January 8, 2017

Meet Downtown Illustrator: Alex Lanei

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Lanei.

Alex, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started thinking seriously about art during my senior year in high school when we got the complete freedom to develop an art piece during a year-long project. I ended up creating a kinetic sculpture with comic pages attached to its mobile components to create an enhanced storytelling experience. My design ended up being a little ambitious but, the opportunity to explore my creativity exposed to something that I enjoyed and eventually became pretty good at. Since going to SCAD I’ve been able to find some direction for my art. The subjects that I focus on, include identity, diversity, and discovery, which come from my own experiences traveling and living in many different countries around the world.

Has it been a smooth road?
Oh ya, there were some challenges. When I first started, I tried going down very common routes to get my work noticed, sending my portraits to galleries and comics to editors didn’t work well for me. On top of that I had a ton of ideas I wanted to try all at the same time and poor time management, so was producing the work at the level I wanted. What ultimately fixed all these problems for me, was moving down to Atlanta, where for the first few months while I was getting set up, art was not my primary focus. I spent a lot more of my time sketching, not worrying about producing finished pieces and my art improved. When I started to notice I began to focus on drawing one character from my sketches, Nya, an amputee struggling with phantom pain. I didn’t draw anything I thought I was gonna put out there but made a lot that I felt I liked and it gave me time to develop my style, gauge my timing, figure out the elements that define my art and what ways my art can uniquely interpret subject matter.

What has been the proudest moment of your career so far?
Probably when I took my family to see the 2nd mural I made. I felt like it was my way of assuring them that I could make it as an artist, as well as, proof that I made something that people would pass by everyday.

Were there moments when you had to struggle?
Defiantly the first year of learning the logistics of being an artist. Figuring out how to market, times of the year that are good for business, January sucks, how to engage an audience, find big clients and of course, using Social Media. I’ve gotten a lot better at all these things, but I’m always learning.

Is there something we can do as a city to improve the outlook for professionals like you?
Yes, I defiantly feel like Atlanta is the place for me. It has a great art community with a lot of range and the market is busy selling, but not over saturated. When you start out I would recommend finding a regular place to work or at least frequent with other professionals, like a coffee shop near an art store or an incubator. The people in Atlanta are very friendly and willing to help.

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