We recently connected with Keoni Coleman and have shared our conversation below.

Keoni, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I’ve ALWAYS been creating in some form from painting my moms walls with her lip stick or putting on outfits and parading around the house. I always painted or drew but I believe I first realized I wanted to pursue art watching cartoons and animations. Hayao Miyazaki’s story telling had a chokehold on me as a child. The ability to tell stories with so much color music and emotion was everything to me. I decided in Highschool that I would do animation. That slowly shifted into a focus into illustration and character design which I adore. The characters of a story tell so much before the journey even begins. I’m very interested in what makes humans connect with themselves and the world around them and I explore that every chance I can.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Keoni Coleman my brand is KeoniColeArt. Ive been making art my whole life from painting with my moms lipstick on the walls to putting pipe straws through paper plates haha.

I was mostly self taught all the way until college I took an art class in Highschool and it was not helpful for me. So I began heavily focusing on art for a few years did some art shows in Richmond, Virginia where I’m located. That’s where I began my career selling prints and doing shows.

From there I decided to go to school to pursue character design as an illustrator. I’m an extremely avid gamer and anime enjoyer. So character design just felt like a natural progression.

My work is an amalgamation of many things and I don’t like to put myself in a box. It feels like trying to simplify a kaleidoscope sometimes haha. My work takes roots in my spirituality first. Then fantasy and futurism.

My work is very otherworldly. It surreal yet still very human. I’m taking time to dissect ideas, emotions, and states. All in all I just want to make things that are cool and meaningful to me and by extension those around me.

My work is a deep conversation with Whatever project I may be working on. What they truly represent. As an artist I’m being myself Im not too worried about being palatable.

If you would like to find me I’m on social media as keonicole. Instagram and twitter.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

The greatest thing that society can do for artist is to first allow them to be artist. Allow artist to make mistakes and learn from them. Second is actually supporting like true support so many times on social media you can post all day but if none of the people that you interact with share your work you can become stagnated.

Relying on the algorithm can take long and a lot of hard work which is fine we all must work for what we want. However, to say you support an artist it’s so much more. Support is showing up at venues it’s sharing with your other friends and followers online and offline. It’s buying stickers and prints and showcasing their work.

I believe having art present is what makes an ecosystem breathe. We Artist are the lifeblood’s of our communities just as much as anyone else. Our impact should not be understated. Art itself Is something beyond us I’d say it’s a gift from god. It’s the thing that brings humans closer to each other. Art is love. Art is humanity.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I realized just how many resources there are online for courses like “Schoolism”. All the respect to Bobby Chiu Schoolisms creator. With things like online courses, I don’t believe anyone has to go through the stress of paying for college or university as Artist anymore to be honest. Granted I gained much from college o believe it was the networking connections and friendships I made that were the greatest takeaway. And now even after college I’m still learning a buttload from Schoolism and other courses so it’s an ongoing motion.

So I would say when starting your career look around you and learn to make full use of the resources around you before making quick decisions.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://keonicoleart.artstation.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/keonicole?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keoni-coleman-418165149
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/keoni_coleman?s=21&t=CEUL6jMK9s-PILdR_OJSNQ