcome them? One of the most rewarding projects I’ve done was this recent mural I did for the city of Palm Springs and The Palm Springs Art Museum. I taught an art class of 10 students on how to paint a mural in a public space. It was such a fun experience! Mostly because these kids got to see what it’s like to be an artist and put in the physical work. They were ages 9-12 years old, which is the age I started to get into art so in a way I was kind of in tune with their mindset. Most of them have never painted anything bigger than a 8 x 11” inches, so it was such a privilege and enlightening experience to have them go out and paint on a public space at a large scale. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do as a kid, so it was really cool to be able to be a part of that with them. The biggest challenge was the desert heat! It was like 110 to like 116 degrees outside and we only had 3 days of 4 hour sessions to finish painting the 5 ft. x 80 ft. wall. It was like painting in an oven and teaching kids how to paint a mural, and give them the encouragement to trust themselves.

Since we call this feature, Sketchy Behaviors, we always ask what’s your strangest art story that you want to share? My strangest art story is when I went painting with a crew in Paris one night. I was asking locals about spots safe places to paint and I met this painter, ArtJoko, a graffiti artist and fashion lord.  I asked him about some spots and he’s was like, “we paint tonight, 20’ o'clock, meet at ‘so in so’ station.” I was “Ok!”.

So I don’t speak French, and no one spoke English except for Joko, who kind of did. I went to paint with him and another graffiti artist. We hit up a few spots, then waited a little, roamed around. Later I met this graff crew that has been painting probably since the 90s. Anyways, we’re all painting and a fight breaks out in front of us and it gets pretty heated and physical. I’m like all scared because everyone’s yelling, fists are thrown, I have no idea what’s going on. Two cops roll up and they start to rush these fools. I get so scared, I’m like “no, no, no, I can’t see someone get shot right now and die.” My friend Joko, is like, “No it’s ok, cops in France don’t carry guns.” My mind was blown. Coming from the US, cops shoot people like it’s nothing. So I was so relieved that it didn’t get too crazy, and I felt safe in such a sketchy situation. The cops looked at us painting a wall (which is illegal) and they didn’t even care, they just drove away. I was tripping out.

Who are some important artists, past or present, you look up too or are inspired by? Right now I’m inspired by Tierra Whack, Frida Kahlo, Barbara Kruger, Mike Kelly, Kerry James Marshall, Peggy Noland, and Henri Toulouse Lautrec. I really look up to their work because they all play with identity, fluidity, and they all have strong voice and a powerful message.

What was the last piece of art, either in a gallery or museum, that you were just taken away by? What was it about that particular work that moved you? The piece that comes to mind is Frida Kahlo's, “Henry Ford Hospital (The Flying Bed)”, a painting from 1932. I saw it at her Casa Azul, which is now a Museum, in Coyoacán, Mexico. I was surprised by how small it was. The image is so powerful that I imagined as a huge painting, it was only 30.5 x 38 cm. I just really appreciated it because it documented such a painful moment in her life. I can’t image how much pain she was in, but it was painted so beautifully and so intricately with immense detail. I scanned the painting from corner to corner and stared at it for like almost 20 minutes. I couldn’t get over it, I felt like I was there.

What are your FAVORITE Vans? My favorite Vans are the classic black and pink checkered Slip-Ons. I had a pair when I was a teenager and they were my favorite. I had them for years and they had minor tears, holes, paint drips, and I wore them so much that they molded perfectly onto my lil’ feet. They were perfect, I miss them a lot.

Do you have some words you live by? A mantra that helps get you through the tough days? I have a few I like tell myself. “Make things with love” “One day at a time.” “I am grateful for... (things in my life/people in my life/certain situations happening)” “Don’t puff up, don’t shrink down, stay grounded and stay centered”

What do you have planned for the coming up? What are you looking forward to starting? I plan to explore some cities in the states and paint some more murals. I plan to work with more public art commissions, so I can share my art with different communities. I’m also looking forward to making more clothing and expanding my shop. I really look forward to starting new collaborations with artists and brands that I meet along the way, which will help me learn new techniques, perspectives, and new environments my art can live in.

I look forward to continuing this journey of fine art, fashion, and public art.