We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Vicky Rei. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Vicky below.
Hi Vicky, thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I was always creative and crafty as a kid, writing short stories, painting or doing diy projects. But I have started to take my passion more seriously after I had my baby. For a year after birth I suffered from postpartum depression and struggled to find any joy in my life. Even painting became difficult for me as it required lot of space and time. At that time my husband bought me my first iPad and I started to draw digitally. And it was love at first sight! I began to share my work with other artists and soon I realised I could make this my career one day. I couldn´t imagine going back to my 9 to 5 job. So I started to focus on building my skill, my community and my brand. After first year of drawing digitally I knew there´s no coming back :)
Vicky, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am 31 years old woman, mother of a boy and a huge book worm, reading romantic fantasy on a daily basis :) I am also proud feminist, supporting women artists and illustrator as much as I can in my awesome community on Instagram. There are few artists there who inspired me to take my love for drawing more seriously. After what I´ve been through, during my first year of motherhood, I knew I want to do what I love. That my job must also be my calling, my passion. Because life´s too short and everybody needs to feel as much joy as possible. My work dives mostly into womanhood, our minds, bodies and spirituality. It´s colorful, sometimes sassy, sometimes surreal. I love to draw us in every shape or color, combine us with nature elements and floral details. In each piece of mine, there is a connection to nature, Universe and something divine. Because I believe a woman has great potential, is fearless, focused and determined. We can do great things, when not suppressed down by society´s views and standards.
In early 2023 I created my Etsy shop and began to build my website. I decided to share my work with the world, because I want every woman to know that we are all beautiful and worth it, no matter our size and shape, no matter what others think of us. Now I focus mainly on editorial illustration, book covers and licensing my work at Art In Motion agency. I am also growing my pattern design portfolio and want to explore the field of lettering for creating greeting cards. My long-time dream is to illustrate my own Tarot deck and write/illustrate my own book.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
With huge AI boom, I see more and more people doubting our art, unwilling to pay artists for their hard work and hours of creative process. Creative field became a fight for attention and recognition amongst tons of AI prompters. I see so many businesses thriving, using generated images for their products and it´s sad to see that profit is often more important than the art itself. I think the most important thing is to support artists in every way we can, through social media, art exhibitions, by hiring an artist or graphic designer to do the job. The more we support real work, the more we will see and understand the hard work behind it.
It´s important to talk about other artists, educate non-creative people about creative process and how time consuming it can be. There are so many books read, courses taken, hours of practice and mistakes behind every successful artist. We often see only those beautiful moments and highlights of artistic career. So next time you see a beautiful art piece or something that excites you, speaks to you, go and tell the artist. Share their work, leave a kind comment. We can build thriving creative ecosystem by giving artists a chance to prove themselves, by trusting them to do their job better than any machine. Because art is about emotions, feelings and memories.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I would love to make my artistic career a full time job, to colaborate worldwide with publishers, magazines or brands and license my work. My dream is to create my own Tarot deck and write/illustrate a book dedicated to women and mothers struggling to feel like themselves again. Motherhood was a huge change for me, great life lesson as well. And I want to show that little girl, who was often punished for her mistakes, that we can make them and that´s okay. I want to show her that we can still be artists and it´s not too late. As a kid, I thought I am not good enough/talented enough for art school and artistic career. So my mission now is to show other girls and women that we can do it. I don´t listen to all those negative people in my life anymore, telling me it´s impossible. Telling me to get a real job, heh :) And through my art, I want to show other girls and women they can achieve whatever they want to. And it´s never too late.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://vickyreiartstudio.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vickyrei.artstudio?igsh=Nzk3aDcwdWdmMWRv&utm_source=qr
- Other: https://www.behance.net/vickyreitetter
