myndful mystic… what’s that?

Myndful Mystic… What’s that? There are plenty of moments that led up to this website, and I want to talk about them. At least, the moments that happened since a year ago…

July 2020.

I’m working from home. I’m a graphic designer with a salary job. I enjoy it. It’s fulfilling work for sure, but it’s different. I don’t get to draw, take photos, or experiment creatively for fun when I’m at work. Sure, it’s something fun to do, but it isn’t personally for me. Its purpose is to push my company’s brand forward. Very different from personal work, and that’s where I landed on the celebrated feast day of the Catholic saint, Maria Goretti.

Maria is a saint I hold close to. I value her story and draw inspiration from her on a regular basis. I had her painting hanging in my bedroom and thought I’d do a cool design about her. I used assets from my job and applied the fonts, shapes, and layout to my Maria painting. I shared it on my personal social media with so much excitement. Mostly because I was just happy to make something of her.

Then the response came. Multiple people, and I remember like 10 people out of nowhere commented on it saying how awesome and beautiful it was. Sooooo, I made three more saint designs. Each one receiving excitement, response and encouragement from friends, and online friends that I’d never met in person.

Then I made a dedicated Instagram account, called it “Mateo On Mission” and kept going. I was writing/editing a book about my adventures studying abroad at the time as well. The book’s name was “Mateo On Mission” I was pretty attached to the name. I made tons of saint designs on the account over the following months. People liked them, I gained more of a following, and even felt stuck at points. I wasn’t sure if people were over my designs or not.

I thought I’d eventually sell prints so I decided to invest in a printer, paper, and mailer sleeves. The printer was backordered, so it didn’t arrive until late October. I was fine with that though. In no rush to do this haha.

Then November hit.

I noticed an opportunity to sell artwork at my rock-climbing gym. This meant I could test out my printer, and it get me a real reason to put everything I bought to the test. By the end of the weekend, I felt the success.

Later on, I changed my Instagram name to Myndful Mystic. I remember I consulted with some fellow artists that I was doing a book club with. It was a spontaneous name, but it flew off the tongue. I chose to spell mindful as myndful, mainly because mindful was taken, but after doing a mindfulness retreat for 3 months, I thought of mindfulness as almost a sixth sense. The letter ‘y’ is used as a sixth vowel. So, I put it together and called myself the Myndful Mystic.

From there I finally sold my saint cards on Etsy, gained traction, and then let things simmer. I tried a social media push, but I didn’t feel as genuine as previously. I took time to think and realized that there’s no point if I’m not genuine. This is supposed to be fun, not work. After talking to my girlfriend, I felt ready to embark on this journey further.

I decided that this project deserves its own space beyond Etsy. I decided to create a website where my cards can link so that people can learn more about the saints. Here, people can interact with the saints in a way that isn’t necessarily available these days.

We’re here now.

My push is to integrate the technology of this day with the traditional saint prayer cards that Catholics have seen for centuries. It’s paying homage to tradition but putting my own spin on it.

These images are true depictions of how I see the saints. I emphasize that it is my vision because I’m not abiding by a parameter of rules here. This artwork is my interpretation, and that may mean that some imagery is different than what you may be accustomed to seeing. My request is that you embrace the artwork. The catholic saints were never perfect people. My hope is that these designs show a bit more reality to who these people were while also showing honor to them for living how they did.

Some saints don’t have factual information about them either. Others may have had serious mental illnesses, which aren’t always spoken of. I wish to point out that some saints really have to be taken with a grain of salt and great faith. Overall, I want to stress that I’m not saint expert. I’m enthusiastic about the saints, studied them in college, but am no way an excellent scholar.

This is a passion project that went quite farther than I expected. Myndful Mystic is an outlet, a fun voice for me, and I take my passion very seriously. Know that amidst the fun colors, lowercase fonts, and bright images is serious dedication and passion to the people who’ve gone before me. I’m mindful of my brand voice, and every part of this project is a reflection of intense critical thinking.

not just about saints.

There’s gonna be more to come though! I plan on making stickers and I am still writing that book. Not everything will be about the saints. Everything comes from my point of view and a place of mindfulness. This involves vintage collage, nature, photography, and more. I’m excited to get that work out there under this name, and hope you enjoy it too.

Anyway, that’s my story briefly composited into an intro blog.

Thanks for joining me for the ride,
-Matthew