How This Self-Taught Artist Got a Stamp of Approval From Pepe Aguilar, El Fantasma & More Latin Stars
Roberto Ferrel — or Rob the Original, as he’s known on social media — has built quite the following (over 1 million on Instagram and over 700K on TikTok), thanks to his innovative celebrity portraits.
He uses just about any medium of art — salt, concrete, stamps, powder, Oreo cookies, you name it — to recreate portraits of artists such as Selena, 2Pac and Vicente Fernandez. But it was his famous hair portraits that got him on the map when he began his career as a barber, and later became a tattoo artist.
The 36-year-old Mexican-American creative artist says that creating celebrity portraits is his best strategy to get re-posted by artists such as Maluma, J Balvin, Nicky Jam, Taraji P. Henson, and members of the Kardashians family.
For 15 years now, he’s used his incredible art to grow his name, land key brand deals, establish great connections, and travel the world to educate aspiring barbers.
Trending on Billboard
“As an artist, it’s difficult to sell my art,” he admits to Billboard, “but I wanted people to know me more than just a barber, so I decided to do art with things that were rare.”
Below, read our Q&A with Rob The Original, whose art is being shared by countless Latin music stars:
Your art is very impressive — when did you discover that you had this talent in you?
I’m self-taught. I was the type of kid that never really did well academically, because I struggled with ADD. It was hard for me to focus in class and pay attention. But with art, I could focus. I’ve been drawing since before I could read and write, but by the time I was an adult, I already had the talent where I could look at something and duplicate it. When I began doing this, there was no one teaching it — so I just taught myself every medium. I enjoy trying new things, and the reaction that it gets on social media.
Speaking of mediums, you use just about anything to create your work, from concrete to salt to cookies to haircuts, and now, glass.
I’ve always done celeb portraits with my mediums, but glass art is something new that I’ve been doing for less than a month. I’m an artist, so I’m always trying different mediums that are not normal. I’ve been wanting to do this glass art for a while. There’s this guy in Switzerland who inspired me, his name is Simon Berger. I use a special type of glass that it breaks, but sticks together. It’s not cheap to do. The glass alone is $1,000 per glass, and $2,000 for the frame. So each piece costs $3K just to sit in my garage.
You’re very active on social media. It seems like every day you work on and post something new. How long does it take you to do these portraits?
Most of my art is very quick. I get it down within an hour or two tops. The glass is one of the easiest, it’s very fast. The murals take a while. For example, El Fantasma is a good friend of mine, and he reached out to me and asked me to create a mural with his lyrics for his new barbershop. It took me a few days, but I worked on it for a couple of hours each time.
In addition to El Fantasma, I see you have photos with many artists, including Pepe Aguilar, Snoop Dogg, Gera MX, and many more. Who was the first famous person to share your art?
The very first artist to support me was [Mexican comedian] Gabriel Iglesias. Then, I would say sports athletes and reggaetón stars. J Balvin, Nicky Jam, and Farruko all shared the salt portraits I did of them. Larry Hernandez was the first celebrity to invite me to his house to collaborate and then I met Pepe Garza, who introduced me to a lot of Regional Mexican artists. But my audience before was mainly reggaetón and sports stars.
You mentioned that selling your art is difficult. So, how do you make an income, and what would be your biggest dream as a creative artist?
If I could live from my art, I’d be the happiest man alive. I had my barbershop for nine years but sold it. Right now, my main source of income is from brand deals, doing tattoos here and there, and murals in restaurants — but mostly brand deals. My goal is to have a gallery in Los Angeles or Miami, where I can display my art. A lot of my art goes away (hair grows, salt and cookies are edible) but the wall carving, wood torching, and glass art are what you can actually keep. That’s my short-term goal, to start selling my art.
What does your artwork represent?
I feel that art is such a beautiful thing and it’s everywhere we look. I’m helping people visualize and see art where they can’t imagine it. I do endless mediums — and that’s what I’m trying to share with other artists or up-and-coming artists, that you can create art with anything you can think of.
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