We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Edlyn Capulong. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Edlyn below.
Edlyn, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
having a creative career is a balancing act – i’ve found that when your livelihood is tied to your art, it can shift into an unhealthy way of relating to your self, especially when art is tied to expression or when you are putting your whole being into it. if you are not getting work or if people aren’t responding to your art enthusiastically, it almost becomes a rejection of you as a whole. if people don’t like my art, then they must not like me; if people think my art sucks, i must suck too, right? money and recognition shouldn’t be indicative of whether art is successful, but when art becomes business, it’s easy to feel that way.
on top of that, to make a decent living, sooner or later you will need to work on projects that do not line up with what you would ultimately like to be making, and so your creative muscle is being worked in areas you didn’t originally intend to work on. unfortunately, the reality at the moment is that a capitalist society is going to be putting money into things that make more money, whether they are artistically fulfilling or not. and of course, people need money to live.
i love making art and am most happy when i can be creative in a way that is personally meaningful, but i do often think about what it would be like to have a job where i don’t have to think about this balance – where i can make a living doing something straightforward while being able to creatively flourish working on my own projects on the side. that being said, i am grateful to have been able to make a living doing creative things that are in the realm of what i’m passionate about! like i initially mentioned, it’s all a balancing act.
Edlyn, 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?
i tend to be very wordy and often look back at past recorded interactions with slight embarrassment so i’ll try to keep this brief. i am a person interested in many things our world has to offer and i use art as a way to pay tribute and converse with the things in this world that i love – i draw, paint, animate, direct, write, sculpt, build… i make things, and i got where i am by being too stubborn and selfish to do anything other than what i cannot resist doing. and for most of my life, it has been making art.
i have received most of my income in the field of animation and i have created work for almost every part of the pipeline – from directing to animating, designing backgrounds and editing, and even building props and sets for stop-motion projects. my favorite thing when working for others is figuring out their vision, fundamentally understanding what makes the client tick in their heart of hearts, and creating a product that will hit that target as close as i can. i’m most proud of work that feels like a passionate and genuine attempt at expressing something – i find the best projects are the ones that flow smoothly with a set goal in mind.
i’m not entirely sure what the future holds for me at this current time. with the animation industry at a low-point and the rest of the world seemingly at the edge of an anxiety-ridden oblivion, there’s a lot of uncertainty in the air. but the future is there for a future me to deal with. i’ll just do what i cannot resist doing in the meantime.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
truth! understanding! and contributing to a world i’m happy to live on!
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
learning! growing! connecting! and becoming more fluent in the language called art!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://edlynbot.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/edlynbot
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/edlynbot/
Image Credits
edlynbot (edlyn capulong)