Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - Create Your Own Magic with Kelly Edelman

Episode Date: August 30, 2020

In this episode I sit down with Kelly Edelman, founder of the massive social media brand, @eyeinspired, and talk about how she turned a passion for art into a platform that both entertains and inspires millions around the globe.

Follow, you know, whatever you love, whatever you're most passionate about, whatever. If you are lucky enough to have a spark left, a passion in you by the time you're 20-something, follow that as fast as you can. And, you know, as long as you're doing what you love, it's going to show you're going to do great at it because you're going to be motivated to perfect it. Welcome to the Your World Within podcast. I'm Eddie Pinerrell. And in this episode, I sit down with Kelly Edelman, who is the creator of Eye Inspired,

which is her platform to share her canvas art and her creativity with the world. Her work's been seen literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of times. You've probably come across it on your Explorer pages or for you pages, you know, a lot of viral stuff and just content that is uplifting and helps others. And that's what we talk about. One, what inspired her to do that full time, what her artwork means to her, but also how she uses it as a tool to connect and improve the lives of others. And it's a great conversation.

I'm sure you'll get a lot from it. If you haven't checked her out, it's at I-inspired as an E-Y-E-inspired, TikTok, Instagram, everywhere. So I'm excited to jump into it. Quick heads up, you probably notice this sounds super echoey. Sounds like I'm recording in a bathtub. Just untreated studio. So I got to take care of that.

And you'll notice throughout the episode that it sounds super reverby, but I don't think it gets in the way. So hopefully we can get past that and enjoy a really good conversation with Kelly. Kelly, welcome to the show. Thanks for joining. Thank you. Thank you for having me. So, hey, I want to start out. I've been looking at your content and watching your channels and your pages evolve for years now.

And I just, I think it's an amazing thing. I love watching talented people, kind of grow and, you know, do amazing things. So you want to talk a little bit about your journey where it started and just at a high level, how you ended up where you are now? Yeah, sure. Good question. That's a lot. But mainly, I guess my journey started when I was a kid.

I just loved to create. And then my grandma really inspired me. She was a painter. And so I saw her do it. I saw her love doing it. She wasn't a master, but she had fun with it. And I think that really inspired me. I kind of lost my motivation toward it.

Once I got into high school, I would say. I didn't go to school for it. I went for social work instead. Something more practical. And, um, after I got into the field of social work, I was fulfilled, but it wasn't complete. Like, I really loved my work,

and I was working with kids a lot of the time or folks that suffer for mental illness. And I just, I noticed a lot of the time if I would create something with them, paint something with them, that it would kind of heal them a little bit, or at least kind of give them coping skills to overcome, you know, what was ever causing them pain or any issue.

It was really neat. I like that. And from there, I just kind of started an Instagram page because I wanted to share some of the art I had been making. It was making my life better. And then it just kind of expanded to, I think I have like a 166,000 followers in Instagram, which I thought was impossible. Yeah. But now I get to do it full time. They're engaged too. Like that's something that I think is so cool. It's like, you know, you get so much interaction. People tell you under your post. like how incredible it is and how much it helps them. So like for you, you said, you know,

or there's a connection that you like to use art to help people. Is it something that you're like when you were doing this, you were creating and thought, man, this is amazing for me. I wonder if I could. Right. Is that sort of the way it was? Yeah, just kind of I wanted to transfer it,

especially to the kids. Adults have a hard time, I think, picking a brush up because they think it looks bad. But kids especially are easy because you can encourage them to just say, hey, paint how you're feeling or what color representation. presents your mood today. And you know, it really helps them kind of communicate with non-verbals. And I think it helps visual learners communicate as well. So yeah, I think that's what really drew me to the art slash mental health career path. I kind of really liked blending them.

Oh, that's so cool. That's such an interesting. Yeah. We got to get the adults on board too, you know? Come on. You can get the adults on board. I taught like a wine in canvas where they paint and drink with it. Yeah. So they'll have a couple glasses of wine, and that takes care of. That's the trick. Just dangle some wine out there. I love it.

So when did you get the confidence to do this full time and think, hey, maybe this isn't something silly or a hobby, or this is something I can do amazing things with? People like you, your speeches, I listen to a lot of people on YouTube. Yeah, and I just like would listen to folks talking, And I figured, you know, if they're doing it, I could do it. And so, you know, I listened to a lot of, I guess, motivational speeches and a lot of, I just made sure I found a lot of people that I thought were doing something cool.

And I tried to kind of replicate that or do my own spin on it. Do you mind if I delve into that? I just, I love that sort of jumping point. I always think that's so cool because so many people don't make the jump and they want to. It's so bad, but they don't. Like for you, was it a gradual thing? Or was it just like, well, it was? Well, not so much.

