The other day I was wandering through my mural covered neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn, and I stumbled across this massive mural that stopped me in my tracks. I took a picture with my phone, uploaded to Instagram and tagged the artist. This sparked a great conversation with Ramiro Davaro-Comas that I'm thrilled to share with you here.

It's so great to be chatting with you today Ramiro. Could you introduce yourself to our readers?

My name is Ramiro Davaro-Comas and I am originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, but now live in the Albany area. I make art works on paper canvas and wood panels, as well as large scale murals in public art. My style is influenced by early 1900's Fleisher brother style cartoons, comic books, and skateboard graphics.

For the past five years I have also created and been directing a traveling artist residency program called “dripped on the road”, which brings artists to paint murals in different cities and towns around the United States.

That’s awesome. Yeah- your work is so stunning, I was stopped in my tracks by the piece I saw on a walk in my neighborhood in Bushwick. When in your life were you first drawn to visual art? Was there a moment where you knew you’d lead a life of creativity?

Well I have been drawing for most of my life, and I used it to make friends when I was moving from country to country and school to school. It kind of helped me deal with anxiety and kept my idle hands moving.

I guess I never really knew that I could have a career in the arts based off of my illustrations and the things that I liked, because until after college I was not exposed to that style of life and career.

While I continue to create works for gallery settings, and the other illustrations for commercial use, my true passion is public art and the power that public art and Murals have in terms of starting conversations, educating, and inspiring the community.

The mural that you saw is part of a series called Familias, which talks about both families and animals migrating throughout the world and searching for a better life and ecosystem as a whole. The question I often ask is why is it okay for natural migration of animals, but not of people?

That’s a great question to ask. I find that all too often people try to separate humans from nature when truly we are just a reflection of the same natural order. We are interwoven with all life really.

I completely understand our economic systems, our food systems, and other societal systems that sometimes cannot take large amounts of people, but I guess it’s more of a overall question about what we value in this country and abroad.

It’s a great point to raise, and a great way to raise it. How has social media impacted your artistic career? Positives? Negatives?

I think social media has affected everybody in different ways. For me I have seen it impact the galleries I used to like to show with, by taking away their gatekeeper power and disseminating it through an online portal. Don’t get me wrong, more power to the people is great, but I did have a great community with all of those artists that I met in person at the galleries I used to show with.

With that said, I have also been able to see a wider range of artists that I may not have been able to see through these exact same gatekeepers, and I believe the playing field in some way has been slightly leveled.

I love that sentiment. And we can say what we will about the pitfalls of social media, but it became the medium by which we were able to connect and share thoughts and theories with each other. Like anything, it cuts both ways. Is there any advice or wisdom you would share with a younger artist who feels called towards creativity and art?

Yes I think my advice for younger artists would be to not build up your self-worth according to how many likes you have on social media, how many followers you have, or even how many paintings or illustrations you have sold. You should be creating because it is something that gives you peace of mind, energy, and it’s true to your nature. Additionally networking with other people, and finding out other non-traditional means of creativity is a huge necessity, which allows young artists to not pigeonhole themselves into one category.

Artists should diversify themselves, whether that means you paint one mural, make seven illustrations, and two paintings for an exhibit, having a diverse set of skills and markets will allow those artists freedom in their creativity.

And always DIY. Self representation and building up your own network of galleries, collectors, friends and supporters, is much stronger and sustainable for your practice then to bend over backwards for a gallery or client who ultimately destroys your self worth. DIY baby! That’s what skateboarding has taught me for over 21 years.

Amazing. Well thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. Your work is stunning and I wish you the best in your continued explorations! Where can people find you online?

No problem thank you so much for being interested. You can find my works of course on my Instagram @ramirostudios as well as on my website at www.ramirostudios.com​.