Life & Work with Kelly Angelovic

Today we’re excited to be connecting with Kelly Angelovic again. If you haven’t already, we suggest you check out our prior conversation with them here.

Kelly, always such a pleasure connecting with you and thank you for sharing your stories, insights and inspiring messages with our community. We’re looking forward to getting the download and what you have been up to since our last interview, but first can you briefly introduce yourself to folks who might have missed the prior conversation.
It’s lovely to get the chance to chat with you again, thanks so much for the opportunity!

I’ve been a working artist for almost 15 years. Hailing from Boulder, Colorado, I specialize in painting and illustration. My work is an exploration of the beauty that surrounds us, even (especially) amid the chaos of daily life.

Over the course of my career, I’ve been lucky enough to work with companies both big and small, including Penguin Random House, Papyrus, Hallmark, Scholastic, Windham Fabrics, American Greetings, Workman Publishing, Studio Oh!, Pier 1, Better Homes & Gardens, and Cost Plus World Market, to name a few.

I have also licensed my work on products sold around the world. Dishes. Magazines. Books. Calendars. I created a voting activity kit for kids that was produced by Scholastic, just in time for the 2020 presidential election. Planners. Puzzles. In the spring of 2020, I was invited to create a mural in Boulder where I live, to boost community morale. Fabric collections. Notecards. Gift bags. And so many greeting cards.

When I’m not making my own art, I also work with other artists as a creativity coach, helping my clients design the creative life they’ve always imagined by tapping into their own authentic power.

When I’m not painting or coaching, I can usually be found out in the mountains, adventuring with family and friends.

Awesome, so we reached out because we wanted to hear all about what you have been up to since we last connected.
As I think back over the last 4 years (since our first interview), quite a bit has changed.

In 2020, I was doing a lot of female empowerment work and hand-lettering, and almost all of it was created digitally. These days, I’m doing a lot less on the computer. I started painting a few years ago, and I’ve fallen in love with the process.

There was a pretty massive learning curve. Mixing paints to get the colors just right is a whole different beast than clicking a button in photoshop. Looking back though, I think my creative journey was leading me here all along. Oil paints are my preferred medium right now, but I also work with gouache and acrylics.

Getting my hands dirty with paint (the texture, the smell, the color!) and using a brush or palette knife to push and pull paint across a canvas engages me in a way that screens just can’t replicate. It’s a very sensory experience.

My work has evolved too. It used to be very commercial. These days, it’s closer to fine art, though I still work with several companies who license my work for greeting cards and fabric. My primary focus has shifted to original art and print sales, which I am really excited about.

When we last talked, I also had an agent, but we parted ways a few years ago. I wanted to grow my business in ways that were limited by the agency. There are definitely parts that I miss, but there is also a freedom in what I’m doing now that I find very empowering.

Recently, I wrapped up a very special commission. A collector who is based in Utah met her husband on a lift at Alta ski resort, and wanted me to create a painting of Alta to give her husband as an anniversary gift. The painting is 3.5’ wide x 5’ tall, and I had so much fun working BIG. Plus, my collector is beyond thrilled about how it turned out, which is incredibly rewarding.

Working on landscapes has actually been a powerful remedy these past few weeks, helping soothe my creeping anxiety over all that’s unfolding politically.

In our ‘productivity-driven, hustle faster’ culture, it’s easy to buy in to the idea that art is frivolous. That it’s ‘cute.’ Superfluous.

Creativity is how we process the world though. It’s how we heal, how we connect. A painting, a poem, a song, they’re reminders of what it means to be alive.

We have now arrived at one of our favorite parts of the interview – the lightning round. We’ll ask you a few quick questions to give us all some fun insights about you.

• Favorite Movie: Titanic
• Favorite Book: Outlander Series
• Favorite TV Show: Ted Lasso
• Favorite Band or Artist: I LOVE music, but don’t have a fave artist. Bluegrass, contemporary classical, and 90s hip hop are my go-to genres.
• Sweet or Savory: Savory
• Mountains or Beach: Mountains, but Beach is a very close second
• Favorite Sport (to watch): Not really a fan of watching sports
• Favorite Sport (to play): Skiing
• Did you play sports growing up (if so which ones): Soccer, Softball, Volleyball, and Lacrosse. I was pretty awful at all of them though.
• As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up: A photographer
• French Fries or Onion Rings: Neither
• Chuck Rhodes or Bobby Axelrod: I don’t watch a lot of TV, so I don’t even know who these guys are?
• Favorite Cartoon growing up: Smurfs and The Simpsons
• Favorite Childhood movie: ET
• Favorite Breakfast Food: Smoothie

What do you want people to remember about you and your brand? What are some of things that you feel are most important, unique, special, etc?
We are living in chaotic times, and it’s so easy right now to spiral into cynicism, apathy, and fear.

Making art, and sharing it with the world helps me see all that is good and beautiful. Every day (even the hard ones, when I want to walk away), art has the power to fill me with wonder.

I believe it has the power to do that for everyone (not just those of us who create).

This rebellious act, of making something beautiful in the face of all that is wrong with the world, is itself an invitation. Creativity welcomes others into an experience that infuses real life (with our never ending to-do lists and our pettiness) with the divine. This is the power of art.

When I was growing up, I played the piano—at least I did until I was a sophomore in high school, and I decided I had cooler, more important ways to spend my time (ha).

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve started practicing again. I’m learning to play Pachelbel’s Canon in D, a song that helps soothe my (profoundly) frayed nerves.

In uncertain times, the world doesn’t need less art. It needs more.

It needs YOUR voice, your perspective, your unique way of seeing. Art shifts energy. It sparks something in others. In ourselves.

It reminds us that even in chaos, there is meaning.

So go make something! Whether it’s writing, or singing, or doodling on a napkin, your creativity holds magic.