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

Alright, Khaila thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I have been drawing my entire life. I’m not sure who taught me in the beginning, but I assume I just naturally gravitated towards art like a lot of children do. I can remember my first art competition – kindergarten, I colored in a picture of a mermaid and won best in class. Moments like that followed me throughout childhood, and art was always something I was considered good at or praised for.

I have been creative throughout my entire life, and in my late teens into early twenties, I feel like I’ve just been trying to hone in on what’s unique to my own experience as an artist. No one can teach you things like that. I learned about myself outside of a creative lens – my ethnicity, my queerness, my morals, spirituality – now everything I make is filtered through that lens.

I don’t think there’s anything I could have done to speed up this process, I don’t think it should be sped up at all. I think it all comes when it’s ready, and that everyone is on their own individual creative path. It’s important not to rush or force creativity, which I know can be hard when there’s deadlines and money that needs to be made.

Money is always an obstacle, finding time in between working to support myself vs. creating to work through my own stuff. It seems like there’s never enough time in a day, and for creatives trying to balance this it can be hard not to put off creative time. I think the most essential skill I’ve learned is patience, but also time-management and transparency with my supporters.

Khaila, 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?

My name is Khaila, I am a 26-year old, first generation Filipino American artist living in Columbus, Ohio. I identify as woman, as queer, and I use she/her pronouns. My work is influenced by color, psychedelia, grass, and glitter.
I believe in the power of autobiographical work as a means of storytelling and community building through my own reflected personal experiences.

In 2018, I graduated from college with a degree in Illustration and Fine Arts, and built my career through freelancing.
I’ve worked with local businesses on their store displays, social media assets, business cards, merchandise, beer labels and murals. I’ve animated gifs, commercials, billboards, and tour advertisements. I’ve created posters for music events, album art, and band merch. I’ve drawn hundreds and hundreds of dogs working as a Card Artist for BARK. I’ve done a lot in my freelance career, and I continue to take on projects here and there – though I will admit I’m a little pickier nowadays.

I feel like in the first 5 years of freelancing, I really said yes to anything that came my way – in hopes of building new relationships and also to test myself and my creativity. How many things is there to do as a creative in this city? A lot.

Now, I’m much more conservative with the time I allot for freelance projects. I am working on things I align with as a person, making things not just because I know how, but because I want to and am excited to tackle it. I’m very proud of myself for not giving up when it felt like no freelance work was coming in at all. I think it’s super easy to get discouraged in this line of work, and it takes some thick skin to keep it pushing when things get slow.

After visiting the Philippines last summer, I felt like my creative energy completely shifted. I have been working slowly on a body of work that talks about what it’s like to visit your home country after 20+ years away – I’m still processing this trip a year later, but I know for a fact it’s changed the course of my career too. I’ll always be freelancing, but for now I am focusing on building a portfolio to find work as a tattoo artist. Tattooing is one of the only things that has connected me to both my Filipino and American sides so closely. My days are spent managing a shop, and my nights are spent drawing.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Honestly just post whatever you want – I know the algorithm favors frequency, facial recognition, all of that. I get away with “shitposting” to my story. I log on, I post Hello Kitty, I log off – lol.

I joke that I am chronically online – which I am. I don’t know if I’m proud of it, but it’s the truth. I’ll view someone’s story 27 seconds after they posted it and feel like a total creep. But in all honesty, I built my “audience” on social media by being transparent and posting without too much filtering out of the good stuff. The good stuff being the raw ugliness of what life is like on a daily basis, it’s memes and food and my hot selfies. My political rants, what my dog’s doing, pictures of funny license plates. My advice to those building their social media is to not just post but also interact with who’s viewing your stuff – you’ll be surprised at how many online friendships can turn into irl ones. Just don’t be weird about it, you know?

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron

I think everyone should read this book. More than once.  

Contact Info:

• Website: https://khailacarr.com
• Instagram: @baby.lumpia

Image Credits
Photo of me by Dejah @inx0vate Artwork photos are all credited as myself.