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

Isiah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Back when I was in highschool, 10th grade specifically, I was in this state of free flowing as a creative. I was always keeping up with fashion, photography, and music. Uncertain of what creative “field” I wanted to be apart of, I decided to involve myslef with all of the fields that stood out to me. I used to run an instagram page promoting aspiring models, designers, etc, and at times I would put myself on there anonymously with whatever designer garment I had currently. It had a huge following, so seeing how I’ve made connections with some individuals, and where some of those people are now, really made me know for sure that I wanted to do this artist life professionally.

Isiah, 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?

I think it’s safe to say that I am a person of many occupations haha. First and foremost, I am an artist. I specialize in abstract and expressionism artworks. From small canvases with gesture drawings of models or objects, to large scaled peices with various textures and colors, I work in every medium. Acrylic, oil, pastel, charcoal, anything. I’ve been known to always draw something while I was in class, and people stayed in tuned to see where it would end up later on down the road. From sharing on social media, to leaving a few small sketches out in public, I’ve started to make a name for myself in the art scene slowly but surely. At times, I also do photography of still life or sometimes, architectures. My Nikon Coolpix 5400 is a small digital camera from 2007 that gives results for my sort of “pictures in motion” shots that I capture. I’m aiming to practice taking images of certain body parts and creating shapes out of them. Normally I take raw photos while I am out in the city, moreso street photography than studio photography. With doing both of these crafts mainly, I’m proud to say that it has taken me far. I’m always receiving love from individuals in differents countries, creating relations with those in my homeland, and taking my works out to different parts of the world. I love to interact and learn about people story from different parts of the world. It helps me to get a sense of what I want to share with my creations.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think the idea that being an artist is easy, carefree, and not valuable, is something that some people tend to overlook. Of course it’s not easy. As everything requires a bit of challenge to it, but when you give yourself the time and patience to hone your craft, you begin to see the things that you struggle with become less complex for you to accomplish. On the topic of artist being perceived as carefree, I have been in many scenarios where people struggled to understand the complexities of balancing both life, and what I consider, art being a career instead of a hobby. There’s periods where we may not always have commissions, exhibition appearances, or any supplies, though we do not take these things lightly. For these things help with paying for necessities, like bills and what not. Ending this miniature rant on the topic of value, being an artist does bring value to the table. We create the world that you reside in. From architect, to advertising, our minds are what helps build economies. Literally. There’s a difference when discussing value in the context of finance with art, like real estate numbers, and internal value, as one learns themselves to see what way their creativeness can leave an impact. If that makes sense? Overall, these are some things that I have heard, and experienced, from non-creative people. So yea, go find yourself haha.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Yes! I don’t want to go too far into detail with this, as I like to let a lot of my actions speak for itself. But to say the most without saying too much, a particular goal is to take this journey out of the country. When that is, accomplished everything else planned will fall into play. History is in the making with what I desire for this life. And I’m here to share the moments with you all.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://isiahmccalla.squarespace.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/isiahsmccalla

Image Credits
Isiah McCalla all pictures