Today we’d like to introduce you to Alessandra Rodriguez.
Alessandra, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was always surrounded by art as a kid, thanks to my mom, who is an architect. But as I grew older, I realized how many branches of art there really are so I started experimenting with painting, drawing, and by 13, I had my own little cake business going. I remember my junior year of high school studying for SATs but thinking to myself in the back of my head, “why?” every normal school subject just seemed so bland to me but when you’re that young you tend to just follow what everyone else seems to be doing, so I kept studying.
I remember going to the movie theater in January of 2014 and watching Frozen. It was definitely a marking point for me because I left that theater telling my mom I wanted to work on that one day, I got home and started researching what type of art that was and what I needed to do to get there. So I found out about Ringling College of Art & Design which was in Sarasota, FL and they required a specific portfolio for animation, it was expensive, and they only accepted 120 students every year to that major but i remember being so stubborn and working on that portfolio every single day that year. I found an amazing teacher in coral springs, Lucy Saenz Art studio, ans she was just that type of teacher that you never forget as an artist.
And so I got into Ringling with a scholarship and worked harder than I ever had for anything in my life, interned with Hasbro summer of 2018, and made an animated short film with two partners, that ended up getting the presidential award at my school. I, fortunately, graduated Ringling with a job and have been working with Hasbro for a little over a year now. I’ve gotten to work on the toys for Frozen 2, Marvel, Star Wars, Disney Princesses, Power Rangers, Dungeons & Dragons, etc. It’s a dream come true to be able to sculpt for these awesome partner brands. I’m still very excited to see what happens in the future.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I don’t think anything in art is ever a smooth road. But that’s the whole point sometimes you have to fail really bad at something in order to do better. For example, artists are always asking for critics on what they can do better in their work and if everyone tells you its perfect all the time, you’re never going to get any better.
I was told so many times by people I respected to not do anything art related, that I won’t make any money blah blah and there’s just this huge stigma around artist jobs not being important or the “starving artist” stereotype but the most ironic thing is that everything you see in the world today was visually designed and brought to life by a different type of artists like buildings, signs, social media platforms. So it’s important to acknowledge that and not take those types of things for granted.
We’d love to hear more about your art.
I am a 3D toy sculptor for Hasbro and have been working there for a little over a year. There’s so much that goes into toy making it’s insane. I definitely took it for granted when I was a little kid because I didn’t know just how much work goes into it all. There are so many things to keep in mind like minimum thicknesses (or else it won’t print), draft ability so it can come out of the mold since they’re mass-produced, articulation is huge for the action figures so we take care of the engineering in that and making sure that it’ll articulate properly/have enough range of motion, and that’s just the functionality part of it. It’s always about finding good in-between with appeal factor and functionality.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I think success for many people is defined by reaching a specific goal (which don’t get me wrong I obviously have specific goals for myself as well), but no one is really promised the day of tomorrow and sometimes it can just take away from being grateful and happy right now so as long as I know that I’m working towards my goals everyday, what’s meant for me will be for me. So those are my little successes everyday.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1027 Newport Avenue Pawtucket, RI 02862
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ale.finessesart/
Suggest a story: VoyageMIA 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.
