Meet Victor Maristane | Illustrator & Computer Scientist

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

Hi Victor, what role has risk played in your life or career?
The most important things I’ve ever accomplished involved taking risks. The best you get by playing it safe is… safety. If you’re lucky, because crises happen, circumstances change, no matter how safe you think you are. Life is risky anyway, so you might as well risk making it your own.

Many years ago I had a job that I thought was safe, but got fired when they unexpectedly closed my branch. I had “safe” relationships that ended abruptly. All the while I was just trying to be a good employee, and a good boyfriend, and a good son but things around me kept changing chaotically anyway, because that’s life. Living things are chaotic.

Building a life that’s meaningful to you is hard and unpredictable, but what people don’t tell you is that a less meaningful but safe life, following all the protocols and manuals and best practices… still is hard and unpredictable, just in different ways.

This hit me 5 years ago when I found myself in another “safe” job but feeling completely empty. If you have a “stable” job that you feel like quitting everyday…. That’s not very stable is it? While an unpredictable career that you can feel fullfilled with for a lifetime, that’s stable. Therapy helped me find my way back to the arts, and then I saved some money and quit. Yeah, take risks, but remember to plan ahead too. The riskier it is, the stronger your plans must be.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My illustrations are often inspired by old pulp books and pin-ups. Which tend to evoke a feeling of nostalgia. Ironically, I’m not very nostalgic. Thinking about the past just reminds me of times when I was not “being myself”, before I became a full-time artist. I just grew up liking those old things and now I show that in my art. But I prefer the possibilites of the future, and the liveliness of the present.

This vintage style that is becoming part of my brand didn’t get much attention at first. Clients didn’t ask for it, no one bought posters of them at fairs. Still I kept doing them, as personal projects. Then the folks at Iron GM Studios hired me to create a couple of pieces in that style for them, I was so happy that someone finally liked that side of my work. Then I used those pieces to convince Topps and Sidekick to hire me for the new Mars Attacks trading cards set. And things snowballed from there.

I think the hardest part was around an year after I quit my job, I had made almost no money from this little adventure of trying to be an artist, but already spent all of my savings. It was despairing. Working as an illustrator still felt like a distant dream. Here’s an extra shoutout to the artist Thony Silas, who was kind of my mentor during these early days. But even with his titanic help, I was still jobless. He could teach me, but he had no power to force people to hire me or something.

What got me out of that? Unfortunately, there was no magic secret. I just kept studying and knocking on people’s doors and asking for help and applying for opportunities, until it finally worked and I got into Manifesto Games, where I worked for about an year.. Earning regular money, I used part of it to study even more, and suddenly I had a career going and growing.

So I learned that people can rescue you from a shipwreck if you find them, but no one can do the swimming for you. Or the signaling. In other words, you don’t have to make it alone, you probably can’t, but there are things only you can do for you, so do them, Don’t just hope for an helicopter to magically appear. If you didn’t do your part making a sign they might even miss you.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would include a trip to the Instituto Ricardo Brennand, pointed as the best museum in Brazil and 18º in the world. I would also take them to the Francisco Brennand workshop.

Then some other day we would go to the Recife Antigo area, There we have the Bom Jesus Street, named the 3rd most beautiful street in the world. We could take a boat to the Parque das Esculturas then drink the malted milk at As Galeria and eat an edam cheese sandwhich there or in some other place. There are many churches, art galleries, bars and musems in that area so we would probably visit it in multiple days.

If that friend likes dancing, I would take them to a Festa Cubana in the Clube Bela Vista. Also the Sala de Reboco, maybe teach them some Forró steps.

There are better beaches in the state but if it had to be in Recife city I would take them to the Boa Viagem beach, hoping they have some sururu (a kind of molusk, also the name of the dish using it). If that friend likes drinking there would be many caipirinhas involved in all of that.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My therapist during my career transition, Pedro Paulo Xukuru. The book Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg which gave me tools to be more compassionate with others and myself, otherwise I would be still powering through a career I didn’t even want. And I thank the Junior Enterprise movement and the friends I made there for preparing me to navigate my professional life regardless of profession.

Website: https://maristane.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victormaristane/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victormaristane/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/VictorMaristane

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maristane.art

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsI5tz-2KnyVf0b3mvJ4dWg

Other: https://www.artstation.com/maristane

Image Credits
Bruna Monteiro (except the convention picture and the illustrations)