"Art is to me, absolute, pure, vulnerability. It’s not art unless the artist is scared. It’s not art unless the art is showing the part of you that only that art can show. Being an artist myself, it’s a scary world. And it’s even scarier when you’re trying to create something, no matter what it is, that will hopefully change someone’s perspective, or make someone feel complete. Art is a tricky thing. It can be anything. And still mean nothing to someone."
- Ernesto Valentino Prada
**********NOTE TO READER : I know this is a very long article, I wrote it. Please consider the purpose of the INSPIREDxYOU segment of this website before you decide to not read it. The sole purpose of this segment is to give people of all walks of life a judgment free place to express themselves in their entirety. The point of the interview is to not only give me a chance to speak to someone that I’m inspired by but to also give other people a chance to be inspired by them as well. I want to get a clear understanding of who they are and sometimes you can’t do that in 125 characters or less. I wouldn’t want someone to but a time limit on what my story is worth so I’m not going to do that to anyone else’s. If you are not inspired by a particular individual that’s ok. Keep it moving? Maybe next time you will be. Hell, you may be someone else’s inspiration
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I don’t know if you have ever made a stronger connection with someone in 2 hours than the one made with people you have known for 2 years but I experienced this today. World allow me to Introduce Ernesto Valintino Prada (yes that is his real name!) Also known to the Instagram as @evpking, a New Mexico native now living in Denver. Although he is only 20 years old I swear his handle on his life and his destiny is nice and tight. Although I intended on keeping the conversation light in order not to make him uncomfortable he insured me that he was an open book which put my nerves at ease. I apologized in the beginning for the amateur mistakes I was bound to make during this interview and then we proceeded.
As we were talking It didn’t take long for me to realize how much of an open book he really was right out of the gate he chose to share intimate details regarding his relationship with his family and his beliefs on what would normally be controversial topic but during this interview it seemed pure and innocent. He expressed to me that after watching the movie Craft he became interested in magic. We talked about style and what it means to be an artist. After this moment in my life I have all new perspective and purpose for social media no experiencing just how it can bring together two strangers who probably wouldn’t have cross paths without it. I’m so excited to meet and inspire/ be inspired by you all in the future but for now I want you to get to know Ernesto.
**ME
**ERNESTO
Tell me about your life growing up?
--Growing up in Santa Fe, NM on a ranch leaves a lot for a kid to do. I used to hide in the hills with my cousins pretending we were witches with a book we bought from Borders. It’s funny how that was when I was about ten, and a decade later I’m firmly reintroduced to the idea of magic.
I see you consider yourself a spiritual man, what is magic to you?
--Magic is always a funny conversation to have with people who go off of what they might have seen on TV or in a Harry Potter film. Magic is more than Hocus Pocus. I believe that true magic is simple. It’s one’s ultimate connection with the universe. It’s basically the supreme version of communication between you and the highest of energy.
Magic and "witchcraft" go hand in hand with "Devil worshiping" to a lot of people you know? Like, it’s all bad to a lot of people. How do you feel about that perception of it?
--Magic itself has a bad rep because popular religion, which is really funny when you dissect when the “term” witch came to be. A pope from a really long ago, please forgive me, I cannot remember which one, but a pope feared that women were getting too smart when they started experimenting with herbs. Finding out what herb to use to help headaches, or to bring down a fever, or to help women have less pain while giving birth. Using herbs became really popular, but the head of the church didn’t like that. He didn’t like women knowing so much, he called it romancing with the devil. Which caused hysteria and eventually led to all the murders during the witch hunts. Magic in itself is understanding what and how to use the earth to benefit you. Connection with what is around us and how to use it in the best of ways. As for me. I don’t know if I consider myself a witch, but more of a man of spiritual understanding. I connect with meditations, and mantras, and manifesting certain energies with certain candles. I’m still learning everyday how to improve my craft.
I have never heard that before. Now I have something to look into. Earlier you mentioned an ex-boyfriend, I’m assuming that you have come out, how did coming out effect your family?
--Coming out really only effected my father. It was about a year after my mother came out, so having his wife leave him for another woman and his only son being gay was probably an overload of situations to wrap ones head around. Coming out it has improved our relationship. My dad is a man’s man and would make me go fishing or hunting to try and make me “man up.” We’d always argue because I’d be so unhappy when doing things I didn’t want to do, so when I came out I had this mindset of bravery that I could finally tell my dad “no!”
Did coming out hinder your relationship with your father?
No, not at all it actually brought us closer. He used to have a firm republican mindset, but as I grew older he grew aware of what it meant to be a gay man which made him change his mind on a lot. He’s opened up to the gay community and has been more accepting to having a gay son more than ever. It always confirms that he changed when he tells me he’s proud I’m his son, no matter what.
That's amazing! A lot of people don’t have that type of support, Me and my partner actually broke up for a while because I suffered from so much anxiety based upon things that were being fed to me about the lifestyle I chose to live. I was and still am very much in love but at that time I loved her SO MUCH that I didn’t want to ruin her life. Like I was perfectly fine with my own life and the way that my decisions would affect me. So when I was being told that I was going to hell and all that I accepted that "fate" I just didn’t want her to suffer in hell because she wanted to be with me so I broke up with her.