When I realized I wasn't happy at one of my other, it was, I was working at a mental health facility where people go for extended periods of time, say they're struggling with suicide or, you know, any psychosis, any persistent mental illness. And I was working there and my heart was just breaking for the people I saw. And I wasn't, it's not that I didn't love my job, but it wasn't where I wanted to be. So when I kind of, I don't know who I listened to, it was somebody. And I, you know, they said if you're not happy along the way, it's not probably going to be happy when you get there. And so I just decided I would walk away from that job because it wasn't bringing me a lot of happiness at the time.

And, you know, just from that day on, I said, I'm only going to do work that makes me feel good at the end of the day. That's so powerful. Did you find like the first however many months or whatever it was? It was terrifying. I mean, it's terrifying now because I just went full-time artist about six months ago. So while that's still easy, I mean, for a while I was doing art and social work in tandem. So I kind of gradually got into it. You know, I kept, you know, my income, you know, from my nine to five.

And then I would do, you know, social media and art after that. And then finally, probably, yeah, around this winter. or social media just kind of took over and I didn't even have I really didn't have time to do both so I had to choose yeah yeah your social media went through the roof it's funny I was talking to uh to one of my friends the other day about like the perks of sort of uh branching out as a creator or entrepreneur or freelancer whatever you want to call it and um something that I completely just forgot about because I've got so accustomed to it is he's like the freedom right like you yeah you don't have to be here at a certain time. And when we're talking about doing this podcast, you're like, yeah, pick a day.

I'm fine. I'll figure it out. I'm like, you know, that's great. Yeah. And I mean, I can go meet somebody for lunch whenever. I can do, you know, I have total control over my time, which was, I think, the intention when I started. I just wanted to have freedom to do what I wanted with my day and, you know, be able to share my art doing that. And so I feel like I've really accomplished that. But now that you get there, there's another level of, okay, I have so much freedom. I have so much freedom. could sleep all day if I wanted to, but you know, you have to balance it both because while it's nice to have the perk, it's also like, well, you have to stay motivated. Yeah, there's tradeoffs. Like, you can stay in bed. Sure, nothing's going to happen though. Yeah. So where do you,

where do you draw the inspiration from? Is it like, and for those who haven't seen Kelly's work yet, which I bet a lot of people have on some of the, what do you call it, like the home fees without even notice? I mean, they're everywhere. But, you know, it's, it'll be a quick piece. and you'll sort of walk the audience through the drawing of it or at least a part of it. Yeah. Like when you sit down with that blank page, is it like you know what you're going for? Sometimes do you just have an idea or you just want to let the pen take control and see where it goes?

Or what's your process? Usually I've already created it up here before it, before I even start on it. I have a pretty good visual of it in my head. And I kind of have like an index in my memory, you know, and I think, oh, I'd really You know, I see something, and I think I'd really like to recreate that. And I just kind of in there, that sounds weird, in my head, I scroll through. And, you know, I just pick what I think looks best and I'll change colors in my head. So by the time it gets out on paper, I have a pretty good understanding of what it's going to look like.

But that wasn't always the case. When I first started doing portraiture, it was very much, okay, I'm just going to start with this step. I have a pretty good idea for step one. So once I get done with step one, I'm going to go to step two. And I used to do it that way. So it was a lot more go with the flow. But now I feel like I can fully, fully create it in my head before I make it. That's really cool.

So you worked up to the ability to like be methodical about it. Yeah. So when you, what? So when you see things like throughout the day, do you have like Evernote or something where you write them down and then you come back to that? Yeah. Or I take a picture if I can. Or if it's something, you know, I see. on line, you know, I spend tons of time on Pinterest. I just screenshot it. It's like combinations of

different faces I've seen or I'll take, you know, somebody's eyes that I like and put it with somebody's mouth. So it's kind of, yeah, I just have like a giant folder in my phone of images that I kind of look through and I think about things I've seen or and I just mess it all together. That's so cool. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yes. And this is as I was, or I have been for for years, seeing your work. Like sometimes it'll be the finished product. But I think what I really find fascinating, and it feels like a lot of your stuff that goes viral is like the process. You kind of open a window. And for someone that's a non-artist like myself, like in terms of like I'm very, I'm not a good painter or drawer or any of that stuff. Like it's just so cool to see that happen.

When did you realize that pulling that curtain back was a step that you wanted to take? that people found value in? It was probably right before I made my TikTok. I didn't think, I remember I only used to record myself doing time lapse, and I never just did a slow, you know, real-time shot of me filling something or, you know, painting something. And the first time I ever filmed just like real-time and posted it, it got just a lot better engagement.

