Today we’d like to introduce you to Dakota Cates.
Dakota, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Where do I start?
As a kid, I would always draw my favorite cartoon characters and make up my own Pokemon. As I got older and realized I wasn’t very good at school or following directions, I leaned further into drawing just to pass the time. By the time I graduated high school I had absolutely no vision of my future, I was getting into trouble with cops and just all around completely lost. That’s when I discovered my superpower, AKA creativity!
From that point on I was literally making things non stop, while also juggling two jobs. It was extremely difficult, and even more rewarding! I started to strip away every aspect of my life that wasn’t in the vision I had for what I wanted my life to look like, and eventually was able to quit my job and make art and travel full time, and 3 years later I’ve been living solely off of goofy creations and I’m in love with it!
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do? Why? And what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Oh boy, what don’t I make? I paint, illustrate, print shirts, make puppets, animation, I love it all.
Most of my work is riddled with super bright colors, wild imaginary creatures, and Beavis and Butthead-esque humor to entertain the inner 12-year-old inside me.
As far as a message, I think I really just like making people and myself laugh. But I would really love to make people look at my art and feel inspired that you really can sculpt a career and a life around having fun and doing exactly what you want to do if you work hard enough and are desperate enough to make it happen. I never knew that drawing weird monsters and wizards could be a real job until I saw someone else doing it, and then BOOM! The light turned on, and from then on there was/is no stopping me.
“Boom” isn’t the noise lights should make when they turn on, is it? I’ll get that checked out…
How can artists connect with other artists?
It is extremely lonely!! Especially if you’re doing it full time, and you work from home like I do. Probably one of the biggest challenges that I didn’t expect! I’ll sometimes go days without seeing or talking to people if I’m really absorbed by projects.
The internet is HUGE for connecting with people, and I’ve made some really awesome friendships with other artists just through Instagram. I also travel and do shows in different cities all the time, so I get to meet people from all over. But you have to make an effort to connect with people, go out to the art show in your area, look for “drink and draw” events or something similar to go to. Reach out to like-minded artists on the internet! I have so many real friendships that just started by one of us saying “Hey I really like your work!” and now anytime I travel I have people to stay with and hang out with and help each other get opportunities, it’s all love! I’ve rarely ever had a bad experience from reaching out to artists, get out of that bubble and go create relationships baby!
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
My main home for artwork is Instagram (@Wizardofbarge), and I post new work there almost every single day, go check it out! The art community of Instagram is insane and one of the most supportive audiences ever. Other than that you can probably go into Insomnia Gallery and find some paintings/products from me. I’ve been traveling a ton doing shows all over so; unfortunately, I haven’t spent as much time doing Houston events the last year, but I do plan on having another big solo show towards the end of this year!
Contact Info:
- Website: Wizardofbarge.etsy.com
- Email: wizardofbarge@yahoo.com
- Instagram: @wizardofbarge
Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
