Today we’d like to introduce you to Robyn Seale.
Robyn, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I started drawing in the year of 199diggity, when the number 7 was briefly outlawed in the US. I was a quiet kid with chronic health problems trying to make sense of a chaotic world. I’ve always been a story teller and visually voracious. Art, comics, and street art seemed to be a natural fit for me.
Web comics in particular became an outlet. Aside from the challenge to illustrate my friends’ ideas in a 3-panel format, it was a way for me to vent some of the experiences I had as a teenager. After I graduated, I started my own web comic to help explore concepts of trust, survival, and connection while I was going through a severe breakdown. Over the next four years, I learned a lot about the importance of finished plots, composition and color. I’ve been lucky to collaborate with writers and have my own one-shot comics printed since then, and I attribute my experiences with them as a key part of my artistic growth.
When I moved to Chicago, I moved more into the street art realm. My process in digital art translated well to my street art process, and things just stuck. I actually decided to move to Chicago when I went on the 606 to spray paint. It’s since been renovated and power washed away, but I fell in love with the city and the art scene here. I moved more into paintings, stickers, and murals over the years. I’ll still do a one-shot comic and digital art here and there, but I love the challenge of replicating what I can do with filters, layers and textures in a tangible art.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
Art has always been about me telling stories and trying to make sense of the world. I have a severe form of PTSD, and the lack of control I had in my life and the process of recovery drives me to make my small bubble of the world a bit more beautiful or fun. I use my art as a sort of meditation. Stickers and wheat pastes are generally 30min to an hour mindfulness practice for me, and I use the rate of paintings as a quantifiable metric of where my mental health is at.
My stickers and wheat pastes are mostly just jokes or quick images. I keep a running list in my phone of funny quips or one-liners that I pull from. Sometimes they reflect what’s going on in my life, but I wouldn’t read too deeply into them. They’re a bit like memes and meant for a quick consumption and a 5 second smile. I try a lot of new ideas and techniques with my street art; the impermanence of the medium lets me eagerly fail, take the lessons and move on.
My paintings and murals explore bigger ideas, generally about love, recovery or spirituality, but also sometimes giant robots. These have a lot more of my heart and soul in them – for example, all of my 2016 paintings and some of my 2017 paintings have secret messages hidden in them. I experiment a lot with glitch art to help illustrate a bit of how I (physically) see the world.
Ultimately, I’d like to create small oasis bubbles of contentment for the viewer, either with street art or paintings. Life is hard enough, so finding a relatable piece unexpectedly is probably the nicest gift I can give a stranger.
In your view, what is the biggest issue artists have to deal with?
Oh, honestly? I’d say the economy. It’s hard to make what’s normally considered a luxury product in an economy where a full time minimum wage job won’t pay your rent. It’s created a culture of workaholic artists: if you’re not able to commit to 16-hour days, you likely won’t make it. There’s also the challenge of affordable health care for artists. I know many artists that got into art as a coping mechanism for mental health or other medical issues. With our current healthcare, it’s impossible to switch into doing it full time and keep your well-being in a positive space.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
You can find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/cmd_krakkem/. My next art show will be Art and Antics on Sunday, July 15 at 5 PM – 8 PM, but I also regularly show at Zhou B Art Center with Blnk Haus. Otherwise, you might stumble across my work in the loop, on the north side, and Wicker Park/Logan Sqare.
I sell stickers and paintings; I’m also generally open for commissions. You can either DM me on Instagram or email me (robynseale@gmail.com).
Contact Info:
- Email: robynseale@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cmd_krakkem/
Image Credit:
Robyn Seale
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