--Awe that's so romantic
(We both laughed)
I’m serious I had so much anxiety because I wasn’t sure if I believed in heaven and hell because I believed in it or because I was taught to believe in it. I’m feeling the same about magic now.
--When it comes to religion I went through something similar. At one point I actually stopped going to church completely. Not because I didn’t believe in God because I did but at that point I realized that I wasn’t believing in God I was believing in the man in front of me. It was hard for me to believe what the minister was saying about God. They were making God who I believed to be the purest love seem awful and scary. That anxiety is what lead me to becoming a vegetarian.
Please explain that?
--Becoming a vegetarian was a choice out of fear. I started to suffer from extreme anxiety. It was scary. I would have nightmares of cannibalism and it got so bad that I couldn’t even go to school. I started to meditate on these dreams and I had the reoccurring thought flowing through my mind, repeating, almost urging me to stop eating anything that slaughtered for the pleasure of my taste buds. So, I stopped. Cold turkey. Haven’t had a nightmare since.
How do you feel about people who are not vegetarians?
--Meat eaters always have witty things to say about me when it’s brought up, but me being a vegetarian is fully non-political. It didn’t happen out of spite for animal cruelty, which sucks regardless, but from me having to deal dark energy surrounding me and finding a way to stop it.
Let’s switch gears here, we got pretty deep with that didn’t we?
(We both laughed)
What are your career goals?
--Fashion Journalism is the one goal. It’s what I dream of. To write and collaborate with magazines, and designers, and creative directors. To write about collections and fashion week. To study street style and the bloggers that own the industry would be amazing. I find myself in chills every time I think about opening up a magazine and seeing an article with the end notes saying, by Ernesto Prada.
What made you want to become a Fashion Journalist? Was it something you’ve always wanted to do?
--I studied poetry and journalism throughout high school, so writing has always been a really big deal in my life. As I grew older though I found this fascination with Fashion. The designers especially. Knowing what inspired them, how they came up with certain color pallets. Everything about the process and the creation, the big or small teams behind big brands and small ones just intrigued me. The more I would read about anything Fashion, the more I wanted to be associated with it. So when I started college I came to the decision to major in the arts of Fashion Design, Illustration, and Journalism. It’s funny because Fashion was always the last thing on my mind growing up. Now it’s the only thing I find good enough to pursue. It’s the only thing I truly identify with as what could be a lifelong career.
What does art mean to you?
--Art is to me, absolute, pure, vulnerability. It’s not art unless the artist is scared. It’s not art unless the art is showing the part of you that only that art can show. Being an artist myself, it’s a scary world. And it’s even scarier when you’re trying to create something, no matter what it is, that will hopefully change someone’s perspective, or make someone feel complete. Art is a tricky thing. It can be anything. And still mean nothing to someone.
That’s why we protect it Eryka Badu said it best when she said "Keep in mind I am an artist and I’m sensitive about my shit!" As human beings showing that vulnerability is an art form in its self. Love to me is highest form of art there is. It doesn’t get more pure and vulnerable than love it may not be tangible but it’s there and it’s beautiful. We associate love with our heart and where is our heart? Underneath our flesh and bones just layers and layers of (human) being to protect it. That’s where I believe art lies. Beyond the heart and the blood. Beyond the atoms; the very thing that makes us human beyond all those barriers of protection somewhere between what is and what can never be. To me that’s art.
--Exactly
So one of the things that drew me to you besides this indescribable gravitational pull I felt towards you was your style. What or who inspires your style?
--When I was a kid, very young maybe five. I watched the movie THE CRAFT with my sisters. There is a scene when one of the witches goes to a party. She’s wearing a black dress, has dark lipstick on and looks scary as fuck. Might I add that she stand out from all the Gap, old navy wearing school kids at this party. At that moment as a child I wanted nothing more than to stand out like Nancy Downs. People are afraid of black most of the time, but the color black has a beautiful meaning. It’s the color of protection and power. As it can caution people to stay away it intrigues them to approach. It’s honestly a romantic color. It’s like falling in love. Scary, but beautiful.
What piece of advice would you give someone who is struggling to find comfort in their own individuality?
--Keep struggling. Because the more you keep trying to find yourself, the more you force yourself to be found, the more likely you’ll fall back into square one. Being confused and unhappy with who you are. If you are struggling with your identity. Keep that struggle going until there’s none left. At that moment is when you’ll know who are.
WOW I wish someone had told me that. Some of the things you say make it so hard for me to believe your only 20 years old.... Keep struggling I like that a lot.
What is one thing you want the world to know about Ernesto Valintino Prada?
--That I want to feel and experience it all. Have you ever seen the show GIRLS? If not there’s this character. Her name’s Jessa. In one scene she explains that she wants to look 50 when she’s 30. Just full of experience’s. That’s what I want. I don’t know if I’ll make it to 50, let alone 25. So I want to live now. Get stupid tattoos, dye my hair every color possible, try falling in love, maybe move to a weird town. I just want to experience and feel it all.
That’s the smart thing to do people say I’ll do this when I’m 30. Hell I’m guilty of it too I always say I’m going to wait until I lose weight to do something and now I’m like look I’m fat, I’m fabulous and I’m kind of amazing and so are you!
Thank you so much for the opportunity to talk with you.
-You’re welcome. Thank you as well.
-END
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