Today we’d like to introduce you to Claudia Rodriguez Diaz.
Hi Claudia, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always been creative, but for a long time art lived quietly beside the rest of my life instead of at the center of it. I come from a Mexican-American background where hard work and responsibility came first, so I followed a more traditional professional path and built a career in accounting as a licensed CPA.
Over time, though, painting became more than just a hobby for me. It became a way to process identity, motherhood, memory, culture, resilience, and the emotional weight that life carries. As the mother of a child on the autism spectrum and a cancer survivor, I began seeing the world differently… more deeply, more symbolically, and with more patience. That perspective slowly found its way into my artwork.
I started creating commissioned pet portraits through Pets Immortal in 2020 because I saw how deeply people love their animals and how much comfort art can bring after loss. At the same time, I also began developing more personal work inspired by alebrijes, South Texas Mexican culture, family stories, faith, and the feeling of living between worlds.
What’s interesting is that I never really set out with the idea of becoming “an artist” in the traditional sense. I simply kept painting, kept growing, and kept saying yes to opportunities that felt meaningful. Over time, those small steps turned into exhibitions, public showings, and opportunities to connect with people in ways I never expected.
Today, I feel like I’m finally creating from a place that is honest to who I am… not just technically, but emotionally and culturally too. My work is still evolving, but that’s part of what keeps me excited. Every painting feels like another conversation between where I come from, what I’ve lived through, and the stories I still want to tell.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No, it definitely hasn’t been a smooth road, but I think the difficult seasons and obstacles are part of what shaped both me and my work.
Before art became such an important part of my life, I went through an aggressive cancer diagnosis, which changed my perspective on time, identity, and what truly matters. During that same year, our family began navigating a completely different journey when our son started experiencing seizures and was later diagnosed with autism. For many years, life felt like a pile of jumbled jigsaw pieces that we were constantly trying to make sense of.
One of the hardest parts wasn’t just our son’s autism diagnosis itself, but trying to figure out where we fit in. We made many painful mistakes along the way while trying different school settings and environments that ultimately were not right for him. Over time, safety and emotional well-being became more important than trying to force a version of “normal” that didn’t fit our child’s needs. Eventually, we made the decision to homeschool, and that changed our family’s rhythm and priorities completely.
At the same time, I was still balancing a professional career in accounting while slowly developing my identity as an artist. For a long time, I struggled to fully claim that part of myself because it felt so different from the structured world I came from.
But looking back, I think all of those experiences shaped the emotional language of my work. Painting became a place where I could process resilience, identity, motherhood, culture, grief, beauty, and hope all at once. It gave me a way to transform difficult experiences into something meaningful and connective.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m an acrylic painter, and my work tends to live somewhere between storytelling, symbolism, culture, and emotional memory. I create both commissioned pet portraits through Pets Immortal and more personal fine art pieces inspired by alebrijes, South Texas Mexican culture, faith, family history, and the emotional experiences that shape us.
A lot of my work explores themes of identity, resilience, protection, connection, and transformation. Even when I paint animals, I’m usually thinking about something deeper beneath the surface… comfort, spirit, memory, love, or belonging. I think that emotional layer is what ties all of my work together.
Stylistically, I’m drawn to bold symbolism, expressive eyes, layered textures, and imagery that feels both grounded and dreamlike at the same time. I love creating pieces that invite people to pause and feel something personal, even if they interpret the meaning differently than I originally intended.
What I’m probably most proud of is that I’ve allowed myself to create honestly instead of trying to fit into what I thought an artist was “supposed” to be. For a long time, I approached art quietly and cautiously, but over the years I’ve become more comfortable embracing my own voice, heritage, and lived experiences within the work.
I also think my path into art sets me apart a bit. I didn’t come from a traditional fine arts background or follow a straight creative path. My life experiences shaped the way I see the world, and I think that perspective naturally found its way into my paintings and gave them emotional depth that can’t really be taught.
At the end of the day, I want people to feel something genuine when they see my work. If a painting makes someone feel seen, comforted, nostalgic, understood, or emotionally connected in some way, then I feel like I’ve done what I was meant to do.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I think both good luck and bad luck have played important roles in my life, although I’ve come to see “luck” a little differently over time.
Some of the hardest experiences in my life, like cancer, navigating our autism journey, and feeling uncertain about where I fit creatively, certainly didn’t feel like luck in the moment. But looking back, those experiences reshaped my priorities, deepened my perspective, and ultimately influenced the emotional direction of my work in ways I never could have planned.
On the positive side, I do feel lucky that certain opportunities and connections came into my life at the right time. Sometimes it was meeting people who encouraged my work, being invited into exhibitions, or simply having someone emotionally connect with a painting I created. Those moments gave me the confidence to keep going.
I also think there’s a quieter kind of luck that comes from continuing to show up, even when you feel uncertain. A lot of opportunities in my artistic journey happened because I kept painting, kept learning, and stayed open to growth even when life felt overwhelming.
At this point in my life, I think gratitude probably describes it better than luck. Even the difficult chapters gave me experiences, perspective, and emotional depth that eventually became part of both my art and who I am as a person.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.petsimmortal.com
- Instagram: @petsimmortal
- Facebook: @petsimmortal8
