
About Me
Enrique Gandarilla is available for commissions and Part time work
All business inquiries may be sent to nopalescomic@gmail.com
Born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Enrique Gandarilla is a mexican-american multimedia artist. He received a B. A. in studio art with an emphasis in graphic design, from Cal Poly Humboldt (formerly Humboldt State University) in 2019. He has since worked as an independent artist, occasionally taking commissioned work. He has chosen to focus on developing the technical aspects of illustration style and to improve his abilities as a writer of creative fiction. He currently has several major projects in development, some of which are hosted here at Officialnoplales.com.
I’d like to explain the name of the brand, Official Nopales. The word “official” sounds nice and lends credibility to whatever it may be attached to. Nopales is the name of a certain type of cactus and is central to the imagery of the Mexican flag. The image on the flag is tied to the story told by the aztecs. In which it is said that the settlers would stop traveling and found a city when they encountered an eagle eating a snake on a nopal cactus. The Nopal cactus is an omnipresent symbol of Mexican culture, something that was recurring throughout my childhood in southern california. The nopal is iconic and is featured as a card in a famous mexican bingo like card game named loteria, which my family would play. Furthermore, nopal is a delicious ingredient in Mexican cooking, i particularly enjoy it in salsa and cooked in chile. When I left home for college I found that I missed seeing the nopal cactus in yards and in murals. It was alienating realizing that most other students weren’t familiar with loteria or the taste of nopales. This was the tip of the iceberg, really, but more to the point Nopales is the name of a comic I’ve been writing since I was thirteen. It’s changed and morphed into its current form, a framework for an action adventure story loosely inspired by my teen years. It follows Thomas, a young Mexican American boy who is obsessed with proving the existence of ghosts. However his mad quest crosses paths with that of his Ne’er Do Well cousin Rodolfo, a highschool dropout who has ambitions of becoming a major drug distributor. It is a crazy story filled with jokes, action,heart, scifi, paranormal abilities and mexican-american culture. However, I’ve decided to delay production of this work until I’ve improved my skills as an artist and writer. Regardless, completing this work is my main ambition as an artist/ author, this is why I’ve chosen it as the name of my Brand.
Skills
• Can lift 75+ lbs • Adobe Photoshop • Adobe Illustrator • Adobe Creative Suite • Adobe InDesign • Adobe Dreamweaver • Adobe After Effects • Illustration • Layout Design • Graphic Design • Digitization • Social Media Management • Branding • Adobe Acrobat • Spanish Speaker, • Web Design