Today we’d like to introduce you to Elise Swopes.
Elise, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I was born in Minnesota, but I grew up in the suburbs of Illinois. I had always been obsessed with digital art, and taught myself how to build and design websites by the time I was in the sixth grade. I graduated high school in 2008 and moved to Chicago to go to school at Columbia College Chicago for a major in broadcast journalism, though I eventually dropped out of because I knew I needed more time to figure out what I really wanted to do. My parents weren’t too happy and I was watching a lot of my peers graduate. It was a confusing period of life, but I found Instagram in 2011 and I started posting selfies, and photos of my food and my cats. I found a brand new community within Instagram that was artistic and fun, and started finding new apps to edit with. These apps allowed me to use the skills I had to start creating beautiful pieces of art that Instagram eventually caught on to. They made me a Suggested User and from then on I gained about a thousand followers a day. It was the boom of Instagram so it was a very exciting time! Eventually I started getting paid to post and considered going back to school for design and marketing. Now I’ve done projects for brands and companies like McDonald’s, National Geographic, Google, Moncler, Adobe, and many more. I had to drop out of school again because of my travels, but I hope to go back just to finish it off. I don’t want all that money to go to waste. LOL
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
My art is surreal and unique. It’s magical and colorful, but it’s not corny. I shoot and edit all with my iPhone. I’ve been doing that since 2011 and I’ve done some serious big branded projects doing that, too. I also shoot with a Canon 5D Mark III if the light isn’t working for the iPhone or it’s being blown up. I create because I want to see more from the things around me. I tend to add a little more to the “empty space”, is what I call it. The message is simple: Keep your imagination alive. Don’t be so stuck in reality.
What would you recommend to an artist new to the city, or to art, in terms of meeting and connecting with other artists and creatives?
I actually like to be alone, so maybe I’m not one to ask but I find comfort in knowing I can be alone. I think before we look for comfort in others, we have to learnt be alone with our own thoughts and feelings and learn how to process them fully. It took me awhile to understand why I always felt so lost in my 20s because I wasn’t looking for myself in me, I was looking for myself in the outside. It just never works out that way. Meditation, reading, self-love, working out, drinking water, eating right, not overindulging in drugs or alcohol, and making good decisions and habits really and truly does work if you want a happy and healthy life and most of that tends to be a lonely process. But to answer your question, I’d say my best way to connect with other people is to truly just be yourself and put yourself out there. Don’t overthink but don’t be so thirsty that you think you’re ready before you put the work in. The work is personal. It’s always personal.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
People can find most of my work on my Instagram, @Swopes. As well as my Twitter, @Swopes and website, http://swop.es
People can support my work by liking and commenting on my paid work. It’s really as simple as that. Because my business is the Internet, it’s important people show me love that’s written when I do sponsored posts. I also sell prints!
Contact Info:
- Website: Swop.es
- Email: info@swopes.co
- Instagram: instagram.com/swopes
- Facebook: facebook.com/eliseswopes
- Twitter: twitter.com/swopes
Image Credit:
Image of Elise Swopes by Jetzi Calvin
All other art by Elise Swopes
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