Ricky Rodriguez

Hi, I’m Ricky. I’m an artist, a documentary storyteller, and a filmmaker-turned-multimedia journalist living in Tampa, Florida who with a severe admiration for art founded Artistic Native.

As an artist myself, for years I covered and documented the struggling life of music recording artists and what they went through daily to support their craft. Attending school in New York City, riding the subways and walking the streets of NYC, I witness how homeless individuals performed artistic and musical acts in return for money. That environment motivated me to one day create a space online where these creative individuals can have to help distribute and share their stories with a broader audience.

Filmmaking opened the doors for me to be around many local recording artists, and I witness how some of them worked two jobs to maintain their families and also maintain their music career. I observed how the struggling young recording artist dreamed of one-day hopping to signing to a famous record label. Admiring their ambitions, I took my filmmaking approach and donated to these talented local recording artists of my hometown, Union City, NJ numerous music videos, and created a few Video Electronics Press Kits (EPK) that served as a promotional portfolio to helped some of them land a record deal.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in Digital Cinematography, I decided to pursue a master’s degree in New Media Journalism. My love for visual storytelling and communications-investigational skills gave me an even stronger desire to follow the path of the art of documentary storytelling and become a Documentary Journalist. Finally, with the help of social media, and focusing on the new media journalism, I now utilize the traditional journalistic methods, my strong filmmaking abilities, the knowledge of interactive media, and current technology tools to improve the narrative structure of my stories. My goal is to contribute coverage of these talented creators in any style of art and deliver to you via the Artistic Native website. For me being a filmmaker-turning-multimedia journalist and creating impactful visual stories has been a dream-come-true.

You can read articles from Artistic Native by clicking on the button above. Follow this artistic movement on Facebook or Twitter or to learn more about my filmmaking work please visit my website.