Ever see an amazing show poster filled with psychedelic-style doodles? Or perhaps a cool shirt in Kon Tiki with layers of trippy and intricate designs? The culprit is probably Camila Romero, a third-year visual arts major at SUNY New Paltz.
Camila started drawing when she was a child, but started taking it seriously in her junior year of high school. She drew inspiration from a documentary about Jean-Michel Basquiat, and cites his playful, childish style and work ethic as major inspirations for her own art.
She also named artists William Blake and Alex Gray, the latter specifically inspiring her abstract style. Her work often has thick black borders around the figures she draws, which is an aspect drawn from artist Keith Haring. Her color usage comes from the Netflix show “The Midnight Gospel.”
When Camila makes art, she needs to listen to music. She enjoys working late at night, listening to a playlist or a podcast to get her creativity flowing. She is also fascinated by astrology, drawing inspiration from that to put into her work as well. Starting off with little doodles and then connecting them, Camila loves to slowly move from one part of her drawings to the next in order to perfect it.
The most recent artwork she is most proud of is a poster she designed for Man’s Mother, a local New Paltz band, advertising their performance at Snug’s that happened on Sept. 24. The colorful cluster of tiny designs, all carefully curated to create a little universe on the page, took over five hours to complete.
You can find Camila’s art on her Instagram, @camilaromerocastillo.
