A point of view, shaped by not belonging anywhere
I'm Guillermo Carvajal. Born in Venezuela to Colombian parents. Educated in the U.S. Australian citizen.
Which means I spent most of my life learning how to fit in.
New country, new accent, new set of rules to read quickly and follow correctly. I got good at it. I learned to make myself smaller, easier, less noticeable. To color between the lines, because the lines were how you got to stay.
It took me a long time to understand that I'd trained myself in exactly the opposite of what my work requires.
Because creativity isn't skill. I know plenty of people who can execute anything you put in front of them, perfect craft, flawless technique, nothing to say. Skill lets you execute an idea. It doesn't give you one.
What gives you one is a point of view. A belief about how something could be better, more interesting, more useful, more human. And a point of view comes with a cost. It means taking a stand, and accepting that some people won't like it.
All that moving, all that adapting, all that watching from the outside, it turned out to be the raw material. You see problems where everyone else sees "the way things are."
So that's the work. Not decoration. Not wallpaper. Solutions to real problems, made by someone willing to say something.
The world has enough ideas that fit in.