Melissa Enríquez’s favorite color changes day to day. Sometimes it will be yellow; not just any yellow, but the specific shade she saw on the flower she spotted growing from a cactus. It’s the colors, people, and things she bumps into during her day to day that relegate inspiration for the Long Beach-based artist’s instinctual doodles.
After growing weary of being a faceless artist as a graphic designer for a brand she worked for, Enríquez decided to create Summer Por Vida, a pseudonym and vibrant identity for her personal work. With Summer Por Vida, Enríquez is able to make her sketchbook – filled with weightlifting hamburgers, slobbering cactuses, and googley-eyed ice cream cones – come to life on pillows, in the form of pins, and printed zines.
The chronic doodler took some time to answer a few questions from us, but instead of using words she busted out the pens and markers and illustrated her answers.
