I’ve always been attracted to art but I had this romantic idea that you have to be born with some sort of artistic calling or talent, so I didn’t really allow myself to pursue art as a career until my mid-twenties. I was also a snowboard rat for the longest time and I used to make all-female snowboard movies. Looking back now, documenting snowboarding was more of an outlet to expressing my creativity and a gateway to becoming a fully assumed visual artist. 

To be perfectly honest, I’m completely obsessed with art and everything I do revolves around it. For example, I love going to thrift stores and antique shopping, but I see it as a way of finding inspiration through interesting pieces of art I could stumble upon. When I get into something, I really go all-in, so it’s hard for me to make time for other things.

A funny thing is that I have never actually seen those movies! I was more of an Alice in Wonderland and Beauty and the Beast-type of girl, but I thought it would be interesting to paint those characters based only on what I saw in the trailers as a child. It’s a bit like those medieval depictions of animals drawn from memory or even without having even seen the creatures at all, which is a lot of my approach to painting, in general. 

If you want to see more anatomically incorrect creatures, you can follow me on Instagram at @esteepreda or visit my website at esteepreda.com.