Amanda Lago
Storyteller Artist
- June 15th, 2021
- Next Entry
In depth - about me
I’m Amanda Lago and I was born in November 1994, in a tiny city from the countryside of Brazil.
As most artists I know, I’ve always been an introverted person who rather stay at home to draw or play video games.
As a child, I used to spend hours doodling on my mother’s post-its in her office, leaving her little messages or drawing short stories about random subjects.
She kept lots of my drawings and here you can laugh with me about my beautiful masterpiece creations:
Well, when I was around 12 years old, my mom signed me up for painting classes. This is one of my most favorite memories from that time.
I didn’t spend a lot of time there, maybe a year or two, but it was special for me, especially when I sold my first oil painting to someone in the family (I think it was my father haha). I bought my first TV from the money I earned making paintings for the rest of the family. My teacher helped me a lot with them, so the credit is hers too. But then she had to move to another city and I didn’t keep painting. =(
I didn’t stop drawing, though. I already loved to spend 10+ hours in my room, drawing things that I was into at that time. I used to draw during classes too =P and I even made a silly comic about my best friend.
Thing is, I didn’t think I could make a living from my art when I was in High School. No one told me I could make enough money from it, even though I met some oil painting artists on the road. I just didn’t feel oil painting was my thing. Drawing was my thing and I didn’t know anyone making money from it, so I heard that if I liked to draw I should go to architecture university and so I went.
I did draw a few things during the first year, for the course’s assignments. These are from 2012/3:
But after that, I didn’t draw anymore. :'( The course started focusing more and more on 2D and 3D house plans and so, 5 years has passed, doing something that I tried so hard to be my thing.
Well, at the end, I do have a bachelor degree in Architecture and Urbanism, but that’s just it. I don’t think it was a complete wast of my time and energy though. I do like architecture and I hope I can build my own house and my beautiful garden from scracth someday. But it’s definitely something that I would NOT like to do for a living.
After my graduation, I couldn’t have felt more lost.
I tried to draw a couple of times, but I always stopped and I couldn’t make that a habit. I was still in the mindset of making Architecture work for me.
It was only when I went to a self-knowledge training that I finally faced the truth and found the tools to go back to drawing. To scrap all up and restart.
I decided to start the 100 Days of Pratice Challenge and the rest of the story you can find on the next post. >>