Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alice Olson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alice, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

It wasn’t so much that I discovered the desire to become a professional as much as I gave in to my need to do so.

Many people have asked me why I wanted to become an artist, but the truth is that want never had anything to do with it. I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember, and nearly all of my earliest memories involve me doing something “artistic”– whether it be sculpting animals with play dough, drawing monsters with markers or crayons, writing stories based on dreams that I had, or doodling to keep myself from fidgeting, creation has always been a part of my life, and I can’t imagine my world without it.

Believe it or not, throughout middle and high school, I wanted to be a lawyer due to my interest in true crime and court proceedings, which is why I have a degree in behavioral science and clinical psychology– I was convinced that getting an art degree was “too risky”, and if art didn’t end up working out I’d still have a “real” degree to fall back on. I was originally going to jump into law school after I graduated but by the time I was a senior, my art career was going well enough for me to pay rent, and I didn’t want to stop. I’m still very much interested in law, psychology, and biology, and it’s not like I was a poor student, I just knew that there was something I valued more.

At the end of the day, I guess it just came down to choosing my passion and happiness over wealth, which isn’t an easy choice to make, but I know it’s what’s best for me, my mental health, and my pursuit of self-actualization. Hopefully, I’ll make it one day and accomplish my more lofty goals, but until then, I’m very blessed to be where I am.

Alice, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

As I stated before, I’ve been a creative of sorts my entire life. I’ve always struggled to call myself a professional artist since I feel that comes with the guarantee that I’m somehow accomplished or talented– I’ve never seen myself as particularly skilled– but it’s the only word I know of that describes everything that I do. In addition to my activities as a sculptor at a local art festival, and as a writer in my spare time, I’m primarily known online for my work as a freelance illustrator and character designer and spend the majority of my time bringing the ideas of others to life through drawing commissions. People come to me with a variety of prompts, specific or not, and I’m posed with the challenge of creating an eye-catching piece of art.

I don’t think I’m all too different from the thousands of other artists in my field, but my clients have told me that they value my commitment to quality and efficiency. While I’ve always believed that the value and caliber of my work are in the eye of the beholder, I’m not someone who likes to slack off– I treat every project as a serious undertaking that deserves careful planning and labor to turn out the best work I can. People spend their hard-earned money to collaborate with me, so the least I can do is put one hundred percent of my effort into giving them a good piece of art without wasting any time. Part of that comes from a deep-rooted fear of mediocrity and my admittedly grandiose ambitions, but I get bored if I’m not challenging myself and finding ways to improve my craft.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The easy answer would be to say the feedback or support I get from others who view my work, which is true– Even if I’m not particularly happy with the result, getting responses to the piece and finding ways to improve my craft is immensely satisfying. However, I find it just as satisfying to know that my journey is never really over. No matter how much time I spend on my craft, I’ll always be learning something new, there will always be different mediums and techniques to try, and I’ll always be trying to find innovative ways to tell stories with my work. Even now, there’s still so much I want to do as an artist– projects I want to be involved with, and creative avenues to explore… it’s almost overwhelming at times. As of right now, I’m just trying to get my foot in the door so I can start climbing the rungs of the industry to open up more opportunities for myself, so I know for a fact that there’s still so much left to explore as a creative.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

You could say that, I suppose. I’m not sure if I’ll ever accomplish it, but it’s one that I’ve had since late high school and was looking at potential colleges to get my degree. On the drive home from touring the school that would end up becoming my alma mater, I sat in silence for a bit just thinking about the future and what I wanted out of life, especially since I never really thought I’d make it to college-age. After years of struggling with prescription drug dependency and being in and out of mental hospitals and crisis centers, contending with my future was overwhelming. For some reason, my thoughts kept drifting back to the work of an artist named Katsuhiro Otomo; I discovered his body of work during this period, and it was the first thing that clicked with me and continues to inspire my artistic endeavors to this day. He’s everything I want to be as an artist, but I could never really pin down why until this moment, sitting in the car, taking steps toward becoming a person I never thought I’d live to be. I’m not sure if I’ll ever live to be as successful or talented as Otomo, I’ve never seen myself as particularly skilled, and I doubt I’ll ever be famous or anything like that, but I want to make something that has an impact on someone like his work had for me.
I feel that’s the essence of living forever; To leave a legacy that influences someone in a positive way that leads them to influence others similarly. Even if what I make is lost to time, the difference I made still has a ripple effect. That’s the essence of what drives me to keep doing what I do, other than the fact that I just love doing it, of course.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://therabbitfollower.carrd.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therabbitfollower/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/RabbitFo11ower
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfXzJD0Upxq7ld0_zemSytw
• Other: My portfolio: https://www.behance.net/therabbitfollower

Image Credits
N/A– all art is made by Alice Olson / The Rabbit Follower