About the Artist

Arminda is 28 years old. She resides in Salem, Massachusetts. She spends her time enjoying the history and community of New England and the beauty of the Atlantic coast. She’s been working fulltime as an artist since 10/1/2021. Since that day, she has been focused on her art 7 days a week. When not covered in paint in the studio, she’s at the seashore, rummaging through vintage thrift, baking, practicing playing her instruments, or walking through and appreciating the old history and architecture of Salem.

Her variety of interests and fields of study are vast and utilized in ways to help all aspects of her business and work.

She loves math and science, and views them as vital to her artistic process. Consistently improving her methods of paint mixing and optimizing her process has been a driving force in her success and ability overall in her craft. There is not a day that goes by where she is not going excited to grow and learn how to better herself both as an artist and person.

Artistic Background

Arminda is self-taught. As the daughter & great granddaughter of painters themselves, she has been provided with tools for her crafts from a very young age. From that point onwards, she’s dedicated anywhere from 10 to 100 (yes, 100) hours every week to her art.

Whether it was playing with watercolors in LA at 3AM when she got off work, or filling sketchbooks while riding the subway in NYC from one job to her other job- the creating never stopped.

Arminda’s mother recalls the moment she realized her daughter was also an artist: she was fixing up an old house when Arminda was newly two years old. She was sitting on the floor outside the bathroom, playing with the tiles, when she got her mother’s attention to show her the face she had made by arranging the tiles. At that point, her mother realized that the only toys she needed to provide her were art supplies, and she made sure to nurture that skill throughout her childhood.

She began with crayon murals on the walls, then to school binders and folders. Always carrying at least 2 or three pencils and pens and a messy locker overflowing with papers and full sketchbooks of drawings.

At 26 years old she decided to finally spend the money on the most expensive medium yet- oil paints. She has always admired oil paintings- mannerism being one of her favorite art styles- but never even considered herself someone able to master something so fragile and complex- simply an admirer. She, at the time, had never considered realistically living as an artist. She knew many professionals who had degrees and galleries and very big following, but never seriously imagined she could sit with those elites at the table. Simply an admirer.

The Birth of the Starving Artist

She made her first oil painting of her adulthood in April of 2021. Less than three months later, she quit her job to pursue it full time. She started this journey knowing that she did not yet have the skill to be a professional artist, however she knew beyond a doubt that she had the drive to do what it took, and the work ethic to commit to this decision. She was ready to sacrifice everything else to (at least) survive, while getting to devote herself to her art. And thus a “starving artist” was born.

Today she’s running her own business, and has the privilege to spend her life growing her passion.

Definition, according to Arminda:

Starving Artist: proper noun/ˈstärviNG/art-ist’/ An Artist who is able to afford to nearly comfortably survive on their own by completely self-sustaining a business of creating, curating, advertising & selling their work

Please don’t hesitate to contact if you are interested in commissioning a piece or asking questions/inquiring about a gallery or collaboration.