Victoria Fernandez

One afternoon during my visit to Madrid, I meet Victoria Fernandez at her home. We’ve arranged for my visit to coincide with her baby’s naptime and when I arrive, she leads me into the living room, and we chat while Tomás naps in the cot nearby and her cat sniffs around my ankles.

I actually stumbled across Victoria through her illustrated maps on Superminimaps, a travel guide platform. “I swear I’ve become some sort of cartographer.” She reveals that she’s had commissions for maps come flooding in ever since she agreed to help her friend on the project.

She tells me that she keeps her style intentionally simple yet quirky, and I personally like her colour choices which make her work bright and light-hearted. Hailing from Venezuela, she is inspired by the mid-century design that she lived with and experienced before coming to Spain, where the style is mostly absent.

“I know it’s a cliche, but motherhood has changed everything for me. From the way I do groceries to what inspires me creatively.” As expected, Victoria shared how precious her time is now as a parent. “I’m hoping to make more conscious decisions regarding work in the next 3 years. Less work, but better quality.”

She had the opportunity to illustrate an interactive children’s book about space two years ago and since then she’s been working towards her goal of becoming a full-time children’s book illustrator.

On the topic of personal work, she makes it a point to always be working on something on top of her commissioned work. This way she can continue developing her craft. It is only fitting to hear that she’s starting to illustrate an ABC children’s book about Venezuela to teach her son about her home country.

I love her series titled #WeirdMood. According to Victoria, these are her own illustrated metaphors of her own mixed feelings. They’re done in a minimalist style, and she uses lines and colours sparingly to convey the extremely relatable feelings that many of us struggle to explain. Victoria also started and finished a ‘30 Days of Cats’ project as a challenge for herself, to work on the same subject but creatively reinterpret it every day.

As I started taking photos around Victoria’s workspace, she settled into sitting cross-legged at her desk. A few moments later, baby Tomás started to fuss and she laid him down on the nursing pillow as it balanced on her lap.

In a feat of multi-tasking as a working artist-mother, her right hand works on her designs while her left gently holds a pacifier to her baby’s mouth. She says that this is her usual position, and I can’t help but feel extremely humbled at the sight.