Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shaylin Wallace. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Shaylin, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.

My journey as an artist was probably like most artist. I honestly believe I was born to be an artist and overtime, I discovered which mediums and art styles I would use in my creative process.

As a child, I loved drawing, painting, and coloring in coloring books. In my pre-teen years, my love for photography started. Once I was gifted my first ever smart phone with a camera, I began to take pictures of anything and everything, mostly nature. Art class was always my favorite class in every grade. When I was 14, I discovered photo editing apps and began exploring different ways I could edit my images. One day, I stumbled across this app called PicsArt which provided so many tools and filters that allowed me to enhance my photos. I started taking pictures of my meals and soon, created my account on PicsArt and turned my page into a food blog.

After a few months, PicsArt came out with this new features called “Free To Edit Photos” which were stock images everyone on the app could edit for free. That’s when everything changed. I began coming up with new, creative ideas, which were complex to me at the time, but looking back now, they were very simple compositions. I loved using silhouettes of birds to symbolize freedom in my works since I always felt like I was trapped from the world beyond my home. Soon, I started taking photos of my hands and photos of different items in bathroom and began editing those images in PicsArt.

Fast forward, it’s been about two years of me manipulating images, whether they were my own or free and I was a part of my first art community. It was nice to connect with other artist who were into photo-manipulation at the time, as it motivated me to continue to explore and create consistently. After a while, my following grew, I became a guest curator on PicsArt at the age of 16 and was creating some of the best art on my phone.

During my senior year of high-school, I finally had access to the software Adobe Photoshop and began taking my surreal collages to the next level. This was also the moment when I decided that in the future, I would love to become a full-time artist.

Once I graduated high-school, I decided to study Graphic Design since I thought it was a great career that would still allow me to create art. When I was high-school, I did start freelancing as an artist and building up my clientele. By the time I was in college, I would try to gather new clients from Instagram or freelance websites such as UpWork. Eventually, I worked with companies/brands such as Adobe, Warner Bros,. AMC, Penguin Random House, and some Magazines.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?

Being an artist, let alone a full-time artist is not an easy path to take. It takes time to build not only a platform, but a following, a client and collector-base for your work. The road hasn’t been easy, but each bump in the road has taught me a new lesson. I never have had a manager, nor have been signed to an agency, so I have learned everything all on my own. And even at the stage of my career now, I’m still learning.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?

As an artist, I specialize in multiple mediums such as Photoshop/Digital Collage, Photography, and Drawing/Illustrations. I’m mainly known for my surrealistic collages that I create in Photoshop. In 2022, I started drawing doodles in Procreate and it’s now one of my favorite styles of artwork to create. Honestly, I’m proud of everything I create. I consider each artwork I create a little piece of me, of my soul.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?

Taking risk as an artist should definitely be the standard. I’m more afraid of staying the same than taking risks or going against what I’m used to creating. The biggest risk I have taken probably was sharing my doodle artworks. Many people who have followed my works since I was a teenager only have known me for creating surrealistic collages in photoshop and my photography. To start creating and sharing something that is totally opposite of what they’re used to had me question whether or not I should just stick to the stuff I know. I’m grateful that I never let that stop me from sharing my doodle artworks because I love my doodles and they are so fun and effortless to create. As a bonus, I found out so many people love and are inspired by my doodle drawings!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.smwvisuals.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smwallday/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/surrealistshay
• Other: https://smwvisuals.etsy.com