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

Hi Kodi, thanks for joining us today. One of the toughest things about progressing in your creative career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

Throughout my childhood, I’ve always had a passion for painting and drawing. In high school I had an amazing mentor who helped me master my craft while also helping me apply for awards and scholarships that would help set me on a path to be an artist as a career. She always gave me so much creative freedom, and under her tutelage I really thrived.

However, once I went to college and joined an art program full time, I hit a lot of roadblocks. I had to retake basic classes again, and I became under-stimulated and bored. I had been awarded 50k worth of scholarships as a teenager, and I suddenly found myself in classes where I was learning to draw “eggs” again. I told myself that I just needed to stick it out, and that the upper level courses I’d be taking would challenge me more. The classes I found I liked the most were in art forms I wasn’t as familiar with, pottery, woodworking, photography, etc. I had a few great professors during my time there, but I had an overwhelming amount of professors that were cold or cruel, and seemed to especially have it out for me. I’ll admit, I liked to adapt assignments to fit myself better. I took every boring assignment and tried my best to make it more conceptual or interesting, and many professors in art programs get very upset when students try and drive their own paths. Technical skills were not something that I was overly interested in. I’d learned my technical skills in high school, and I’d really thought that a college art program would be more about conceptual work and how to develop a professional career within galleries. After all, most modern artists were not masters of classical technique, but of raw emotional work and experimentation. I was sadly mistaken, and found myself in an environment that was slowly eating away at my mental health and creativity. By the end of my third year in an art program, I decided to stop going to my classes and switch my major to biology.

After my horrible time in college, art did not feel the same for a while. I found that I could never complete anything, and was never happy with what I was making. I felt like all the passion I had for art during high school had been sucked from my veins. The next four years I fell into my biology degree and stopped doing art completely, spiraling into a major depressive period in my life.

It took moving from Fort Collins to Denver for school, and having a very supportive partner who encouraged and inspired me, to start creating again. After four years of not practicing, I did have to readapt and to relearn some of what I’d lost, and my projects back then were nothing to write home about. It was also very unaffordable to rebuy my supplies at the time, so I was stuck with a very limited scope of what I used to be able to do. I started experimenting with paper and inks, which were cheap and widely available to me. Then, I began to use those materials to make art about my depression and my chronic pain, using art to document how I was feeling during that time.

Once I started posting those pieces online, I began to get some traction on social media, and found a community of people who were experiencing many of the same things. This slowly grew over the past few years into a full time job, and ever since I’ve been making some of the best art I’ve ever made and making money doing it.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My art focuses on mental health advocacy, as well as the blurred lines between mental and physical health and how trauma can manifest itself in our bodies. As a former victim of childhood assault and neglect, I’ve had lasting PTSD symptoms for the majority of my adult life that haven’t always been taken seriously in my career and schooling.

I want my artwork and platform to not just be a place where somebody can find beautiful artwork, but also a place to find connection or understanding to people who are trying their best to adapt and heal after severe trauma.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think that society can often really undervalue artists and creators, especially as we enter into the realm of AI artwork and late stage capitalist cost cutting measures. The simple answer would be to buy art from smaller indie creators rather than from larger companies or from those that rely strictly on AI creation that is putting many illustrators out of business.

However, the much more complicated answer is to stand up and talk to your state representatives about rent ceilings, regulations on short term rentals and higher wages. The biggest thing that is affecting artists right now is that nobody can afford to invest in us. We rely on the everyday consumer to buy our work, and when the vast majority of people are living paycheck to paycheck and can barely afford their groceries, it’s inevitable that the first people to suffer in skilled labor positions are creatives. We are currently watching an unprecedented collapse of the creative industry right now, with the amount of people who are able to buy artwork decreasing as wages stagnate and inflation rises. I believe that most people would rather buy art that was made with love by a skilled laborer, but when that is unaffordable people begin to look toward computer generated art our of desperation.

The worst thing we as a society can do for artists is to ignore these glaring issues. It’s not just something that is affecting creatives, but the United States labor force in general.

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

I think about all the artists that have influenced me in my life, and about how much I love their work in order to call them my favorite artists. Knowing my own relationship with other artists and their work makes it especially meaningful when others come to me and state that I am that for them. For me, what’s most rewarding is hearing from others that I am one of their favorite artists, that my art has influenced them and inspired them.

When people tell me that my art and content makes them feel less alone. When they tell me that my art has inspired them to seek help or carry on through their current depressive episode rather than giving in. That’s really special. My artwork is deeply personal to my own journey, and when others also connect so deeply with it that feels like they are connecting deeply with me as a person as well.

Art can join us together in a way that nothing else can. It really shows us the humanity and community that can be formed, and the resilience of spirit in the face of adversity.

Contact Info:

• Website: kodidelaney.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/kodidelaneyart
• Facebook: facebook.com/kodidelaneyart
• Other: Pinterest.com/kodidelaney