Meet Aleo Covi | Character Artist & Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Aleo Covi and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Aleo, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
People all around the world regularly fight to overcome their mental health challenges. Sometimes on Instagram it’s hard not to talk about myself endlessly and come across like I make it all about me, but I have to remind myself that I share my story to help people. I have Schizophrenia. Only about one percent of people struggle with this condition, but there’s so many more who battle mental illness as a whole. I hope my work speaks to those people. I feel safe disclosing my illness publicly because I’m an artist, and I have a good community of support around me. People often react weirdly and that’s to be expected. Openness on this level is not for everyone.
At the same time, I don’t want to just be the Schizophrenia guy. This illness is an integral part of my journey, but so much of the worst parts of it are behind me. So I continue talking about it, but through my character art. Yeah, I have Schizophrenia, but I rarely draw scary things. This isn’t just for me. It’s to stand in solidarity with people who want to seek out something beyond whatever adversity they are experiencing. I don’t like it when people say they feel alone, because that sucks. No one should be lonely and abandoned. Nobody should even feel that way. I’m not going to provide companionship to anyone and everyone but I can show them they’re not alone in a way. They can see my work from a distance and say “wow, he has overcome a really distressing season. Maybe I can too.”

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I actually started my adult life as a homeless teenager. I remember laying on a concrete bench under the stars and pondering how I could build up my life. I ended up borrowing a friend’s laptop and spent months and months teaching myself how to code. I eventually connected with a biotech lab down in San Diego and landed a job as a biomolecular research programmer. Barely a week into the job I experienced a mental break. Probably not from the stress of the job, because the culture there was fairly relaxed. My symptoms had already begun since the middle of my homeless era and slowly got stronger and stronger until I was hospitalized. After years of failing to overcome my frustration with the process of programming in order to become job ready again, I got it into my thick head that coding wasn’t for me. So I turned to character art. I’ve healed a lot since then. Besides my community that has helped me along, I eventually found a good combo of medication. The most taxing thing I have to deal with are the side effects, but they’re manageable.
Somewhere along the way I realized I’d likely never have kids due to this illness. I just don’t want them to inherit it. This hit me hard because when I was a kid myself, I read bedtime stories to my little brother, and I figured like the authors who inspired me, I could make stories for my own children in the future. Baum, Milne, Lewis. All of them had similar motivations. But the truth that I won’t have kids doesn’t stop me creating for what could have been. So the monsters I create are designed for them, whoever they would have been. And of course, I share them so the world can enjoy them. That’s my hope.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I actually love my home city of Glendale. It’s the perfect size, and it has a lot going on. My closest friends are local to the area too, and we usually spend a lot of time in cafes in downtown. When I show people around, I like taking a stop at Urartu Coffee. It’s an Armenian cafe with a cozy vibe. Another great spot is Brand Library, which is an art and music library that used to be a mansion. Glendale is a really great place to be. As far as locations in Los Angeles go, I love Little Tokyo and Playa Vista. They’re great areas that feel safe and have a lot to look at.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
That’s a great thing to bring up. I want to dedicate this to my entire community, mainly in real life, but also online. My family and friends have been pivotal in helping me recover from symptoms. Without their continual support, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I remember sitting in group therapy in the psych unit in the hospital years ago, and we were asked how many of us felt like they had a good group of friends or family we could count on through our mental health struggles. I think I was the only one who raised my hand. It was a really stark realization that helped me wake up to a big truth. So yes, this shoutout is for sure dedicated to my loved ones. And of course I also have to give recognition to the online platforms that help me spread my message and enable me to build a broader community. Very empowering stuff.

Website: https://aleocovi.com

Instagram: @aleocovi

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandro-covian/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@aleocovi

Other: email: info@aleocovi.com

Image Credits
Christian Porter Howard