We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Connor Stelle a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Connor, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

You know, it’s actually kind of a tough question and one I find myself thinking about in moments of insecurity. There are certainly times when I feel in over my head, like I’m falling behind with what I should’ve accomplished by this point in my life, and I worry about the time I think I’ve wasted not getting started sooner. Of course, that’s all based on hindsight. I always come back to the conclusion that I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be, and every decision I’ve made up to this point has gotten me here.
I’ve been drawing and doing creative stuff as far back as I can remember, but I spent years trying to avoid doing it professionally. In high school I didn’t take an art class until the last semester of my junior year because I feared criticism and worried having a teacher oversee my art would take the fun out of it. Fortunately that wasn’t the situation; my high school art teachers were incredibly supportive and encouraged me to explore and develop my own voice.
However, my fears were at least somewhat validated when I took AP Studio Art my senior year, the intensity of which burnt me out and I stepped away from art for a while. I assumed that was what life as a professional artist was like and it wasn’t for me. I didn’t even study art in college, and it wasn’t until after I graduated and got a taste of what “normal” work was like that I even considered returning to it.
Choosing to move from Indiana to Savannah and go to grad school was a huge decision and I wasn’t without my reservations. I was initially going to go to an out-of-state school for my undergrad, something I stayed reluctantly committed to up to the last second when I realized I wasn’t emotionally ready to live away from home. My family was incredibly supportive and I ended up going to school in my hometown, but for years I felt deeply ashamed that I hadn’t been able to make that jump. I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a wave of fear that history might repeat itself.
Now as I’m nearing the end of my program, I can safely say it was one of the best decisions of my life and one that I wouldn’t dare change. I believe that decision occurred at exactly when it should have, and any earlier I wouldn’t have been able to make the most of it. Sure, I have regrets, but ultimately I wouldn’t change anything because I wouldn’t want to give up what I currently have.

Connor, 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?

Well, I’m an illustrator originally from Bloomington, IN, currently living in Savannah, GA where I’m working on my MFA. I’ve been drawing and doing creative work as far back as I can remember, but I only got into it professionally after dipping my toes in the world of traditional work and realizing I needed an alternative. Simply put, I love to draw and want to make a living out of it. I like to explore and I’ve worked with a wide variety of styles and subjects, but overall my work is best summarized as stylish, detailed ink drawings with a darkly humorous tone. My medium of choice is traditional ink but I’m equally comfortable working digitally, as long as I’m able to give it a handmade quality. The rise of AI and prevalence of extremely slick, polished digital art has made the human touch one of my most important values as an artist. Many artists and art-lovers (myself included) are gaining a renewed appreciation for natural textures and imperfections, and that’s something I want to embrace in my own work, even when I’m using digital tools. In terms of projects, I’m a huge film and music nerd so the most exciting projects for me are the ones where I’m able to tap into those passions. Oh, and anything spooky! I’ve been fascinated by the strange and unusual from a young age, so I’m naturally drawn to anything with a darker edge. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. I find inspiration anywhere and everywhere I can – animation, folklore, theme parks, comics, literature, history, architecture, nature, you name it – which I think is what sets me apart the most as an artist. I have a large and eclectic set of influences that can provide unique and unexpected solutions to creative problems. I’m also innately curious, so that pool is always expanding and developing.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Gosh, there have been so many… sometimes I swear I spend more time unlearning than learning! I think the most significant has been unlearning my perfectionism, which I’m still working on and probably will be for the foreseeable future. I can’t tell you exactly where it started; maybe it was extremely high academic standards at my school, or the fact that I wasn’t very athletic growing up and felt that I needed to compensate. Whatever the reason, I’ve always set very high standards for myself and wasted needless blood, sweat and tears over little things that in the end didn’t really matter. I think it’s most evident with my art, but has been present in every area of my life from housekeeping to interpersonal relationships. When I first started drawing seriously in high school, my goal was to be able to draw photorealistic. Even though I produced some pretty stunning drawings, they never completely satisfied me because I’d always get hung up on minuscule details – like the distance between a person’s eyes or the length of a finger – that I couldn’t move on from. Later when I discovered Photoshop, I didn’t work traditionally for a long time because I wasn’t able to hit undo or make perfectly smooth, straight lines. Eventually I realized those perfectly smooth, straight lines didn’t make a difference – in fact, they made my work look stiff and lifeless. I think getting back to working traditionally and learning to embrace the unchangeable mistakes helped me start to break away from that perfectionism in other areas of my life. The “mistakes” were often so small and inconsequential that they didn’t affect the piece as a whole, and they even gave it a certain handmade charm. Loosening up and taking that pressure off myself has certainly affected my life for the better!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I think for me it’s the ability to see the artistry in everyday life that most people don’t even notice. There’s so much beautiful art in the world that goes unnoticed because it blends into the mundanity of the daily grind. I’m not just talking about visual art, but music, architecture, fashion, technology, nature, even people themselves. Being a visual artist requires close and careful observation, and when you look at something long enough you pick up on the subtle beauty of its construction. The way a particular person carries themself, the way a particular building casts a shadow, the shape of a common household appliances – these are all things that a lifetime of drawing has conditioned to excite me. I think that’s why I was so attracted to illustration, since it’s a discipline that aims to beautify the little things. Some of the most impactful art in my life has come in forms such as stationary, food wrappers, and advertisements.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://connorstelleillustration.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stelleraiser/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-stelle-462a10267/