Ladies Of Instaart Ep. 20- Rachel Elese

Rachel Elese is a joy to talk to. I think she smiled the entire time we talked and you can for sure hear that in the podcast. I really related to Rachel. We seem to be in the same spot in life. You know...young artist trying to find their way. It's nice to touch base with someone who is right there with you.

Rachel Elese Morales is an illustrator who grew up in Southern California. She started her artistic journey when she was about 4 years old. She saw a beautiful rendition of Van Gogh’s Starry Night and immediately fell in love with the arts. Currently, she is studying Entertainment Arts at Fullerton College and is in the process of transferring to a four-year university. She is also a Disney Sketch Artist at California Adventure's Animation Academy. She loves ramen, yoga and hanging out with her pup Buffy. 

A post shared by Rachel Elese Morales (@rachel.elese) on Feb 14, 2017 at 1:50pm PST

Rachel told me that one of her critiques was that her art didn't tell enough of a story. I think this painting really shows a great story...don't you? She really took that critique to heart and made her art better.

A post shared by Rachel Elese Morales (@rachel.elese) on Nov 28, 2016 at 2:13pm PST

You can listen to the rest of our conversation on both iTunes and SoundCloud
Follow Rachel on Instagram at rachel.elese and her website at rachelelese.blogspot.com

Ladies of Instaart Ep 19- Abbie Paulhus

Abbie Paulus was a new discovery of mine during a late night Instagram scroll. She's such a gem and I'm glad I found her. In our conversation, she had so many wonderful things to say. I highly encourage you to listen to this weeks episode.

Abbie just figured out what she is doing with her life in January 2016, and that is illustration.

She specializes in creating whimsical, primitive style art that evokes and expresses emotion.

She is currently living in Las Vegas, NV. Originally she's from Holland, Michigan and has also lived in Dunham, Quebec. She lives with her charming husband, Nick and adopted dog, Pepper.

She is currently a student at College of Southern Nevada with an emphasis in Art.

When she's not illustrating you can find her illustrating or illustrating.

A post shared by Abbie Paulhus / Illustrator 🎨 (@abbiepaulhus) on Feb 22, 2017 at 9:02am PST

If you take a peak at Abbie's profile you will see her bio that says, 'collaboration over competition'. When I asked about it, she had lots of great things to say. "I don't believe in competing with anybody in the art world at all...I really believe that there is enough room in the art world for everybody. I think there's a lot of art that needs to be created and it's a lie that if you're going to be an artist you're going to be a starving artist."

A post shared by Abbie Paulhus / Illustrator 🎨 (@abbiepaulhus) on Sep 14, 2016 at 10:12pm PDT

You can listen to the rest of our conversation on both iTunes and SoundCloud
Follow Abbie on Instagram at abbiepaulhus and her Etsy shop is abbieillustrations

Ladies Of Instaart Episode 18- Katie Wilson

I've been a fan of Katie for quite some time. Have you seen her art?? It's beautiful. So, of course, I was ecstatic when she said she agreed to do an interview with me.

Here is a little about Katie: Katie Wilson is an illustrator and designer who scribbles away in a little old house in beautiful New Zealand. Her illustrations are peaceful, but with a sense of whimsy. She enjoys grey days, gardening, and spending time with animals, both wild and tame. She has illustrated for greeting cards and books and has her own line of art prints and stationery called In My Backyard. 

I learned lots from her. I was very encouraged when she opened up about her struggle with style.
"This is something I'm struggling with at the moment," She said when I asked how she set out to find her style, "I'm trying lots of different media. I was solely using watercolors and now I'm starting to use other things like color pencil...I kind of feel like my style is all over the place." As a young illustrator, I take these words to heart. It's so refreshing to hear of an established artists struggle with the same things I do.
  
You can hear the rest of our conversation on both iTunes and SoundCloud.
Be sure to follow Kaite on Instagram at inmybackyardnz and you can see her website at www.inmybackyard.co.nz

Note: All art is Kaite's and was taken from her website with her permission.