We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Connor Stelle a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Connor, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
One word: curiosity. Creativity is a skill that requires exercise and nourishment to keep it healthy – and not just any nourishment, but diverse nourishment. There are certainly specific artists, topics, and references that I return to again and again because they continuously inspire me, but if I were to look only at those my work would grow stale and repetitive. That’s why I’m always on the lookout for something new and different to dive into. I’m fortunate to have a number of diverse obsessions with decades, sometimes centuries of history to explore and draw inspiration from. Sometimes they may not have any apparent connection to the type of visual art I create and belong to an entirely different discipline, but at the heart of everything is an idea that can be creatively applied to any medium. Not only does this keep the work fresh, it keeps the process of creation exciting for me.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m a freelance illustrator originally from Bloomington, IN and currently working on my MFA in Illustration at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, GA. I’m well-versed in a variety of traditional and digital mediums, but my signature style is detailed pen & ink drawings. Taking inspiration from everything from fine art and Golden Age illustration to comics and animation, my work is characterized by a balance of the macabre and the whimsical, often playing with the balance of light and dark (in regards to both value and subject matter). My interests outside of art include film, music, and the horror genre, all of which I try to incorporate into my work as much as possible. Recently I’ve been exploring adapting my ink drawings to screen prints, a venture that’s produced some stunning results and will hopefully lead to even more exciting places!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
First, I’ll reiterate curiosity, as it’s a quality that’s beneficial both professionally and personally. Always be open to learning new things and exploring new opportunities, especially if they don’t appear to serve a practical purpose. I can tell you from experience that every new thing you learn will eventually come in handy, even if you don’t know how at first. My undergraduate degree wasn’t in art; it was in creative writing, folklore, and rock music history, a combination that came together because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life and just started taking classes that sounded interesting. I may not be working directly in any of those fields, but the knowledge I gained and the skills I learned are utilized on a daily basis. Next, I’ll go with kindness. If you spend any amount of time on social media or watching the news these days, the world can appear to be a pretty cruel place. However, most people in the real world are just as sick of it as you and I and are just looking for a little bit of goodness. I’m hardly a “people person”, and in fact would best be described as a neurodivergent introvert. However, I’ve been able to build great relationships with clients by simply being kind and respectful. Skill is only half the road to getting hired – you need to be pleasant to work with.
Finally, I’d say professionalism, which I think is closely tied to kindness and even more so to respect. There are many qualities that fall under the umbrella of professionalism, all of which are integral to maintaining a good working relationship: direct communication, adherence to deadlines, commitment to quality, receptiveness to feedback, etc. These are the qualities that show respect to those you’re working with, and will earn you their respect in return.
Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
I could pick any number of novels by Kurt Vonnegut. I’ve always felt a particularly deep connection to Vonnegut just based on the fact that we’re both from Indiana. His prose and sense of humor have a distinctively Indiana flavor that reminds me of my own family, especially my grandparents. Beyond that, however, he was a master of succinctly communicating profound human truths through genre fiction and absurdist humor. The first of his books I read was <i>Slaughterhouse-Five</i> when I was in high school, which completely blew my mind and transformed my understanding of what fiction writing could be. It was irreverent, informal, and far more honest in its depiction of the world than anything I’d ever read. The novel’s famous recurring phrase “so it goes” has become a sort of mantra of mine, a way for me to cope with all the things in the world I have no control over. However, my favorite Vonnegut novel is <i>Breakfast of Champions</i>. Though it was written over 50 years ago, so many of his observations about the world are shockingly relevant today. He writes about America like an alien, describing the things we accept as “normal” in the most bizarre yet matter-of-fact terms, an effect that’s as hilarious as it is thought-provoking. People can be pretty ridiculous and nonsensical at times, an observation that’s been helpful in keeping myself grounded and out of my own head. Whenever I get too stressed out or overwhelmed by something trivial, I can always start to calm down by taking a step back and reminding myself how silly it all is.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://connorstelleillustration.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stelleraiser/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-stelle-462a10267/
