what is a side quest?
Side quests are small projects or practices that are not directly related with what I do professionally, but make me feel challenged anyways. I like trying new things, specially if I'm not good at first, to both disconnect from daily life and try to gain new skills. Here's a small collection of some of the things I've tried to do in recent years.
current quests
Knitting with tiny mohair lace yarn and writing short stories.
spam de cam: podcast
In 2022, on a random Tuesday night, I started a podcast called Spam de Cam. The idea came from a series of Instagram stories I enjoyed posting that where packed with reflections from my daily life.
There are currently 20 episodes recorded from 2022 to 2025 that were posted whenever I wanted to say something and feel like it was outside, living in the real world.
All episodes are recorded in Spanish, you can find them here.
oil pastels
I'm learning how to use oil pastels, a medium that I find interesting because it feels raw and close, and I like the soft feeling of the pastel when I draw. In art class at high school and later while studying Industrial Design I worked with dry pastels often, but I didn't have experience at all with their waxy counterpart.
writing + creative writing
Writing has been a constant since I was 14 — across platforms, formats and genres: Tumblr, Medium, Substack, and even Archive of Our Own. In 2019 I started writing for local publications like Universo MOLA, Fashion Revolution Colombia, and Bogotart, and spent two years as a staff editor for the Medium publication Vestigium.
photography and digital illustration
I got my first camera at 14 and used to take it everywhere. At 15 I received a DSLR as a gift, along with a Wacom drawing pad. I've been taking photos ever since, sometimes layering drawings on top of them. My favorites are from my first solo trips as an adult — New York in 2021 and 2022, and three days on my own in CDMX in 2024.
ceramics
I took a year of ceramics class during my last year of college in 2018. After learning the basics, I worked on a series of figures based on old illustrations I'd made of imaginary characters or ghosts.
All figures were hand modeled and I added the final details on top with a ceramic crayon. I would really like to make a new set of ghosts and test how rusty I am on that.
