Amanda Maldonado of Coy Ink Studio came to Longmont from the Winston-Salem/Greensboro area of North Carolina. What she found here was a community of artists who support and encourage each other. Maldonado uses the power of community as the inspiration for her art.
"Having somewhat exclusive access to local artists who may or may not ever become nationally known is amazing because it's something that most of the people in the world will never get to see,” Maldonado said, adding, “I find seeing other people connect with the community through their art inspirational."
Like many artists she suffered from issues with self-confidence as a child and early in her career.
"College was really hard because they're trying to teach you skills but there really wasn't a lot of meat to grab onto. It's a lot of I don't know, just make something and dig deeper, but I'm not going to give you any instruction on how to think that way," Maldonado said. That experience made her feel bad about herself and took a lot of the joy out of making art for her.
A few years later, she decided not to let the critics get in her way. She knew she wanted to keep up with what she loved.
“When we think about art, we think 'oh, you're just making something beautiful, you're just recreating something. And, at a certain point, it starts to lose some of its meaning,” she said.
Instead of allowing despair to swallow her and destroy her drive to create art, Maldonado embraced her connections with others, which brought her back to art.
“What I realized in 2020 and 2021, was adding meaning to it (art), for me, is the connection to other people. When I would go out and paint with a friend, we were supposed to paint landscapes, and I'd paint her because I missed her and loved her. I'd say, "you were the one thing here that felt very important to me," Maldonado said.
Maldonado’s love for art isn’t limited to painting. She is a graphic designer — working for local shops like Java Stop — and has a great love for pen and ink work.
"Koi is watercolor, pen and ink. I primarily love contour so anything where if you use a pen is certainly up my alley," she said, "I'm working harder getting better at watercolor, though, so I can enhance the combination."
