We recently connected with Freyja Baileykaze and have shared our conversation below.

Freyja, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I think it was when I was around nine or ten and it was more of a “oh, art is an option,” because at that age I really wasn’t thinking of my professional life. I had just read the book Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick. The book was about these two characters, a boy and a girl, and the boy’s story was completely told with words, while the girl’s story was completely told in illustrations. At that time, I was mainly writing stories and drawing only one of two scenes from them, reading that book I realized, “Oh! I could do this!” Realizing I wanted to make comics specifically came much later in my life. I had always liked reading comics and manga, I was definitely an anime kid in middle school, but I didn’t realize I wanted to make them until my freshman year of college.

Freyja, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Freyja Baileykaze. I am from Seattle, Washington, and I recently graduated from The School of Visual Arts in New York City. My biggest art influences are Brandon Sanderson, X-men, Hayao Miyazaki, specifically The Journey of Shuna and Nausicaa, as well as Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick. A passion of mine is telling diverse queer stories because I, myself, am queer and understand how important good representation is. That being said I don’t really write romance comics. I enjoy writing fantasy comics that range from sci-fi to steampunk to high fantasy. I think a common theme in my works is people in oppressive societies rising up to make them better. In all of my works someone has to have a superpower.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had always been an average student and never truly liked, nor felt good at school. All I wanted to do was draw and make my stories (laughably now, there were many parent teacher conferences about that). Somewhere around fifteen, when my parents and I started looking into colleges, I realized or understood that for me to do what I wanted, which was go to art school, I’d have to at least care a little bit about school. For some artists maybe art school isn’t what they want or need but for me I knew that to improve I’d really need school structure. Because of this I started working a little harder in school and really truly trying and it paid off.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

For me, and for many other artists, there was really no other path. Passion is everything and quite frankly I wasn’t passionate about school, like academic school, which is part of the reason it was so difficult for me. Art, telling my stories, is all I ever truly wanted to do and there was no other journey for me to take. People have asked me what I would have done if I hadn’t gone to art school and the answer is still, art school. I actually remember in middle or high school trying to think of what I might want to be in the future and I went through a few thoughts. I thought of archeology and psychology because I like ruins and old things and because I was always curious about how people think, but I honestly don’t think I would’ve finished school if I had chosen either of those, especially psychology. I have even thought of becoming an art teacher but there is no doubt in my mind that I would still be making and selling comics.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://freyjasoul.wixsite.com/website
• Instagram: @freyjasoul_art
• Linkedin: Freyja Baileykaze

Image Credits
Freyja Baileykaze