We recently connected with Elijah Lyn and have shared our conversation below.
Elijah, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
The short answer is that my optimism was born out of necessity. It’s how to survive.
Growing up was not kind on me, I faced a multitude of struggles from a young age caused by a developmental disability that went undiagnosed for a number of years and events that left me with complex post traumatic stress disorder. For a long time, I could not imagine a future for myself and found solace through creating art that helped me express what I verbally could not. My life at the time was ruled by sorrow and I defined myself by only pain and yet despite it all, there was a part of me that whispered of dreams. Optimism is something you must nurture and chase by adopting the mantra that despite all odds, things will be better. Practice searching for the good in people behind a hard exterior, the good in the world that hides behind all the outrage, and the good hidden within the shadow of your adversities. It’s definitely not an easy feat, but by practicing that, I could finally imagine the unimaginable; a long and joyous life. Be realistic about what’s gone sideways, sure, but don’t let it blind you to what’s waiting for you on the other side. Good things take time and effort to arrive, but they do arrive.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Right now, I’ve been enjoying full time in hospitality as a housekeeper but I hope to take off in my creative endeavors. Currently, I am the dedicated author and illustrator of a free to read psychological horror web-comic titled “OWEN” that I update as frequently as I can while balancing daily life. It’s been a passion project of mine six years in the making with a wonderful community of three thousand readers growing around it that I love. What makes being the creator of my comic so special to me is that it’s carried me through some of life’s toughest moments and has been a big source of catharsis. Seeing it connect with others who relate to some of the characters has helped my readers and I feel a little less alone in our experiences and that sort of community is something I hope to keep on growing. Comfort being found in the horror genre I know is odd to some, but I am beyond happy that this is the sort of connection that I can create with my story telling.
Outside of my comic, I do digital illustrations, traditional paintings, occasional animations, and I take commissions when I receive them. I intend to sell prints, stickers and my paintings but my focus has primarily been on my story. It’s not profitable and probably won’t be for a good while, but I’m okay with that. Community, artistic story telling, and the opportunity to share my messages to the world is what I’m happiest doing with my life.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
My journey through life as an artist and storyteller has been most positively impacted by mindfulness, courage and the intent observation of the world around me in not only where excitement is, but also the mundane. Listen to your body and mind and root yourself in the present. Waking up every day is hard for many of us, muddled in the past or the future, hoping for closure or believing that happiness will only exist outside of the present. It’s easy to forget that happiness exists today in the petals of a flower and the glittering of the sunset on the red bike parked right outside. I’ve found that this sort of mindfulness and observation of the world had both improved my everyday life and served as inspiration for my work. It takes courage to see everything pointing towards failure and still taking that step forward. Being afraid is okay, it reminds us to create a safety net if things go awry and puts a spotlight on our inner needs and desires, but don’t let those fears prevent you from chasing your dreams. Ask yourself what your fears are really telling you. If you never take the risk of failure in something you love, you rob yourself of finding the success you aspire for. Don’t wait for the amorphous future to bring success and heal you in the present, show up for yourself now and take action. Do it scared out of your mind if you must.
What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
I do think if you have strengths, you should own it but anyone who knows me knows that I am a bit of a renaissance man and encourage others in developing new skills all the time. The way I see it, it’s part of what makes us human in that we’re never resigned to being a one trick pony. When I was really lacking in confidence, I only ever stuck to what I knew. In regards to art, I only stuck to character design with pen and paper, and in regards to life, it was just art. I was pretty okay at it and felt like I sucked everywhere else. What’s interesting to me is that it was only after I started to branch out into more mediums and drawing things other than characters did I start seeing an improvement in what I considered my top strength. Pairing a character with a background helped my character designs become more lively and less stiff, when I picked up painting I began to learn how color worked more intimately which lead to my backgrounds improving which then resulted in being able to expand on how I communicate with colors in my characters and so on and so forth. It’s one big domino effect and in the long run, I believe investing your time in other skills ultimately benefits your strengths. I saw this same theme happening when I started branching out of my usual mediums and dove into makeup, acting classes, fashion, animation, sculpting, and then again when I explored outside of artistic forms and into professional cleaning, social service classes, exploring home improvement, electronics and cooking. It all, in one way or another, connected back to my strength in the artistic mediums I love most. Never underestimate what you’re capable of doing, everyone starts somewhere and if you can learn to love the journey, you’ll find that you can succeed and find enjoyment in just about anything you decide to pick up tomorrow.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://molarz-elijah-lyn.carrd.co/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/m0.elc/
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