Aksel Pena Casillas
Artist Statement
It all started in middle school when I saw one of my friends drawing in a sketch book and people were crowded around him in awe of his artistic skill. I looked at his work and naturally I figured I could do better than that. And me being an obnoxious middle schooler, I had no problem telling him to his face. And that started the endless competition between me and my friends to see who can draw better, and while most of them went onto less trivial things. I sat glued to an office chair in the family computer room for hours learning to draw anime characters (since to me anime was the pinnacle of art) and, as I progressed from middle school to high school, so did my supplies and skills. It would go from tablets to expensive Japanese paints (which I only bought because studio Ghibli uses them) to graphics tablets and air brushes. After all those years I finally became better at drawing than the rest of my friends. So much so that at 16 I figured it was time to make a profit. With that I went in all kinds of directions, from trying to start a YouTube channel, trying to sell t-shirt designs, entering my work into contests essentially pitting myself against more accomplished artists from around the world my ego knew no bounds, until it got humbled by all the rejections and lack of profit but this was the catalyst for me to major in something art related and that I know art doesn’t sell but vector art and logos do. That’s when I realized there were logos all around me, and someone got paid to create those. If I was to make any sort of money, I knew it would be off creating logos. As I got refined my craft in college and learned to work with photoshop and illustrator I finally got hired for free-lance jobs and I could finally say I made money with my art, but I know this is only the beginning.
One reoccurring word that has always loomed over me is the word different. Different not in a bad way but just different as in new, unusual or unique. That applied into all aspects of my life, like for starters my name Aksel. That name was so different that Microsoft word counted it as a spelling error until 2016 and everyone who reads that name end up pronouncing it as “Askel”. Or the fact that a had a tarantula as a pet or that I was the one of six kids in high school who did pole vault; making it to become varsity when there was no competition. These reoccurring themes of different, seeped into my design skill; at first, I was embarrassed that all my work looked different. Now, I embrace the uniqueness of my work. When I design my goal is to break away from the status quo. To give the viewer or client something they have never seen. Cause in a market so competitive like graphic design, the best thing you can do for yourself be different.
