Meet Fernando Rojas Cervantes | Painter and Muralist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Fernando Rojas Cervantes and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Fernando, why did you pursue a creative career?
Growing up in Mexico led me to early exposure to many of the arts and created a perfect environment for me to be a very curious and observant person, feeding from the culture around me. From very early on I showed an interest in them, whether it was through simple hobbies like reading or going to a museum to me starting to sketch on my school notes. Thanks to this early involvement with this part of myself I naturally developed an interest in exploring and expressing myself through them and make them part of my daily life. Now at my 21 years of age, these interests matured through practice and merged into one big toolbox that has helped me develop my creative vision. I chose a creative career because art grew to be a big part of my life and it felt natural to keep pushing myself in that direction.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My work is an exploration of medium, technique and execution. The first steps I took in this direction were ink illustration and painting with influences like comics, street art and contemporary muralism. All of this has led me to implement the characteristics of these currents in my art, creating a visually familiar but unique combination of drawing techniques. Color is the base layer that sets the tone of the artwork and then I use linework to construct my paintings while I play with contrast and shapes. In my recent work I have been playing with lights and shadows through color, as well as experimenting with abstraction and emotion. This year I had the chance to participate at Wild West Mural Fest 2021 and painted alongside 25 other talented artists. Meeting them and getting to know their stories paints a clear picture: everyone has worked hard to get where they are. Getting here has been the combination of many years of practice and then jumping head first into muralism, a decision that put me out of my comfort zone and forced me to learn new techniques and methods, This has led my work to reach a greater audience and has challenged my design skills to adapt my work to every environment I paint.
I have learned that in the creative field nothing is more valuable than having confidence in yourself to put yourself out there. Success comes from meeting people, setting the bar high for your work and most importantly dedication and consistency.
Finally, my drive to paint comes from participating in the community and giving a voice to ideas, as well as my personal challenge to push my boundaries.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
First I would give them a food tour through the city, my favorite spots in town are Ten Ramen, Revolver Taco Lounge and Eno’s Pizza Tavern. Drinking will have a necessary stop at The Mitchell for some cocktails and Almas Rotas to have my favorite drink: mezcal. Visiting will include the Perot museum in Dallas as well as the Modern Art Museum and Kimbell Art musem in Fort Worth.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Succeeding in what you love is never an easy path, and as I have worked towards my goals there have been highs and lows. I’m very thankful for my friends, fellow artists and family because no matter the project, objective or challenge they have been there to support me and help me get out of my comfort zone. I attribute a lot of my drive to keep going and expand my creative vision to their encouragement in whatever I want to do.

Website: rojografito.com

Instagram: rojografito

Facebook: rojografito

Image Credits
Black and white portrait: Jeremy Biggers @stemandthorn