ABOUT ME

JUAN ORBES
(2001) Born in Nariño, Colombia.

Since I was a kid, art has been a big part of my life. I remember drawing my toys every day—my first sketchbooks were filled with dinosaurs, toy cars, and rough portraits of my family.

As I grew up, everyone started pointing out my “talent,” and I started noticing it too. But that word has always felt a little off to me. I don’t believe anyone is born with a special ability to do certain things—I’ve always believed that practice is what builds the master. So far, I think I’ve been right. Nothing happens just because of talent. The most important part of becoming someone is hard work and discipline—and talent has nothing to do with those two things. (Kurt and Michael knew that all too well.)

Still, people kept talking about talent. I heard it so often throughout my life. But I stayed focused, because I knew that with only talent, I was probably going to starve.

In 2017, I started studying Visual Arts at the University of Nariño. I spent almost six years there. But nothing really changed in my life. I thought a professional degree would give me clarity, but it only made me feel more lost. I didn’t know what to do with my life—I felt worthless—until I realized that no one was going to build something for me. I had to do it myself.

So that’s what I did.

Since 2024, I’ve been drawing and practicing every single day—not thinking about whether my drawings would make money. I was obsessed with building something—anything—that would make me feel like I was worth something. Like maybe all those “You’re so talented” comments I’d heard all my life actually meant something.

I started researching ways to make a living through the internet, because the truth is, my context isn’t the best for being an artist.

That’s when I began recording videos of my drawings, hoping someone—anyone—would see them and be interested. I posted every single day, but for almost six months, nothing worked. Then I remembered how much I loved Gravity Falls—especially Stanford Pines’ journals. Without overthinking it, I started making the kind of content I wanted to see, in reel-style videos.

The very first video of that series is one I’ll remember forever—it was about the Korowai tribe. And it worked. I hit 10,000 views on TikTok for the first time! People started commenting. So I kept going, and my TikTok started to grow.

In those videos, I was researching the origins of symbolic thought in human beings. I wrote about every human race that ever walked the Earth. I discovered so many incredible things that now deeply influence my art—and now, some of those journal-page videos have reached hundreds of thousands of views.

So, I began including those texts in my drawings too. And for the first time, someone actually reached out to commission a piece. I couldn’t believe it—I sold my first drawing!

And then, like magic, more commissions started coming in, one after another. After seven years of dreaming of being an artist, I was finally becoming one.

Thanks to those commissions, I was able to open this website—my website. My virtual gallery. Something I had dreamed about for so many nights.

This is just the beginning.
But this time, I don’t feel worthless anymore.

Warmly,
Juan <3

2025