Today we’d like to introduce you to Kalani Lindsey.
Kalani, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
As these stories usually go, I have been drawing all of my life. While moving around the world with my family in the military has its merits its was not the best situation to be in when it came to creating long lasting friendships. With that in mind, the act of Illustrating and I became fast friends. The interest that my illustrations created helped me make actual friends and opened up many doors for me. Illustrating has always been there for me through many of my big life moments. It helped me tell epic stories, create toys to play with, and ask my crushes on dates. Being inspired over and over by comic books, Saturday morning cartoons, and anime I’ve grown to love 2D illustration and animation. A great many of nights were spent staying up late trying to emulate the awesome work that came before me and my time. After graduating from high-school I went upward and onward to refine and advance my skills as an artist at the Art Institute of Atlanta. After graduating I have been tirelessly pitting myself against my most favorite artists in efforts to improve and grow as a creative. It has been an adventurous journey thus far.
Has it been a smooth road?
I have experienced a myriad of struggles while on this journey. Whether it’s having the resources to fuel my dreams or having the simple know how to pursue them this has been a very adventurous journey . The biggest hurdle thus far is the idea of believing and motivating myself to stay the course. Coming from a very conservative family, a career in the “arts” was not always the most favored of my ambitions. “You will grow out of that” and “you should consider more conventional opportunities” were mottos repeated throughout the majority of my life. With that being said motivation and mentoring was not something that was easily accessible to me. I had to create a stubborn personality and push myself in a direction that I had no idea could possibly be successful. Now that I am 31 I have learned that in order to live I have to breathe illustration and bleed illustration. I hope to eventually inspire and educate individuals after me that, with enough determination and discipline, their dreams may be closer than what they have been lead to believe.
What were you like growing up?
What was I like? It was freakin awesome! I’m the oldest of 4 so I was saddled with a lot of responsibility. Since my family wasn’t the richest, me and my siblings’ imaginations flourished with what little we did have. Which was a lot in the end because we had each other! When we weren’t playing with our toys in the mud, we spent our time drawing and creating comics with our own imagined super heroes. In addition to that, we were huge into movies and video games. My movie library included classic titles like Conan the Barbarian, The Last Star Fighter, and Big Trouble Little China. My imagination was spurred on even more with N64s Zelda Orcarania of Time. At school, I was always allured to draw flowers for the girls and pressured to illustrate heavyweight title championship belts for all the bullies. This, of course, helped me cure my nerdimia and made me quite socially popular!
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I would have to say that Zelda on the n64 generated one of my fondest memories. That summer I and my brothers had worked hard mowing lawns around the neighborhood. We saved up for a brand new n64 and a used copy of Zelda orcarina of time. Finding this game was similar to the idea of Bastian finding that book in NeverEnding Story. I and my brothers huddled around this game for hours on end. The adventures and creatures it introduced us to blew our minds. We played that game from start to finish together, taking turns and collectively solving puzzles, defeating enemies and ultimately saving Hyrule. And afterwards, we would chronicle our adventures by drawing. This is truly one of my most cherished childhood moments. A moment in time being close with my brothers.
What are your plans for the future?
My ambitions for the future is to become a better artist. I’m always hyper-critical with my work and strive to become just as great or better than my idols. I’m still exploring the creative fields, but to be considered as a concept artist for movies, animations or video games would be an ultimate win. My mind also imagines a life on a beach front doing tattoos as well. There are so many different avenues one can take with an illustration so I feel obligated to explore them all before settling on one………or two. *Smiles
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.behance.net/marekolani
- Email: kalani.lindsey@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marekolani/
