"My mission is to inspire states of wonder in the viewers and collectors of my work."
Why? Because states of wonder bring you closer to yourself... and truly being yourself is the path to a life worth living.
Each piece I make is a symbol of this true living and true expression. Of self worth. Of your own value.
In 2015 something was seriously off in my life. At the time I was working a corporate job as a Project Engineer at BP (yes the oil company). I had studied Mechanical Engineering and Business in college, and had now "made it" in life. I had a great salary, benefits, and the type of stability that my immigrant parents always wanted for their only child.
Yet I was lost, unfulfilled, and a quiet whisper within me knew that there had to be more to life. So in an act of heroic bravery, I said good bye to my job and financial stability, and even told my parents about it.
From that point forward I committed to living life on my own terms, and embarked on an experiment to once again express my creative energy, and inspire others to do the same.
I started my creative career in 2017 (what happened in 2016 is a story for another time) as a freelance photographer, then expanded into videography, filmmaking, branding, marketing, painting, and more. All along the lines of learning and expressing new creative mediums.
I now know that my purpose is to inspire others by sharing my art with the world.
I am living proof that life does not have to look like what other people told you to do, what your family or schools told you to do. Life can be absolutely anything you want.
My hope is that by simply looking at my art, viewers experience a sense of awe and wonder, and allow their minds to explore new possibilities for themselves.
Houston, Texas, 2014
I was crying in a very fancy bathroom stall…
5th floor of BP’s North American headquarters. This was my 6-figure jail… my first job out of college thanks to my fancy new mechanical engineering degree. One year in and I couldn’t take it anymore.
“How did I get here? I have everything… but why does it feel so wrong?”
I felt depressed and numb.
I realized at the time that I hadn’t felt excited about my life in a longggg time. Like the type of excitement I felt as a kid for pretty much anything fun. Getting drunk on the weekend wasn’t cutting it anymore.
About 3 months before this day, a close friend’s dad had taught me how to meditate. Afterwards, he refused to tell me what the benefits of meditation were.
He only cryptically told me to keep doing it daily for at least 3 months and see what happens.
Fort Lauderdale Airport, International Terminal, 2015
“Bye, mom. I love you.”
I saw both happiness and fear in her eyes as I walked away towards security carrying most of my belongings in my backpack, with a one way ticket to Costa Rica. For the first time in a long time, I felt truly free.
But more importantly, I was doing something that I truly wanted to do. Not because school or family or society told me to. (In fact they all told me not to.)
I was embarking on living life on my own terms.
Little did I know that living life on my own terms was going to be the most rewarding and brutally challenging journey that would last until today, and hopefully for the rest of my life.
Miami, FL, April 2020… Covid
“Wow Julian! I LOVE it. I’ll take it today. Can I Zelle you the money for it?”
At this time I had been working as a freelance photographer since 2017, throwing all sense of reason to wind and going for it as a creative entrepreneur.
I had overcome a bunch of insecurities around never having any formal photography training, charging money for something that came naturally to me, and the challenges of being my own boss.
In Fall 2019, I picked up The Artist’s Way and had started painting again as a side hobby.
By March 2020, my photography business had died completely thanks to Covid, and I was stuck at home with a new motivation to try to sell my art. I had some digital marketing skills from working with clients, so why not use those for myself?
Within a couple weeks of posting about my art, I sold my very first piece ever.
I was ecstatic. I now had proof that I could make money selling my art.
More than anything… I was starting to believe that my artistic expression was worthy of being shared with the world.
Miami, FL, April 2021
Painting, posting online, and shipping from my apartment went well enough in 2020 that I decided to go for it fully and get a studio in Miami.
These are the times you trust fall into the universe and hope that everything will work out.
The year I spent in that studio was the best feeling in the world and led to the darkest pain I ever felt.
I had shows, events, sales, and more in that studio. It was truly a magical year.
But Miami real estate is no joke and even though I was selling my art and it LOOKED like I was crushing it, deep down I could tell the cost of my studio wasn’t sustainable…yet.
So when I didn’t renew my lease, I felt like a total failure, got depressed, and quit painting for a full year.
Fort Lauderdale, FL, February 2023
Enough was enough. I was done waiting for my freelance photography work to fund my art studio in order to start painting again. I couldn’t wait any longer.
It was time to be a scrappy and hungry entrepreneur. I didn’t have my own studio anymore, but I had a burning love for art, for color, and for creating WONDER in people’s lives.
And, I had access to my parent’s garage, so that’s where I started painting and creating art again. Setting up a folding table each time, and making do with what I had.
I also had my cameras, more marketing experience under my belt, and a insatiable thirst for a new art studio.
I figured I could paint whenever I could, and in the meantime, get to marketing my paintings that had not sold yet from my previous studio.
Soon enough… it started to work.
It’s funny what happens when you commit to something. It’s like the universe says, “Oh yeah? You want this? Show me.”
And once you do…
“Here you go.”
Fort Lauderdale, FL, January 2024
Thanks to a few art sales in the fall of 2023, I found a new studio, this time it was smaller, more humble, and more determined than ever.
I love the hustle. I love perfecting my craft in my studio and expressing myself online. I love not having a predetermined career map or curriculum in front of me.
For years I’ve been wanting to stop doing freelance client work and focus exclusively on my art.
Thanks to massive emotional growth over the last couple years, I am now more confident in myself and my value as an artist than I have ever been.
I am making it work with marketing myself online and in person - no art school, no big time connections in the art world, no gallery reps.
I am a pirate navigating the high seas… I have my sights set on the horizon, and fully trust myself to navigate my way there.
