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

Jaylen, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Ever since I was a young chid, I have always had a dream to pursue a career as an artist. Over time, that dream became more and more of a possibility as I got more involved in the art world. I have always created and always been fascinated with art but just as a personal hobby. Moving from Corpus Christi Texas, to Houston I decided to take a step in the direction of creating artwork to display to the public in shows rather than creating just for myself. Over time, I became more involved in local art shows and throughout this time I was also constantly practicing, working on skill level as an artist and developing my style. As I got better and stayed consistent with my art I began receiving more exclusive and select group show opportunities which eventually lead me to showing in art galleries for group shows and then solo shows. I still didn’t think that I would actually pursue art as a career path, it was just something that I was doing outside of a full time job that was just gaining some attention. What made me realize that this deep down dream of pursing art was becoming an actual possibility, was right after my third solo show at Ivester Contemporary in Austin, Tx. The show was well received and gotten some publicity in Austin, that I have never experienced before. Shortly after the show opened my worked was selling at prices that I have never sold before and made me come to the realization that this is what I should be doing. Before my show at Ivester I was working at a job that I did not enjoy, I was miserable. But once I had actually seen that I was onto something great with my art, I quit my job and began career as an artist. So after all of that, the first timeI knew that I wanted to pursue art professionally was right after my third solo show.

Jaylen, 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 am an artist from Corpus Christi, Texas and I’ve been creating since the age of five. I was introduced to creating by a couple of friends around that time, who knew how to draw really well. Inspired by them I began drawing constantly. Not only drawing constantly, I also began doing my own research on art as much as a young child could and just diving into the art world as much as I could. Now at the age of twenty-six, I produce artwork inspired by my life growing up in Corpus Christi. I unfortunately experienced a lot of hard times a young boy/teen and my goal now is to paint about these stories to not only get these negative experiences off of my chest. But to also create work about these experiences that other can relate to with the opportunity to visually see that we all as people go through hard times.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me personally, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the fact that I can pursue my dream of being an artist every day. I am aware that most individuals are not able to pursue what ever it is that they are passionate about due what ever life situation they may be in. With that in mind I am extremely grateful every single day that is can pursue my passion as a career. Everything else that comes my way is truly a blessing but what is most rewarding is that I am even able to pursue my passion for art.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

As an artist my number one goal is to express myself as an individual and to tell my story. But my over all goal is to hopefully inspire future generations of the art world that what is most important to do as an artist is to first express yourself. Not only do I believe that is very important to express yourself but I believe is the most fulfilling. By telling your own story as creatively as you can, it gives you the true feeling of expression. Your story is your story. No person on this planet can tell you that your wrong for sharing your story.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @Jayyford96
• Twitter: @jaylenpigford

Image Credits
I own the rights to my photos.