We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rachael Selk a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rachael , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

My artistic journey certainly wasn’t devoid of a regular job. It took a while before any creative work actually made any income for me, so while I was grinding away at my craft, drawing and writing and just bringing my ideas to life, I was flipping burgers on a grill, or tossing salads on a kitchen line. I spent over 11 years in the food service industry, paying for my survival, while on every work break, lunch, any time I was off, I was spent holding a sketch book or an iPad. Drawing was what kept me going through all the ups and downs of the normal work life.

It certainly was a goal of mine to transition from a regular job to something that was full time creative. Like many other people, the year 2020 was a kick in my pants. It shifted the way I saw my current job at the time. It actually held no meaning other than paying my bills. But I felt no fulfillment in life by doing it. And I actually started to feel sick. But not so much to not make a change.

I tried looking for anything other than food service, but I still wasn’t looking at things in a creative light, but just something that held more meaning in life in a broader sense. I ended up getting a job at the local zoo. 4 years later and I’m in charge of the decorations for their holiday programs. I have been able to use my drawing skills to create new designs for light figures that I learned welding skills to then make them a reality and not just a sketch on the page.

All while making my regular job a part of my creative journey, I, never, stopped, drawing! It’s like an addiction but a good one! Drawing makes me happy, the action of drawing not just the final result. So while getting my regular job alined, I still worked on personal projects or commissions. I sold my work at local conventions and expos. Though it isn’t ready to replace my day job, it pays for itself. And at the end of the day, I’m just happy that my work inspires other people.

Not just at my job, but with my personal projects, I’m able to bring smiles to peoples faces! That means so much to me, and truly makes me so happy! I don’t think I’ll let go of my regular job even if my personal art career takes off. But I’m lucky. I am an artist at home and at work!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Raised in Colorado, close to the mountains, the outdoors has always inspired me! But it’s mostly the creatures that live outdoors that held my heart! Real creatures and created monsters.

I’m Rachael Selk, and I draw monsters. But they all aren’t the kind you kill. Like my Ghost cat, who’s a forever friend and guide to those who are lonely. Or my wolf with a skull face. He’s a loyal companion who just wants to protect you. And a fan favorite, my second life deer. Think of a lilac bush but its branched are pierced through the deers body. It looks dead, but they have a symbiotic relationship and serve as a guide to lost souls through the forest.

These creatures stem from a youth of being bullied and shunned, based on assumptions upon who I was. Just like how we look at these creatures and label them as ‘monsters’ and ‘demons’, placing an assumption on these beasts. I create these creatures to be actual animals, with no good or evil to their actions. Or they are guides for the lost and the broken. I wouldn’t change the fact that I was bullied as a kid. It helped form me to be the person I am today. But I would love to use my creatures and my stories to hopefully make people pause and think. About how they treat others, about how they treat themselves.

I have art prints, stickers, pins and book marks with my creatures and characters. I even published several dark coloring books to hopefully inspire people to be creative themselves, just with monsters. But I’m presently working on actually making my stories come to life. I’m writing the first of many novels I hope to publish and I’ve started drawing the panels of my first comic book.

I love stories and I feel like so much can be given to others through stories. So I hope that through my tales of monsters and creatures and the people struggling along side them will fill people with hope for the future, inspiration to take the steps forward and the courage to rise against the true demons in their life, while hopefully understanding the ‘monsters’ along side us.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I will admit, my goals might seem a little laid back to some. I want to be a published novelist, a comic book author/artist, to use my stories to inspire others through this adventure of life. But at the end of the day, if I never became published, it’s ok.

Some might think this is me preemptively hanging up the hat, as if I’m accepting failure already. But it’s not. I’ve been seriously drawing and working for the goal to ‘be an artist’ for almost 20 years. But ‘being an artist’ is a fluid statement. In the last few years I realized that I’m already an artist. I’m regularly drawing, going to shows to sell my craft, still creating new projects. I’m an artist now! Yes, I’m not a super famous person who is know by thousands of followers, but I still have influence to the people who do know me. And every person who knows me, with out a doubt, would agree that I am an artist. Now. It’s not something I’m still trying to accept. I am an artist.

So my goal of being published? Yes, I’ll still work for that, but I reached my actual goal years ago. When I made that decision to just keep working on my ideas, regardless of the fame, regardless of the follower count. At the end of every day, I get to lay in bed knowing in my soul, that I am, and always will be an artist.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

No artist is the same, thus no artist journey is the same.

I used to be the kid asking all the questions of the people behind the tables at comic cons, they were living the life! They were artists selling their works. Their images were published and sent to the masses, they had the golden ticket on how to make it! But no matter what I asked, or what answers were given, not everything worked for me.

Now I’m not saying ‘don’t ask questions’ or ‘just wing it’. No! Please ask questions! Please ask us about what companies we get our prints from or what our favorite pens to use are or the best digital drawing program! We all have an answer and we would love to share the tools we use.

What I’m say is, none of us have the ‘right’ answer. We all have found the tools that we love and that work for us. It takes trial and error and time. But we all are unique. Our tools are unique. There isn’t a holy grail of pens or programs that only true artists use. So don’t let that stop you from creating. Draw on that lined school paper with your younger siblings crayon, it’s still art. Use a pristine sketch book and a set of Copic Markers, it’s still art.

Ask the questions, learn as you go, but find what works for you.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rachael_artist/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RachaelSelkArt
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/CreaturesofmySoul

Image Credits

Rachael Selk