The Art of Collaboration Cool Cat Dan

The Art of Collaboration: Bringing a Cool Cat to Life By Javi Valdes

Armando Camina is the founder of Faith, Hope, and Dreams This past year brought Southwest School of Art many exciting and unique opportunities. Among one of the most interesting was an idea presented to the School by Armando Camina. Camina is the founder of Hope, Faith, and Dreams, a charity based here in San Antonio that aims to empower young people through creative arts. An award-winning foundation in literary publishing for young writers, Hope, Faith, and Dreams has been Camina’s brainchild since 2002 when he began the foundation in efforts to enrich the lives of children in Texas. In May 2021, Camina approached SSA in hopes of finding collaborators for a project his foundation was planning. This project, entitled Cool Cat Dan, is an illustrated audio-visual short video for children that follows feline protagonist, Dan, on his journey to achieve his dream of traveling across the country in his ’54 VW Wagon while he learns life lessons every step of the way. When asked why he decided to reach out to the School, Camina explained that he often enjoys walking through downtown San Antonio and would frequently pass by the SSA campus during his strolls. “This little voice in my head kept saying, ‘You’ve got to contact them’ and I did”, Camina said. “I look at it as divine intervention.”

He was put in contact with former SSA Director of

Student Affairs, Chelsea Titus, to whom he was able to present his idea for collaboration on Cool Cat

Dan. When he initially approached SSA, the writing and audio recording for the project had already been completed. However, Camina and his team were still in need of artists to create the designs and artwork that would carry the visual narrative.

Cool Cat Dan was one step closer to completion when three BFA students offered their talents to the project.

Natasha Shirley, Oliver Lyric, and Alicia Martinez

comprised the team of SSA artists who would work in the months that followed to bring Cool Cat Dan to life. From the beginning, Camina commended the students for their exceptional commitment to the project. “Those three, they were on board right away,” he said. “That’s what surprised me the most - how they heard what the idea was and got it right away.” Shirley took the reins as lead artist, creating the design for protagonist Dan, as well as playing a large role in shaping the story’s visual identity. Lyric and Martinez were her supporting artists. Lyric designed the ’54 VW Wagon that becomes a focal point of the story, while Martinez put in extensive work creating backgrounds and other assets that tied the story together into one cohesive and polished world. After three short months and many diligent hours, the team had completed the artwork for the project by the end of July. Slated for release in February 2022, Camina hopes that every child who watches the story understands this important lesson: “Always be open to ideas that can make you a better person,” Camina said. “Dan embodies this concept through having to adapt to different situations and problems in order to attain his dream of traveling the country, while being receptive to all the lessons he learns along the way.” Once available for viewing, you can find the video on the Hope, Faith, and Dreams website at www. hopefaithdream.com. Camina plans on having two more installments of Dan’s story produced, and says he looks forward to continuing to work alongside SSA in the