Artist: Chiara Bautista
Author: Haven Wright
Chiara Bautista aka “Milk” is a 38 year old Mexican artist currently residing in Tucson, Arizona. She has a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design and worked as an illustrator for many years at Arizona Daily Star (newspaper). While her color usage and unique style is phenomenal the part of her work that draws in so many admirers stems from the characters and heart-wrenching stories she has created.
The Mermaid and the Skeletal Crow:
The Bunny and the Wolf:
The Octopus and the Man:
When asked where her inspiration for the characters came from she replied, “The characters and their ongoing stories are made as gifts for people I love. They are usually born from conversations, most of them from a single sentence said at the right time.” Chiara and her muse, Ilka, have held an online relationship for years but never officially met. It is speculated that the emotion people feel when looking at her work is that of her own personal sorrow due to a long distance relationship. It is also apparent that her love of music and religious background play a role in some of the works.
Where exactly did she start? This is what she had to say when asked a similar question, “I’ve always liked drawing and painting, and since I was a little girl I knew I wanted to work on something related to that field. As for my personal work, I create the illustrations in order to work as part of a small conversation and use them to express something I can’t find the right words for. After more than a decade of condensing big amounts of text into single images on a daily basis, I find using visual communication as normal as any other language. We can say things through music, words and actions. I’m one of those who like to say it using figures and colors.”
Like writing a paper her work consists of many revisions and refinements, “I always start with something I need to say, usually a feeling I can’t put into words, and that’s why I have to use images. I never sketch a final version of an illustration because I always end changing almost everything. My work process is messy and I go back and forth, changing stuff constantly while I’m working. It’s like… when you’re writing an email to an ex-boyfriend, and you have to go back and read again that last paragraph, and after reading it a couple of times you change something here and there because you don’t want him to misunderstand your words. Yes, it’s just like that. My [messy] work process includes: pencil & paper, a basic sketch of the main layer, scanner, computer, a vector program (Freehand Mx/Adobe Illustrator), and Adobe Photoshop.”
Bautista is quite the elusive artist, giving little insight into her personal life, and no one is quite sure what she looks like either. She currently has many projects in process and would love to pursue comic books and graphic novels in the future.
If you are interested in seeing more you can check out her Facebook page.