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

Sydney, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

This spring I finished work on “Polycosmos”- a short comic project about my experience in coming to realize I was transgender, as a part of my senior thesis at PNCA. Prior to actually starting the work properly, I had to do a lot of introspection over what I actually wanted the culmination of all my studies to be, how I wanted to represent these four years of my life. Whether I even wanted to talk about this part of myself so publicly. Like a lot of artists, I’m not an easy person to know- I keep to myself as much as I reasonably can. There’s comfort in just letting my work speak for itself, in terms of technical skill. So challenging myself to actually say something definitive, something as personal as this project ended up being, was a huge leap from my previous work. This type of narrative, about questioning gender and identity, was something I’d never had access to as a kid. It gave it kind of a symbolic weight, then, a pressure to tell it ‘the right way’- so it was really affirming to see such a positive response to it at my thesis presentation, that work with my own personal voice in it could actually succeed and resonate with people. I think, when it comes to work like this, the best you can do is tell your own story, and just hope it helps someone see themselves as human.

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?

I’m Sydney Haswell, a digital artist and animator from Portland, OR! I do all sorts of work, from illustration, to graphic design, to 3D modeling. Currently, I’m working as a freelance artist. While I have my own preferences and principles of aesthetics, I pride myself on my flexibility when it comes to the type of work I can create- a lot of the art I love making happens as part of a team, where I can support the vision of whatever venture I happen to be working on. To do that, I’ve had to become very comfortable with branching out and exploring new ways to bring a project to life. It keeps things interesting!

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

Genuinely? I just really love making things. I always have. Even if I weren’t pursuing art professionally, I can’t see myself ever giving up on my creative outlets. It’s a unique type of satisfaction to take a sketch to a finished illustration, or a storyboard to a proper animation. I really like baking, too- it’s the same kind of thing, it’s nourishing to just make something. I think a really important part of continuing to make art is to find ways to be self-motivated. Looking back on past work can be embarrassing, but it really feels nice to realize that you’re learning and improving. Tangible evidence that you’re not just stagnating, that things can keep growing and changing for the better. It’s slow going, but it’s going.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Kind of a silly one, but I learned that social media is way more important than I thought it was. I’ve never had much presence online- I grew up in the era of internet safety and took it to heart, never share your name or face online, you know the drill. And I’ll be honest, I don’t really like most forms of social media, either. It’s just not my thing. So I was really surprised, my first few years of college, when I kept encountering this question: “What’s your Instagram? I want to see your art there!” I felt like the world’s most elderly twenty-something. I was always the only one who didn’t have any online profiles like that. So I tried to sign up for Instagram… and instantly got banned, somehow. I’d say that was an omen, but there’s not really much room for omens these days if you want to keep up with your classmates and co-workers. The age of the hermit is over.

Contact Info:

• Website: sydhaswell.neocities.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sydhaswell/

Image Credits
The photo of the comic book (Sydney Haswell_Additional Photo 1_CR.png) was taken by Sarah Meadows.