On Wednesday, April 17 in the Nott Memorial, Bronx-born street artist Devon Rodriguez came to talk to students in the Nott Memorial. Rodriguez is known for drawing portraits of people in the New York City subway system and recording their reactions to receiving the portrait. Marcus Brem ‘26 and Sophia Habler ‘26 moderated the discussion.
Rodriguez started by talking about how he came to the position he is in today. Rodriguez was born in a low income area in the Bronx and in a hostile environment. His mother was abusive, his father was absent, his stepfather dealt drugs, and his friends were gang members. He was even arrested at 13. However, he was interested in graffiti and loved to draw. He knew that he could use this special talent as a medium to get out of his living situation.
At age 14, he applied to the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan, but he was rejected. So as a freshman in high school, he attended the Samuel Gompers High School in the Bronx instead and met the art teacher, Mr. Harper. Rodriguez told Harper that he wanted to attend the school of Art and Design and showed him his portfolio. Harper said the portfolio “sucked,” and began to teach him techniques that would allow him to be accepted to the school.
Rodriuez finished his portfolio, reapplied to the school for his sophomore year, and was accepted. Rodriguez then asked Harper not to tell others about his acceptance because he wanted to start a new life. Rodriguez also saw Harper’s portfolio from when he was 19 and noticed that Harper had done a lot of subway sketches, and was inspired by them. Even though Rodriguez transferred schools, he began to do those sketches on the New York City Subway to and from school.
Rodriguez initially didn’t realize how popular handing portraits to people was until the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. That was when he heard about people going viral on the platform and decided to try it out. He began by doing drawings of celebrities, but he garnered 1,000 views and wanted to do more. He then decided to hand these portraits he drew to people and record their reactions.
The first time he tried this new approach, he got 100,000 views in an hour, then 500,000, then 5 million. He also gained 100,000 followers that day. The next day, he did the same thing and got 21 million views and 300,000 followers. Eventually, he gained over 1 million followers on the platform and was able to relocate to Manhattan, New York.
Rodriguez currently works with a wide variety of brands and aims to take a creative approach with them. For example, for a gum deal, he drew a picture of someone on a gum wrapper. He has also drawn a number of public figures, including US President Joe Biden at an event in Florida. As he read through the comments on his social media, he also noticed that a lot of people mentioned the videos made them feel happy. As a result, he created the Keep Smiling project, a merchandise line that aims to spread positivity.
Rodriguez advised aspiring professional artists that your branding may be more important than the art itself. He watched YouTube videos on how to go viral and advised artists to add something to the algorithm. For example, artists can look at trending hashtags on social media, watch the most popular videos, and replicate them in a similar manner, but not exactly. In one instance, a man in Turkey replicated one of his videos and got 2 million followers.
He also advised that other artists can learn a lot from collaboration with other artists. At the High School of Art and Design, he had an oil painting class where everyone would be in a circle, one person would be in the middle, and everyone else would paint that person. He also went to museums and observed what other people did for their art. This allowed him to learn from other artists.
Students can look forward to learning from other public figures at Speakers Forum events next year. In the meantime, a variety of academic departments host discussions with experts in their fields and students can attend those for free. Details for those can be found on the Campus Events email group or posters around campus. Break up your normal routine and see what’s going on around campus!
