Today we’d like to introduce you to Carolina Arrieta.
Carolina, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was born in the Los Angeles, California and raised in Lima, Peru. I grew up in a creative household, so I always knew that I wanted to do something in the design industry. Since I was a little girl I would draw and paint for fun. My mom was, and still is a baby clothing designer and always pushed me to do something with my creativity. When I graduated high school, I decided that I wanted to return to the states to study fashion design at FIDM in Los Angeles. After achieving my Arts Associate in fashion design, I realized that even though I loved fashion I wanted to somehow merge it with art, which was my true passion. A couple years later I decided to go back to school for Illustration design at Art Center of Pasadena, where I graduated with a bachelor degree as a Surface designer. Currently, I am a co-owner and the art graphic designer for Wild Wawa, a baby clothing brand that I have with my mom and sister, and continue to create my own art pieces for my online shop artebycaro.com. I also just started getting into painting big scale murals.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. There been a lot of moments of self-doubt and fear. Thoughts like, Can I do this? Do people actually care about my paintings and what I have to offer? Is this the right career path for me? There have been times when I’ve done freelance projects and wasn’t charging what I actually was worth.
Finding your worth as an artist is always a struggle and is still something that I am learning to navigate when it comes to my art. I also believe that, that is a part of being an entrepreneur and working for yourself. There is no secret recipe to making it, everybody has their own personal journey. I think that something important to have in mind is to always stay in motion and keep creating, keep practicing and doing what you love and eventually by doing this it will generates more opportunities and therefor more success!
Artebycaro – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I have two different companies. One is my baby clothing business that I own with my mom and sister called “Wild Wawa”. We manufacture and produce all of our products in Lima, Peru and export to the USA. What sets us apart is that we only use the highest and softest quality pima cotton for your baby’s skin, and we are best known for our hand embroidered work and hand painted silkscreen prints.
The other company that I own is my art company, “Arte by caro”, where, I have the freedom to paint my own creations and sell them on my website (artebycaro.com) or Instagram (arte.by.caro). I sell original pieces as well as prints of my artwork and also offer to do commissioned art and murals! To me painting is my meditation, I love creating very detailed, bold and colorful paintings often inspired by nature and the women’s figure.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I recently painted an outdoor large scale mural for Dirty Dogs, in Solana Beach. I’ve never painted anything nearly as big as this and couldn’t be happier with how it came out. I absolutely love everything about painting large scale murals. The process and organization that it takes to plan for something like this and then finally see it done is so satisfying and cool. I also love that it creates dialogue between the artist and the community. There is nothing better than to share a piece of my work and voice as an artist to the public to see and appreciate. It makes me really happy and proud!
Contact Info:
- Website: artebycaro.com / shopwildwawa.com
- Phone: 858 260 9136
- Email: carolina.arrieta90@gmail.com
Image Credit:
Melissa Montoya Photography
Suggest a story: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
