Artist of the Day: Kelsey Wroten

Kelsey Wroten

LOCATION: Kansas City, MO/Brooklyn, NY
PRIMARY MEDIA: Ink, digital [Photoshop]
EDUCATION: Kansas City Art Institute [illustration, 2015]
MAJOR PROJECTS:
Banner illustration for Barkley US for their KC LOVES project
Various illustration [The New Yorker, Vice, Lucky Peach, Nick Magazine, Bleacher Report, Bitch Magazine, and others]
WHAT IS THE MOST VALUABLE PIECE OF ARTISTIC ADVICE YOU HAVE EVER RECEIVED, AND FROM WHO?
“It’s hard to say. I had a lot of great professors. I couldn’t really narrow it down. My professor John Ferry once said ‘we should never fight our materials,’ meaning if you work with something you hate or is subpar or dirty, your image will reflect that. I think that can be applied to anything you do; if it’s not working the way you want, review your materials and ask for advice. In addition, all of my professors also encouraged me to be patient. Patience is a skill I’ve grown to think separates the wheat from the chaff in some ways in the world of illustration (and probably anything else, really). The people who are willing to keep their nose down and make the best work they can and not expect to get anything right away are the people who wind up on top. It’s sort of like the phrase, “The only people who fail are those who quit,” and I think that’s true — not in a cheesy way, in an aphoristic way.
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