An Interview with Cesar Montero
by Tim - aurora - Dunn

CGF - Can you tell us a little about your artistic background?

From my mother's family, there has always been a tendency towards music and painting. My father's family is more focused on business and crafts that deal with precision. Since I was young I was exposed to both influences without even noticing it until recently.

When I was less than 8 years old, we did comic strips that we sold to other kids. My brother was really good at drawing, and we had our own characters and stories. I mostly helped him with the ideas and stories to tell, as well as keeping him on track for delivering the next episode each weekend. He was the main artist. They where quite nice! I remember we had a Kleenex box outside our apartment with our "brand name" on it. It worked as a mailbox to receive feedback. Kids where able to give recommendations of what they wanted to see next. I remember we had a "coming soon" notice on it too. All of this happened as a result of my brother and I. Our parents never forced us to make it like a business, nor to draw.

I grew older, taking guitar and piano classes for some years. From piano, I realized the joy of being able to affect people with emotion and passion while playing. I was very shy with girls too. So I wrote them poems to win their hearts. I write stories too, but until recently, I didn't share them. I always thought they would show how sensitive and emotional I was, something I considered a weakness at that time.

Time passed by, and I decided to study computer engineering at ITESM Campus in Guadalajara. I was fascinated by the idea of creating wonders that would amaze people. This was a recurrent feeling since I was a kid. For my birthdays and Christmas I would ask for LEGOs . My father didn't have a lot of money, and was only able to buy the small packages of LEGOs. However, I managed to create the best with the least, and have fun!

For a career, I started working as a freelancer. I mostly did web design and Flash development. Any presentation or poster the team required, I did it! I always liked to excel in any expectations on me. Teachers used to tell me "Why do you put so much effort on it? It is not that important!" Later, I worked for the school for some time. I managed to create presentations and assets used by the school directors to present ideas and annual developments. In one of those the director was so pleased with the presentation, that he introduced me to the audience. It was a great feeling.

After that, I worked as a photographer assistant for Francisco Meza in my hometown. After some time, I learned to organize the whole team of makeup artists, promoters, models, location, photographer, etc. I did this for two years. I loved to get a team full of talent to create just a couple of perfect images. The organization took some days, the execution took a day, and I managed to make the retouching by night of all the images. I was also a photographer for social events, and I took about 17,000 pictures in 2 years. Even in difficult lighting situations, I strived to create beautiful images by bouncing light in the appropriate location. I studied the flow of people, the different moods at the different places, etc. This made my pictures have a higher quality and emotion as compared to other photographers at the events who just wanted to take the shots and go home.

My job was almost at its end, and I had an interview with a company that developed software for airplane turbines and black boxes. I refused their proposal. I realized after the interview, that I had the chance to create the wonders I wanted to create since I was a child.