Alumni Stories - Holly Pereira
'I wanted to study in NCAD because it was reputedly the best art college in Ireland and notoriously a challenge to get in'
Name: Holly Pereira
Current Career: Illustration & Murals
Graduation Year: 2004
Discipline: Fine Art Sculpture
Location: Dublin
What career path did you want to follow as a child?
When I was a child, I wanted to be a designer or an artist because I loved drawing. I loved making comics and writing stories too, as the narrative was always an important aspect of art and design for me.
Why did you decide to study at National College of Art & Design?
I wanted to study in NCAD because it was reputedly the best art college in Ireland and notoriously a challenge to get in.
How did you develop your career towards your current job or practice?
My career took a very winding path. After graduating with a degree in Fine Art, I was at a loss as to how I would make an actual living from my work. The fine art industry can be a precarious place for recent graduates. Commonly, your income can be based on grants and the odd commission. After several years of practicing, exhibiting and taking part in residencies, all the while working another job to pay for it, I was exhausted.
After going to the Pictoplasma Animation Festival in Berlin, I fell in love with animation. I decided to return to college as a mature student. Two years later, I left Ballyfermot College of Further Education with a Diploma in Animation.
When I left Ballyfermot College, I realised that I didn’t want to be a jobbing animator for a television show. Instead, I wanted to make more experimental animation. I decided to try to be a freelance illustrator because drawing has always been a foundational part of my work. Through my illustration work there seemed to be more opportunity to get paid regularly, as opposed to the way I had been making a living through my fine art.
I had very little experience in the practicalities of freelance work, such as contacting art directors, pitching for jobs, how to price my work, and creating commercially feasible artwork. But I figured that it was not rocket science and that the internet holds the answers to many of those questions. By doing that necessary research and by being open to taking any job that came my way, even if it wasn’t directly in my area of interest, and trial and error, brought me to what I do today.
While doing illustrations for friend’s bands or small businesses, I was asked to illustrate the bathroom walls of a restaurant. I had never considered murals before but, I really enjoyed the scale of the work and the hand-painted practice.
At that time, there seemed to be a small gap in the market for illustrators who could hand-paint their work at a large scale. I also loved the site specific aspect to murals. I loved the contrast between working on artwork that is exhibited in galleries to the artwork that is more directed at anyone through public art exhibition.
From there, I found a community of people like graffiti artists, sign painters and muralists. Through them, I learned how to use spray paint, how to sign paint and to scale designs to fit on walls.
The general consensus in illustration is that you should have a style that is particular to you. It took me years to develop my style and it is constantly shifting. You will find, all the practice it takes never goes to waste.
What is the one experience during your time at NCAD that has informed you most in your career and work to date?
I was young when studied at NCAD. At that stage, I wasn’t looking at the future in terms of my career. Mostly, I was more interested in the experience of being in an Art College. For me, the best thing about being in NCAD was meeting people who had the same views and interests in art that I did. A lot of my NCAD connections have held for over twenty years. These people, as well as the conversations we have, have influenced the way I work today.
If you were chatting with current NCAD students today what is the one piece of advice you would offer?
From my experience, I think there are a couple of things that might help with freelance work. The first is having a flexible attitude. Even if you don’t know exactly how to do something you should be prepared to try to figure it out. The internet and your peers are great in this respect.
Look clearly at what skills you have and where you need to improve. Then set about improving. Put in the necessary hours of night classes or online tutorials to upskill as it will pay off.
The work you’re offered at the start might not be exactly your area of interest. However, if you’re willing to learn something new, your work and professional practice can only grow from that experience.
My second advice is about the importance of communities of practice. Freelancing can be a lonely occupation. You need peers and colleagues, and creating a community of like-minded people who enjoy the same artistic values as you do lessens the daunting aspect of freelance work. With a community in place, you can also be proactive. Putting on shows, collaborating, and creating a network are all things that help the industry thrive, which is good for all of us.
Lastly, remember that there is a lot of competition in the industry, and most people would rather work with someone who is professional, reliable, and easy to get along with.
What new opportunities have developed for you as a result of changes in work practice during the Covid pandemic?
The changes in the past three years have had a huge impact on how creative industries work. The need to be flexible, and find opportunities where they might not have existed before, is a skill that is worth developing.
