Loving what you do and doing what you love are sentiments that illustrator and tattoo artist Regina Díaz strives to live by. We spoke with her about how art has been apart of her whole life, what inspires her, the best place for food in Guadalajara, and a whole bunch more. Read the full interview after the jump!
Tell us about who you are and what you do.
My name is Regina Díaz and I was born in Puerto Vallarta, México. I'm 21 years old, soon 22. I'm currently starting my illustration path, and I'm starting to have some ideas of what I like to do and what I want to leave to myself and the people that appreciate my work. Tattooing my illustrations is also something that I really love to do. Sometimes I also do ballet, yoga and take pictures. Someday I would like to start mixing music too!
When did you start getting into making art?
Art has surrounded me since day one. My dad, Rogelio Díaz, is a known artist in my town and some other parts of Mexico and since the day I was born brushes, paint, and canvases were my toys. I went to art classes in primary school and when I was in middle school/high school I started drawing for fun again. I was doing pencil portraits of my favorite models, and then colored portraits. After that I started practicing more and more and found stylographs and I think that is where everything changed. Nowadays I'm illustrating digital, physical, and do tattoos of my illustrations. It's pretty fun and I feel happy and honored for people who get my stuff. What I just really want is to do is to keep growing, learning, and doing different types of artwork and techniques to exercise my creativity in different fields and to find new ways to express myself and to express what others may feel.
What's your favorite part about being creative?
My favorite part is that I get to be me. To expose what I like and what I see about the world. I think theres no limits of lines, shapes, or colors, and this is the place where you can be 100% yourself. Others may like it, others may not, but what really matters is how you feel about it, how you feel doing it and showing it––despite the results.
What's one of your favorite pieces you've done?
'Mis mañanas'' is one of my favorite pieces because that was my first digital illustration. I realized that I really enjoyed doing that and after that day I started doing stuff in the computer and my perspective changed a little bit of what I wanted to do in my artistic life. It is also a piece that represents for me something happy and peaceful and also represents my style.
Who/what are some of your biggest inspirations?
The streets, plants, colors, insects, animals, to travel the world in the future, the human body, the ocean, lights, ballet, photography, art, Mexico, sunrises, fashion, women, my friends, music, culture, Joy Laville, Basquiat, Edward Degas, the internet, Asia, illustrators all over the world, people that I love, the moon, myself.
What's some advice you'd give to fellow artists?
Practice, practice, practice, patience, patience, patience, and having fun while you are doing it. Don't be afraid to mix fun colors. If you like what you are doing, someone else will. Explore, read, feel, get paint stains on your t-shirt, on your finished piece, on the wall. Play with the textures and lines. Love what you do and do what you love.
How is your personality reflected in your work?
I think it may be reflected in not doing just one style. I like to play with textures and lines and shadows, a lot of colors too. So is my personality, I like to do different things from drawing to dancing to tattooing, etc. It can be very girly to neutral and thats something that I also like and think may reflect something too.
Music you've been listening to lately?
Skinshape, The Blaze, Rhye, Britney Spears, Disclosure, L'impératrice, Phoenix, Kanye, Frank Ocean, Jose Gonzalez, The Marias <3
Best place to get food where you live?
Ahh! It's one of the hardest questions haha, but I think I would have to chose ''Pal Real''. It's this restaurant in a beautiful area that is open from breakfast to dinner and they have the most amazing dishes. They have the Mexican touch but it's quite different from others and it's such a beautiful restaurant full of plants, art and it smells amazing (because of the really good coffee). If you ever come to Guadalajara it's a must!!!
Anything else you'd like to add?
If you would like to see my work my instagram is @reeeegi and my tattoo work is @oo.ttat. Thank you for reading this and I hope you like what I do! I'm also up to collaborations and my email is reginadiazdigilio@gmail.com for personal contact. Tune in on whats coming next!!! Thank you :)
Follow Regina on Instagram (@reeeegi & @oo.ttat)