10: Argentinian Cartoonist & Illustrator Pepita Sandwich

Draws in Spanish | Conversations with Latinx Visual Artists and Designers

Pepita Sandwich grew up feeling like she couldn’t be an artist because her work wasn’t realistic enough. Josefina — who goes by her nickname Pepita Sandwich — is a Brooklyn-based illustrator and cartoonist who loves to capture “crappy magic” and nostalgic emotions with her creative work.

She was raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina and grew up visiting art museums and eating endless amounts of ice cream at her grandfather’s ice cream shop. Pepita pursued a degree in Fashion Design from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, but after graduation, she quickly followed her passion for illustration and comics.

Once she published Survival Diaries in 2016, she made her way to the US to pursue an MFA in cartooning at The Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont. While studying for her MFA, she wrote and published her second book, Women Move Mountains, with Penguin Random House. She’s gone on to work with clients such as The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and Adidas.

In this episode, we go over how she discovered cartooning and illustration, why she decided to move to the US, the pressure that comes with sharing your work on social media, and why she just loves to cry.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Topics Covered:

• Growing up in Buenos Aires with an Art Historian mother and Engineer Father
• Frequenting Art Museums in her childhood and how it impacted her work
• Feeling the pressure of being a “Fine Artist”
• Graduating with a Fashion Design degree from Universidad de Buenos Aires
• How to explain a creative career to your parents and family
• The pros and cons of the rise of social media
• Dealing with social media comparison and toxicity
• Pursuing an MFA in Comics at The Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont
• Publishing Women Move Mountains in 2019 and Survival Diaries in 2016
• Experiencing culture shock from moving from Buenos Aires to Vermont
• The origin story of the name Pepita Sandwich
• Making bilingual comics in order to expand her audience and reach the US market
• Developing a book on crying and the associated taboos of crying
• Launching her new class about having a visual diary to capture a feeling

Guest Info

Check out Pepita’s Instagram, Patreon, and new visual diary course on Domestika.

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