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

Kaayla, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

During my senior year in college, I started “Going Further Down,” an ongoing illustrated series based on the prompt: “childhood exploration void of adult supervision.” It is an allegory to the vastness of the internet and how children have innocently found themselves in online spaces not meant for them.
“Going Further Down” is one of the first works I am artistically very satisfied with, and I view it as a major stepping stone in my journey as an artist. During this time, it was difficult for me to complete final work. From sketch to final, finished paintings were a struggle to complete. They were stiff, and I could pick out all my mistakes from a glance. But the work in my sketchbook was the opposite. I could easily complete three spreads in a week and have fun doing so. My sketchbook had served as a place of experimentation. I could paint, doodle, rip up, cover, redo, and any other adjective, to my sketchbook. I believed I could always fix a spread as long as I kept trying.
To solve this disconnect, I decided to complete this project in a sketchbook made of craft and printer paper. When I completed one illustration, the second one was made on the back of the first. In other words, when my pink alcohol marker bled through, you saw it become the background of the next illustration spread. When I added more water than my thin paper was capable of holding, the warping was visible on the subsequent one. The center fold and my book binding are apparent in every page. And when if I thought this drawing isn’t working, I glued in new paper and redid it. That didn’t work? Peel the sheet off, glue another one down, and try again.
While this method of working makes showcasing all the illustrations together impossible, it gave me the comfort that a sketchbook has which allowed me to imbue life into each page. In all, “Going Further Down” taught me so much about my personal art practice and how I operate to create the best I can.

Kaayla, 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?

Hi, I’m Kaayla (pronounced the same as Kayla)! I am an illustrator and a native New Yorker. I’ve always been an art kid throughout my childhood, and I studied fine arts in high school. I am fortunate to have the support of my family to develop my life’s passion, and I got my Bachelor’s in Illustration from SVA. In my work, I love creating playful narrative illustrations of people and animals and gravitate toward fantastical imagery. I recently got into paper collaging and risograph, and I also have fun experimenting with it in my work. I’ve been doing freelance work in online publications and tabling as an artist vendor.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I can name two things that are the most rewarding. The first is when I am refining the final art piece. For me, the most challenging part of art making is the groundwork of composition and color. So once the foundation is laid out clearly, I can let my intuition take over. I zone out and paint, and soon enough, I’ll be looking at a finished illustration.
The second is being in the art community. Once I attended art college, I realized there are so many people to meet who love making, discussing, and gushing over art like me. I recently attended my first art market as a vendor, and it was such a great experience. As fellow artists, most are very excited to uplift and support one another. This circular appreciation is so fun to be around as you make new friends.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I’m part of Gen-Z, and like many of my generation, I am on TikTok. Suppose you overlook the massive doomscrolling problem the app (and pretty much every social media entity) perpetuates. In that case, I think TikTok can foster a good community of humans who can relate to and encourage one another. One creation by the community is the prominent trend of “hope-core.” These are videos that aim to showcase the good in humanity despite the world we live in. They promote overall hope and introspection so that we can change our outlook and become better today and tomorrow, and they garner thousands of strangers to comment and write their own stories.
From these short videos, I genuinely get more hopeful that I will be okay and that my future as an artist will work out. Despite the looming gloom of unemployment in most fields, AI stealing human-made art, and significant lay-offs in the art world, these videos bring more optimism into my life and push me to work to the best of my ability today.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kaaylalee.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/manoleettuce/

Image Credits

Kaayla Lee