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

Ilaamen, appreciate you joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I always dreamed of being an artist, but being from Guatemala it was not an easy task to accomplish. I know things are changing in Latin America for artists and creative people, but before you needed to have a “real job” in order to make a living. So I studied Graphic Design in order to have a career. Little did I know that lots of the abilities learned as a graphic designer are the ones that help me a lot now that I am a full time artist/illustrator. One of the things that is important to mention is that the transition from designer to artist was not easy, and I had to be patient with my art and work for years before I started seeing any financial benefit. When you start as an artist you need to work a lot, make lots of mistakes and create several pieces before you start getting momentum, and also you need to figure out how to keep doing it without the payment, for lots of people that means to keep a “day job” or a part time to pay the bills while working in your art career, but once you have done it for a while and when you start getting attention, the satisfaction of making a living from what you love is enormous. Definitely worthy of the years you put on it. Honestly I still don’t know how to speed up the process, I think that the years as a designer and then the years trying to make it as an artist have contributed to the type of work I do know.

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’m an artist, illustrator, and a storyteller who explores elements of everyday life in a colorful and cheerful way, often focused on kindness and inclusion. Differently from what it’s advised in the art world, I don’t have a very specific style. While some people think that my art in general is recognizable, I don’t stick to a determined media or style, I love to explore geometric shapes, pop-art, illustrative art and loose brushes, and work mainly with acrylics and graphite but also digitally. At the beginning I was obsessed in trying to narrow my style, or to stick to something very specific, but my background as a graphic designer let me to experiment to different styles and mediums and to approach each project accordingly to what I think would be more suitable. One thing that is recurrent is my use of contrast and color (As a good Guatemalan I guess). But in general my approach to different styles have given me opportunities with diverse clients and collectors. Some of my milestones are:

I have participated in more than 35+ group exhibitions nationwide, have had 3 solo exhibitions, and have collectors in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and Central America.

· Selected as the Omaha Summer Arts Festival Featured Illustrator for 2 consecutive years.

· One of the winners of the 7th edition of Latin American Illustration by AI-AP (American Illustration – American Photography).

· Selected artist for the United States Department of State’s Art in Embassies Program, with the piece “United We Live” being displayed at the US Ambassador’s residence in Kampala, Uganda.

· Featured in Singulart Magazine, Paris, France as One of 7 Illustrators to Watch

My art is in several stores of an important restaurant chain in the USA, I have illustrated for PepsiCo Guatemala, Nestle Guatemala and created a couple of characters for Henkel.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When you change careers or start a new business it seems like everyone is getting ahead except you.
I reevaluated my life after leaving my homeland and moving to the USA. After moving I lost most of my clients as a graphic designer and needed to start over, so I felt it was the perfect time to do what I always loved: ART. The first two years were rough, it was difficult even to find a place that wanted to exhibit my work, but I remember talking with a cousin, who is an immigrant also, and he told me that if you work hard, even without connections or a stable job, you can make it work in about 5 years. That sounds like a lot of time when you are in your first year, but somehow that gave me the hope to make it through, and I have. I’m glad to say my cousin was right about it taking 5 years to get established. Thankfully I didn’t need to reevaluate my career again, and I’m still an artist 7 years in.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

In the case of an art piece for example, if you get a commission and you are charging $400, work with all the passion you can in order to deliver a work of art that’s worth more than what they’re paying for.
Don’t treat the small sales or projects as a second class project.

Always give 100%, because that will help you to develop your craft and will give you faithful collectors, or you will be known by word of mouth.I know that advice maybe is only for creative people, if you are in sales you can’t send a more expensive product than what you were paid for, but even then, the way you treat your clients, as if they are the most valuable client there is, will bring you more and more opportunities.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ilaamen.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ilaamen/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ilaamenStudio/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ilaamen
• Other: https://www.saatchiart.com/ilaamen https://www.singulart.com/en/artist/ilaamen-pelshaw-8859

Image Credits
Image 2: Credit to Omaha Summer Arts Festival (OSAF)