The title of The Dateline’s most published illustrator goes out to Giselle Oviedo.
Oviedo is a Latina and a native Houstonian, an award-winning artist, UHD fine arts student, and a digital illustrator for The Dateline. Since joining the newspaper, ahead of her freshman year at UHD, she said she became more comfortable seeking out opportunities and making lasting connections.
The Dateline “helped me to communicate with others, start to get out of my comfort zone and not just be on my own,” Oviedo said.
For example, while covering a story, she made connections with Allison Currie, one of the artists who created the “Right Response: Artists respond to SCOTUS” gallery in Hardy and Nance studios. She has also built relationships with professors at UHD who encourage her to tackle more opportunities.
“I’ve also created portfolios because of the drawings I’ve done for [The Dateline],” Oviedo added.
Oviedo has earned the title of “most published illustrator” by designing over 120 digital illustrations that have been published in The Dateline’s newspaper over her two-year commitment.
In the larger Houston community, Oviedo is known for creating one of the 29 “Big Art, Bigger Change” murals which made downtown Houston the world’s largest open-air art gallery. Her “Reaching Up” mural, located at Zydeco Louisiana Diner, illustrates three of the United Nation’s sustainability goals, but also a dream of hers.
When she was a freshman, Oviedo told herself if she won scholarship money, she would use some to paint murals and “help people advocate.”
“Now I did it,” Oviedo said.
Her passion to draw on paper started when she was 12. She pulls creative inspiration from anything that she sees or watches such as webtoons, dramas, anime, and books, to name a few. Her artistic style is “a little bit of a mix of everything” she’s learned and liked but using different materials sometimes changes her style.
“The materials that you use don’t make the artist, but the passion that you have,” Oviedo advises aspiring artists.
As a tribute to Hispanic Heritage Month, Oviedo embraced nostalgic moments awarded by her Mexican roots. She enjoys traveling to San Luis Potosi Mexico, the state where her Mexican parents are from. Visiting over the summer and winter breaks, she loves indulging in locals’ “gorditas” and “tunas,” known here as prickly pears.
“I feel a sense of calmness and enjoyment from just being with my family over there,” Oviedo said.
As a Latina artist, it is important for her to include diverse people in her drawings and illustrations. From her personal struggle thinking she was not “important enough,” Oviedo also encourages other Latino artists to be seen.
“Put yourself out there,” Oviedo said. “It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t get recognized instantly.”
“If you show the best work that you’ve done, and you continue to do that, there’s always someone…looking out.”
Oviedo is on track to graduate in 2025 and aspires to continue to paint murals and build her own brand.
To keep up with the artist’s next project, Instagram users can follow her artistic account @artofgii.
