Today we’d like to introduce you to Haley Ellis
Hi Haley, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My mom had dreams to become an artist. She wanted to go to college at the Chicago Institute of Art and was never able. I would watch her draw when I was a kid and always wanted to be as good as her. For as long as I can remember it has been my absolute dream to do art. I have practiced pretty much my entire life. The dream is still to be able to make a career out of it. It wasn’t until a couple years ago I started to do some commission pieces, I ran a website, was in some local exhibits, etc. I am still working on getting my art out there. A lot of the pieces I create are emotion based. Putting the way emotions or moments feel from my perspective in a different way. I love to create things that also make other people feel something when they look at it. For me, it’s an amazing experience to hear how it makes others feel. I think that’s one of the most rewarding parts of it all. Connection.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s been a bumpy road for sure. It’s still a bumpy road. As a “single” working parent, there’s not much time between work and being a mother to focus on my passions. Still making progress in small ways – one day I will get there.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
In terms of my art – I specialize mostly in traditional art. Paper and pencil. In a lot of my pieces I love to use colored pencils and vibrant markers. I am most proud of my progress in realism – with a twist. One of my favorite things to do with the base of a realism portrait is to add bright colors and either shapes or different lines and details that make it definitely pop. Like I mentioned before, a lot of what I do is emotion based, so the colors and lines refer to the emotions the drawing is portraying.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Growing up I was a silly kid. Very smart and quiet. I always wanted to create. I wanted to be an artist, an inventor, at one point was interested in architecture. I had interest in becoming an illustrator, a video game designer, have a clothing brand of my own – this list goes on and on. Everything I ever wanted to do had to do with creativity. Probably a reason I also loved LEGOs so much. But, growing up I also had to be a pretty tough kid. Art was my escape from a lot of things. And as someone who was never popular the entirety of my time in school, my art was one thing that always got everyone’s attention. That always made me smile – and even encouraged me to make more art and be better. I was known for it my whole life.
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