@cosmicsomething

Instagram @cosmicsomething Facebook: www.facebook.com/loveiswiseillustrations Portfolio: loveiswiseillustration.myportfolio.com  

1. What's your story? Where are you from?

Hi! I’m Loveis Wise,a 22 year old Freelance Illustrator from Washington,DC currently living in a tiny studio in West Philadelphia,PA. I grew up in a low income neighborhood in DC and I found my imagination by drawing pictures and taking photographs with my dad around the city.

2. Tell us about your aesthetic.

I love vibrant color,flat & playful shapes, and drawing bad ass women!

3. What is your favourite medium and why?

I appreciate working traditionally because nothing compares to the feeling of physically making art but I love working digitally because I am extremely messy and it’s much easier for me to manipulate the scale or play around with color & textures.

4. What is your artistic process like?

Sometimes it starts with a few thumbnails and other times I’ll just sketch an image that’s been floating in my head and then I’ll start working digitally to create a value and color study,

5. Who and/or what inspires your work?

I am inspired by nature,nostalgia, and women that I encounter or aspire to be. I am forever inspired by fine artist such as Mickalene Thomas & Kerry James Marshall and contemporary illustrators like Olaf Hajek, Molly Mendoza, Julianna Brion, and Lisk Feng to name a few.

6. What role does art play in your life? How does it change the way you view the world?

Art has played strong role in my life and my decisions almost as if it were a parent, it’s definitely my naggy and loving driving force.

7. Where did you study?

I’m currently a senior, studying illustration at the University of the Arts

8. Where do you see yourself in five years? Working in an agency?

I hope to continue freelancing and do some traveling around the world with my partner. I’d also consider working within an agency but I mostly just want to continue to grow artistically, personally and live a happy and fulfilling life.

9. What about in ten?

Same as above.

10. What do you hope to achieve with your art?

As a person of color, I didn’t have a lot representation growing up especially in the illustration world so I hope to inspire others to be themselves, make work that makes them genuinely happy, and stick with it even in moments of discouragement.

11. Now, tell us a little more about you as a person: what is your favourite food?

I can’t just choose one but I loveeeee wings, mac & cheese, and seafood.

12. Favourite book?

Also hard to choose my favorite but I love Toni Morrison and I’m currently re-reading “The Bluest Eye”

13. Favourite genre of music?

I listen to a great mixture of everything but mostly folk, R&B, soul, indie, and electronica.

14. What are your hobbies?

I love cooking, exploring around the city with friends or on my own, making and listening to music. I recently started doing embroidery in my spare time and perusing social media blogs, and talking shit about pop culture with my partner, Tre.

15. If you weren't an artist, what would you be?

I’d probably become a cosmetologist because I grew up within a family of hair stylists and it’s genuinely the only other thing I’d probably be happy doing for the rest of my life.