Today we’d like to introduce you to Clara Kay
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’ve been drawings since I could pick up a pencil. Its cliché to say it, but that’s really the truth. I started drawing and I devoured every art book I could. I was really lucky that my mom was so supportive of me growing up, she always embraced my love of art. We enjoyed a lot of video games and movies together, she’d take me to local stage plays, we’d go to the theme parks in Orlando all the time. I think just being surrounded by the arts all the time really bolstered my love for creativity. I can’t really remember a time where I wasn’t thinking about art.
What actually got me started doing this professionally was my mom again. Every year we would go to MegaCon and look at all the artists, and my mom remembered that every time we walked the Artist Alley, I would say “I wish I could do that someday.” She put in the research and got us a table, and all we had to do was have some products. I didn’t know it, but when she was young, she’d always wanted to be an author. She had written her whole life the same that I had drawn, but hadn’t been as lucky to have her parents support it like she supported me, and being a professional writer hadn’t been the life she’d gotten to live out. But we worked together and we made our first children’s book, Nasty Cat, based off our own beloved cat Mrs. P. We self published it, put the whole thing together, and I illustrated it– roughly 30 pages of illustration. That’s really the book that got me started vending. I printed out a few fanarts I had done just to have a few other things to sell, and that was the start.
My business really began to gain its footing in about 2023, so its been really recently that I’ve started to feel more like a proper business. I expanded the number of conventions I attend, even starting to branch out to out-of-state conventions now. I started creating collections of work, we published a LOT more books, I ran a few successful Kickstarter campaigns, and it has just grown from there. I’ve collaborated with a lot of artists over the years– I’ve been in dozens of fanmade anthologies and I host a ton of “stamp rallies” at conventions, which are like little scavenger hunts that guests can participate in, and I organize an average of 5 other artists with myself for each rally, doing about 3 at each convention I attend. I just really love this artist community and devour any chance I find to meet more people, both artist and customer alike, and am so excited to make new things.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There’s been a lot of challenges as I’ve done this, but I’m lucky again in that I have the support of my family and we’re such a good team together. The economy has been a huge struggle because months of preparation will go into an event that just turns out okay profits-wise. They’re really hit or miss for a million reasons out of my control but they’re also the best way for me to connect to my audience and where I have found the most support.
Then there’s the pandemic, which I think affected just about every business in some way. It took a lot of the momentum out of my business when I was first starting. I was in university studying 3D animation when it hit– my entire final year was remote, I didn’t even go to my graduation because of the danger of COVID. It took a while to find my footing again, and my business really didn’t get started back up until late 2022 when MegaCon came back after cancelling during the pandemic.
One big obstacle is just how time intensive running this business is. My family is supportive, but my mom works a full time job, and her time is limited. Being the sole illustrator of my business and -also- customer service relations, finance manager, social media marketer, in charge of all inventory and formatting… its a lot of work! And everything takes up WAY more time than it seems like it will. Honestly my biggest obstacle is just never having enough time to do everything I want to do. I’m trying not to put so much pressure on myself that everything I want to do has some time limit on it, and if I don’t do it fast enough then somehow that makes me into a failure.
Its difficult though– going to conventions and collaborating with so many amazing artists is both a blessing and a curse. I’m endlessly inspired by my peers, but I’m also pretty intimidated, haha. So many artists I work with now are artists I’ve looked up to since I was in grade school, and oftentimes I feel so amateur when I’m beside them. But getting to collaborate and learn from my peers in such a way is something I never could have imagined doing when I started all this. The friendships and collaborations I have made through this business have been worth all the worry.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I really love color! I know that sounds so simple, haha, but color theory and how colors relate are my favorite thing with painting. The entire process and creation of art is something I have always loved, and both of these things are how I brand myself. My business has a “CMYK” theme, which represents both my love for vivid, saturated art as well as my love of the process, being that CMYK– Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and “Key” (Black) refers to the color profile used in printing.
My business right now relies on my illustration and painting background, but I hope that the future of my business embraces my love of animation. I have a BFA in Character Animation, having gone to school for animation and worked on a short film, all the way from pitching to production. I worked for an overseas animation studio as well on a children’s TV show in Australia, “100% Wolf”, and animated on several episodes of their season 2. I want to bring more of that background into my business, using 3D and doing more animations and modeling. I think that it would work well with my business, because one of the strengths of my work that sets me apart is how much I strive to create unique products.
In this independent artist industry, there’s a lot of standard products; prints, stickers, buttons, enamel pins, and acrylic charms and standees. However, I try to take each of these standards and push them beyond, well, standard. I have enamel pins with extra functions like moving parts and glow-in-the-dark print, I have prints that fit within a series to create a “whole” when placed together, I have acrylic standees that function as both art and storage for the charms in the same collection. Adding in my knowledge with animation and 3D Modeling is something I’m really excited to incorporate.
One thing I’m really proud of is my ability to research and innovate. That incorporation of my background into my art and my products going above and beyond the standard is something that developed as my business grew. The number of things you can do with these ‘standard’ items in this industry is honestly crazy, and getting to play with the combinations like puzzle pieces to make new and exciting things is something I am super proud of and find the most joy in. Every new project I want to work on iterates on what I learned from the last collection I made, and I’m always researching and taking inspiration from what others in my field are innovating.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
The best way to work with me is really to just ask! I’m always open to collaborations, and my love of stamp rallies at cons has been the basis for a lot of collaborations already. Working together with others to put more art into the world is something I am super passionate about, so I am always open to it. My email and social media DMs are always open, haha.
As for supporting me, sharing my work and following really helps boost my business. One thing I’m trying to do recently is grow a community of art lovers on the instant messaging app Discord. I have a server where I post my work, but I encourage everyone who joins to take up a creative skill and enjoy art! I have art advice channels where I share my knowledge and answer questions, and just recently began monthly art challenges, prompting my community members to interpret a prompt with whatever medium they so choose, whether that is painting, writing, sewing, crafting, whatever they like.
Sales are always going to be appreciated, but I feel the strain of the economy just like my customers, and what’s more important to me than anything in this current climate is keeping art alive. I think art is really the key to empathy and appreciating everyone in the human experience, and its something I am very vocal about. Engaging in art discussion and embracing creativity and the vulnerability of art is something I really try to support, so joining my community or following for that appreciation alone is something that gives me immense joy!
If you’re interested in a follow, you can find me @ clarabellumsart across all social media platforms. You’ll find a link to join my Discord community on all of them!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://clarabellumsart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clarabellumsart/
- Twitter: https://x.com/clarabellumsart
- Other: https://linktr.ee/clarabellumsart
