HEAR FROM PAST WINNER: ANDREA, 2019 WINNER
Name, age, and where you’re from.
My name is Kaylee , I’m 18 years old and I live in Tennessee.
What age were you when you won the contest?
I was 16 years old when I won the Life is Good T-shirt contest.
Can you tell us about your winning design? How did you come up with it or what inspired it?
My design was a portrait of a girl wearing glasses that reflected a sunset behind a mountain range. My home was my inspiration for my design my home is surrounded by mountains and woods and we constantly have beautiful postcard worthy sunsets.
How was your experience winning the design contest? How did it feel to see your design on a t-shirt?
Winning the contest was really shocking to me in a good way, it was the first big accomplishment I had made with my art. Winning actually inspired me to Pursue other art contests, the night we found out I had won I actually decided to enter a chalk fest for the first time winning was a major confidence boost for me.
How do you get inspired to create something new?
Typically my inspiration comes from social media whether it’s from seeing interesting people, places, or even songs as well as other artists it’s a great source for creativity, but I also use my emotions as a inspiration as well.
What process, materials, techniques, etc., do you use to create your artwork these days?
Colored pencils are my favorite medium to work in although I want to dive into painting as soon as I can I also use my iPad Pro to create digital art. Realism is my preferred art style with traditional media, however with digital art i take on a more semi realistic approach changing the sizes of features or adding whatever I like.
How have you gotten creative in the past year? Did you find it easier (or harder) to create during everything going on?
Staying creative has been a bit of a challenge this year but it hasn’t stopped me from accomplishing a lot. I’ve entered local art contests including the island chalk fest where I took second place in the high school category, along with this I’ve won a contest where I got to paint a street mural on a storm drain in my town. I’ve even designed logos for my dance teacher and dad’s businesses.
What advice can you give someone who might be going through a hard time?
To anyone who is going through a hard time hang in there things will get better even if you don’t think they will, remember for flowers to grow it takes both sunshine and rain.
What advice to do you have for participating in the Life is Good T-Shirt Design contest this year
When coming up with a design for this contest I would say don’t be generic put your personality on the page make your design something you feel good about.
What do you love to do in addition to being an artist?
My hobbies other than art are dancing, and crochet/knitting, and indoor gardening.
Fill in the blank “Life is Good because…”
You can do what you love.
