Values by Laura Martinez Martinez

231061_9 — 2025-02-06 22:23:36 UTC

Ever since I been a kid, I been interested in art and found myself and for a long time I only saw it as a hobby as most people in my life had told me that being an artist does not make you a lot of money and how it be a waste of a degree to go into a career for something such as art. I initially agreed with this as I was used to making people happy even could see myself doing other careers yet whenever I thought of it even just in school, I found myself being most passionate about art and especially graphic design. Other careers I have tried to learn about about and pursue I have enjoyed and did like learning things from them but I never felt the connection of this is what I want to do in life until I started working on graphic design , I never have found a dull moment with it and even when I did graphic design for a client project in one of my classes, all it did was reinforce this belief of this what I was made to do.

231061_9 — 2025-02-06 22:28:26 UTC

I get inspired by many things when it comes to my art but a huge component and I think it’s more of an unintentional inspiration and meaning to my art is my nostalgia and a things that simply remind me of my childhood. I have found over the year a lot of my ideas stem from this sense of childhood wonder or memories and overall things that remind me of my childhood, once I made a magazine inspired design and one of the things I included was a word search as when I was designing this magazine, I was reminded of every time when I was a kid at a restaurant or the doctor office and I had to do activities while I waited. I included this detail as it hugely has stuck with me and was ultimately featured in my work due to this memory.

231061_9 — 2025-02-06 22:35:14 UTC

I always been close to my family and naturally am a very family driven person. A time that family was very important to me was in 9th grade when a news broke out that emotionally affected everyone in my family , I grew up with the skill of naturally comforting others and during that time I was strictly doing that as that was the only way I knew how to help and besides I was in denial of how I felt about it and was under the assumption that I was fine until my parents pointed out to me that I was not okay and it was okay for me to not feel okay. To me , it’s different thinking about it when it comes to others rather than yourself so I did not even realize I was struggling nor did I felt like I should have been until it was pointed out to me

231061_9 — 2025-02-19 15:15:07 UTC

my time visiting Mexico

→ visiting my mom and dad's hometown

it was a long car ride to go to Poza Rica, Veracruz in Mexico

, I hadn't visited since I was 11 years old, everything was so different yet the same at the same time, I got older, my grandma's house went through tiny changes with a new paint color, and more cats came and went through my grandma's house then I remember but something that remained the same was I still was not fluent in Spanish and was not the most connected to my culture. However, I grew to be connected through my culture and language, my family, and my interactions with them despite the barrier. In mexico , i stayed with my dad side of the family , my aunts even came down to visit me and my sister for two days so the family decided to have a girls day and go to the shopping center in the city , exploring what the sellers at the markets were selling along with what foods were being sold , i saw more of the city than i did the first time around , and was way more openly engaging with my family , the best i could as my Spanish is not so fluent and my English as described my family in mexico is way more faster than what they can understand and my Spanish is way more slower and lacks confidences when I speak the language.

despite these tiny issues, i grew a connection , i previously did not have in terms of my culture , the various local food spots, and seeing the beauty and uniqueness of my culture that I do not see in living in Minnesota.