We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Olivia Arrow Dhamee a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Olivia Arrow thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

My most meaningful project so far was creating my artist book, A Book of Hugs, during the pandemic. It started in April 2020 with drawings I hoped people might find comforting during the time that hugging was discouraged to stop the spread of the virus. The project was originally part of #the100Dayproject and I decided to draw a hug every day for a hundred days. After drawing all of the hugs, I decided to create a book using most of the drawings so I could share these “virtual hugs” with the world. Through a successful Kickstarter fundraising campaign, I printed the book in the summer of 2021. Since then, I have had many people express the feelings my book gave them, as though they could feel the hugs I drew. Hearing the way my book moved people has been the most meaningful experience for me as an artist. It’s incredible to realize the images we artists produce, even just lines on a page like my hugs are, have the power to move people in a very visceral way. At the beginning of the pandemic I felt so UN-essential when the world focused on the heroes who were essential workers. Doing this project made me realize that an artist’s work can be very powerful and art is absolutely essential.

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

It wasn’t until more recently that I started to identify as an artist and pursue my creative work seriously. Making this decision felt natural since I’ve been creating art consistently from an early age. It felt like it was time to take my hobby to another level. While I like to work in various mediums and explore materials, my current focus is on illustration with a strong emphasis on emotionalism and expressing feelings through drawing. My drawing style is abstracted realism, using minimal line and shadow to tell a visual story. Ink wash and watercolor are my favorite techniques to use for drawing.
Being trained in design, I bring those tools to my practice as well, mixing the analog of hand-drawing and painting with digital effects, like animating gifs or making vector art from my sketches. My work incorporates illustration, graphic design and photography in combinations that fit each project. Having these dynamic skillsets means I’m able to offer more options to accomplish a broad scope of creative projects.
I love the collaborative process of bringing clients’ visions to life. Projects I’ve done range from fliers, album art and zoom backgrounds to tattoo design and wedding invitations. I enjoy variety in my practice and finding the best way to visually communicate an idea to fit a mood or vibe.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I am very curious about NFTs and feel more optimistic about them than skeptical. In fact, I would like to create at least one NFT myself. The concept itself is very much in my wheelhouse, since I enjoy creating digital artworks already. A friend of mine is both an artist and software engineer and will soon be teaching a class on creating NFTs and I plan to enroll. Even though NFTs have existed for several years, I think the concept is still so new and foreign to a lot of people, it’s often dismissed as a fad or people think it’s just for techies. I actually believe NFTs are both trendy and here to stay, in one form or another. They are part of the future of the art market, so why not join the fun?
From an artist’s point of view, NFTs have the potential to create new opportunities for artists and creators to earn money from their work. This is especially appealing as the internet age has made it very difficult for artists to protect their work even under copyright. It’s up for debate whether NFTs actually accomplish these benefits for artists, but I am looking forward to finding out.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

There is the misconception from some non-creatives that artists/creatives are “lazy” or that quitting your job to pursue a creative path isn’t “real” work and doesn’t involve much effort. Maybe it’s true that we have to be a little crazy to take a risk like that, but I think these false narratives result in artist’s work being terribly undervalued. I’ve had a difficult time convincing someone like my blue collar dad that as a creative, I am actually always working. Every day, all the time.
In some ways, I find the work even more difficult than my pervious jobs, because there is no rulebook or training like you might have in a traditional job. Often the work has not been done before, so it’s challenging to predict what might be necessary to carry out the concepts. It takes a lot of faith in an idea to carry it into reality and requires a lot of effort to translate those ideas into actual things.
While it’s flattering that some people think art comes super easily and is all fun and games, maybe that’s because we artists make it look that way! In fact, it takes a lot of conviction, work and grit to walk the creative path –on top of not being taken as seriously as other types of workers.
I hope that we can stop perpetuating this idea of the lazy artists who bum around all day long. Working on art is more than a 9 to 5 day job, it is actually a way of life. While it is definitely rewarding, it’s also very hard work.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.oliviarrow.com
• Instagram: @olivia.arrow.dhamee