Mar 31, 2021

"I was literally swimming in an ocean of insecurities with no idea how to reach the shore"

Valeria Patricia Torres

Artist/Graphic Designer

Quito, Ecuador

I’ve never written something about myself besides my morning pages but I guess that is a different type of writing. A week ago, I was asked to write a self interview. Yes, a self interview. My first thoughts about this were “How am I supposed to do that? I don’t even know what to say” and so on, but even though those excuses kept dancing around my head, I decided to do it. I will write a self interview because it means that I’ll have to do something I’ve never done before and that’s another way of saying to myself “Step out of your freaking comfort zone”.

I think maybe I’ll discover something about myself while I narrate to you through a 5 question self interview about who I am, what I do and why.

Welcome :)

Who do you think you are?

My name is Valeria Patricia Torres Rivadeneira, I'm 24 years old. I am Ecuadorian, I reside in Quito, Ecuador’s capital. I consider myself a feminist, I defend woman’s bodies and also celebrate them. I believe in connections and the power of collective ideas. I also believe in myself but that doesn’t mean that sometimes I don't and I am working on accepting that it’s normal, because healing is not a linear process. I believe in astrology and I'm learning how to interpret tarot. I am a really sensible person and also a overthinker. I enjoy painting and drawing as much as a well prepared Bloody Mary.

What do you do?

I’m a graphic designer for living and an artist for passion. I work at a design studio called Panico. We design for pretty cool brands along with an amazing team. Besides that, I have a project called Hello Patrice where basically I share my thoughts through my drawings with a positive approach, send some love and experiment with art as a way of living (someday I’ll actually live from my creations).

Tell me more about your project Hello Patrice

Hello Patrice was created during some dark moments back in 2018, i was feeling heavy, anxious, alone, lost. I was literally swimming in an ocean of insecurities with no idea how to reach the shore. Thank god, my past self decided that drawing and writing positive and supporting messages was the best coping mechanism and it really worked, not only because I was cheering myself up but because I was cheering someone else up and that for me is where the magic happened. Then, I decided to create a character named after myself, why? Because when I was a kid/teenager I was ashamed of my second name Patricia and using it in my favour was a way of acknowledging myself. With time I started feeling myself again but my entire perception of the world changed, that stage of my life teached me the importance of empathy and kindness with ourselves and towards others. And that inspires me to draw, paint, create and write through a character that i created, so basically I'm creating my own reality.

What made you write this self interview?

I'm going to be honest, I thought twice before accepting, but when I read what Egomania Magazine promotes I vibrated in the same exact frequency, I will share the question that made me accept doing this, is written on their website, this question made me confirm why I am doing what I am doing with Hello Patrice:

“Are you going to be in the lane promoting more self-obsession and separateness, or are you going to promote unity, healing and conscious living, help steer humankind towards a better world and higher vibes!?”

And I also accepted because the creator of Egomania Mag is Mimi, and someone I care a lot about is called Mimi too and I love that kind of coincidence.

So why are you doing it?

Because, I want to explore my subconscious and shadow, share my healing process through imagery and see if my experience resonates with others. Alex Grey said that art and music can be a spiritual practice, bringing us closer to the divine, and that there may be no more powerful integrative tools for examining and healing our soul than the creative arts. He affirms that we can activate and magnify the artist archetype within us by directly expressing our truth, psychologically and spiritually. So in conclusion, I'm doing it because I am evolving through it.