We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alexandra Bowman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alexandra below.

Alexandra , appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

There is a lot I have taught myself or have learned from my peers. If I have a question on how to go about a project, I reach out to another creative—community is important. I have learned the most from making mistakes and problem solving. I take classes to teach myself new software and experiment with new materials and techniques in my studio. My craft evolves with my art practice and life in general. Education is a constant process.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am an illustrator, muralist and designer born and raised in Los Angeles. Ever since I was young, I was in love with drawing and flipping through picture books. As a teen, I became really into magazines, I wasn’t even reading the articles as much as I was looking at the photographs, layouts, crops and illustrations. I didn’t know it then, but I had a growing fascination with publication design; how text and images interacted to share stories and information.

I attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where I focused on art history, drawing and graphic design. After graduation, I worked in a museum, at a letterpress studio and in a restaurant. Throughout all these jobs, I kept drawing, working on paintings, filling up my sketchbook and developing my style. In 2014 I moved to the Bay Area where I started working as a production artist and graphic designer for a company in San Fransisco. Although my corporate job was financially stable, it was creatively unfulfilling. I would get off work and commute straight home to continue drawing..

During this time in my life I started sharing my work on instagram and would eventually be asked to create flyers for local bands or draw logos for a small businesses. The more visible my work was, the more people contacted me for jobs and I started to daydream about becoming a full time artist.

One of my first big commissions was for Pop-Up Magazine in 2016 . I was still developing my style and finding myself as an artist, but I mention this because it was my first big gig, and gave me the confidence I needed to focus on illustration as an actual career.

All my dedication had turned into a business, and in 2018 I eventually made the leap to quit my job and work for myself full time. Having more flexibility to focus on my craft allowed me to venture further into the world of mural painting and editorial illustration.

I have always been an activist and interested in confronting social, political and environmental issues with my art. I started focusing on taking jobs that touched on these topics and eventually made a name for myself within these spaces. I have worked with newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post on conceptual illustrations regarding race or climate change. I have collaborated with non profits such as the National Institute of Reproductive Health and the ACLU. I worked on campaigns for Patagonia, illustrating ways to combat climate change and for NPR on articles about food justice.

I worked with Patagonia for their 2020 Spring Catalog. I am a big supporter of climate justice and I knew ideally what the end result should look like if we address the climate crisis, but I didn’t understand the logistical steps that it took to get there, the in-between. On this project, I collaborated with some amazing writers and scientists to understand what making a positive impact would actually look like in real life. Responsible farming, indigenous land stewardship, protesting and legislation, clean energy, solar power, animal and land protection while using science and technology to understand the changes in our environment.

I had the privilege of working with Patagonia again on a series of murals around the Bay Area. Each store offered a grant to a local non-profit and showcased a call to action on their window. I am pretty proud of this project.

Later that year I started working as an Art Director at a food and culture magazine called Whetstone. My wildest teenage dreams came true and I was in charge of my own magazine. While I was at Whetstone, I published seven editions and was able to work with writers, photographers and illustrators from around the world.

I have illustrated books, coffee cups, painted small murals inside neighborhood delis and 60’ tall murals on the side of buildings. I have created animations for social media and for live performances. I have had my art printed in newspapers, magazines and in online journals. I use my knowledge and experience of both design and drawing to create visuals that tell a story.

Even if there is no client, I am still always in my sketchbook, painting for myself and learning new techniques. By making time for my own art practice I improve myself and my business.

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

The most rewarding aspect is how I am able to visualize an idea, a world that doesn’t exist, and make it into something concrete. It is incredibly satisfying to finish a work that seemingly came from thin air and then to share it with others. Murals are especially satisfying, when what was once a sketch transforms into a mural that takes up your whole field of vision it’s like entering a new world.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

A passion for the process of art-making drives my creative journey, I love what I do! My goal is to create work that attempts to make sense of the world while navigating important topics. I want to leave a legacy, and make the world a better place, and I think art has the power to do that.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.alexandrabowman.com
• Instagram: @alexbowman
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063477339751&mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-bowman-270a7b74/