So I started going down that road, and I think there was like, I painted, it was, And it's the easy stuff too. It's like the stuff that took me 20 minutes and millions of people see. It's like I painted a pair of red lips and it got like 30 million views on TikTok. And I was just like, I thought that this was not anything. But, you know, and you just don't know really what the audience is going to like until you try a bunch of new stuff out and see where it goes. But yeah, most of the time the process videos do really well. So that to me right there is something that as a creator,

drives me insane. And the fact that you just said that, it makes me happy. It shouldn't, but it does. I know. You spend all this time on this thing that you think is going to change the world, and it's like crickets, and then you just throw something against a wall and it just blow, there's no formula. That's exactly how it is. And you think you can, you know, capture it in a bottle and harness it, but it's like, I don't know. I can't figure out what's going stick and let's not just keep throwing. How do you balance between like looking at other people and their techniques and their style and what they do versus implementing your own unique voice? Because you have a very specific style. Like there's something very unique about the stuff that you do. But I wonder like what were

your influences and how did they did they bring you to that point? Is it something you still delve into from time to time or what's that relationship? I try a lot of the time. to not look heavily at the other, I guess they would be people that, yeah, competitive artists, other people that are doing what I'm doing. I don't look at them too much, because I don't wanna totally take it. And once you see something, you can't unsee it, you know?

It's in your head, yeah, yeah. But, you know, say I'll see somebody doing a color fill of a t-shirt. And instead of doing the t-shirt, Maybe I'll do that similar type of style, but I'll do it in some sunglasses. So I try and do something unique. And then obviously, you know, you're going to make your own artwork under it. So I think there are a lot.

There's a lot of borrowing going on through the whole community, which is fine now. Because I have like an art club and a creator community we're in. And we all share our ideas anyway. So everybody kind of is already doing their own spinoffs of things. So it's nice to see what everybody, you know, comes up with too. Right. Yeah, there's there's so much value in that it's it's an interesting thing like that balance between learning from people that have, you know, done it before you and then implementing your own voice. And I find that like there is a sweet spot, you know, like when you're all the way to the left and you're only looking at, you know, someone else that's done something versus all the way to the right and ignoring some of the tools at work. It's like. Yeah. It's an interesting dynamic. Yeah, I definitely need to balance it. I mean, it's it's tough. You know, you don't want to totally copy something and you don't want to just make whatever everybody else is making. You want to be original.

So that's why I feel like I just usually stick to myself, stay in my lane, and I kind of do my own thing most of the time. Yeah. Has your work in your eyes evolved tremendously from, you know, when you start? Yeah. Oh, my gosh, night and day. I mean, it wasn't very, I had a big interest in art, but I wasn't very, I wouldn't say I was very, I wouldn't say I was very, skilled. I wasn't very, you know, talented in it about four years ago. I mean, I could doodle and I could do craft stuff and I loved it. But I really started to perfect like the measurements and the

colors and the blending. And I just, I used to just get home from work and spend 10 hours doing it night after night after night for years. And I just loved it. It wasn't like hard. I like, I was excited. That was what I wanted to be. So, you know, I, I think through that, I, developed a pretty unique style just because I did spend so much time. Yeah. See and when people see and they're scrolling through your feed and they see your picture with millions of views and they're watching it, they probably don't think came home after work and spent 10 hours day after day after day after day after night. And night after night sometimes, you know, and yeah, that is what you don't see. That is why it looks like magic. But to me it's not. It's obvious how this came about. But some people

they'll say, oh, wow, you're so lucky, which I am. But it's also very hard. A lot of work. That's deep right there. The title of this interview has to have something to do with magic in it, creating your math. That was really cool. Yeah, create you on magic. Yeah, there it is.

Boom. So what advice would you give to someone in that spot? Like maybe they're not even sure. They're not even sure like if it's something that they can pursue or if they have what it takes or what would you do if you sat them down and Kelly was looking them in the eyes and going to change their life. I'm going to give people advice. Try not to.

No. I guess I would say follow, you know, whatever you love, whatever you're most passionate about, whatever, if you are lucky enough to have a spark left, a passion in you by the time you're 20-something, follow that as fast as you can. And, you know, as long as you're doing what you love, it's going to show you're going to do great at it because you're going to be motivated to perfect it, you know, because you love it. So, and you're also not going to give up because if you love something, you're not just going to quit halfway because, you know, you're all in. you're you're passionate about it so follow your passion no matter what i think you'll probably

be successful eventually i'm hoping yeah yeah so so is your art show that you did yesterday sort of an evolution of this idea is growth progress or how did that yeah my okay so my art show i've had i've had a i've had a couple of gallery shows over the past few years about three or you know four and they've been good but they've never been solo so this was the very first show in my hometown. Congrats. Thank you. Yeah, I'm excited.

And it's got pretty much all of my work from the past three years. It's got a lot of like huge oil paintings. A lot of my stuff from the very beginning of this journey. And it kind of takes you through. It's called Love Letter. And really what I wanted to do was especially my city has been in, it's been a hard here with the protests going on and COVID. I feel like people are getting isolated, you know,

It's typical. So I titled it Love Letter and I titled all the paintings, different like affirmations like, you know, you are brave, you know, you're smart, you're worthy, you know, and just to kind of write a love letter to the community for people that are going to look at it so they can, you know, feel more connected with the show, almost like the galleries for them, not there looking to view it. So, yeah, I'm excited. It's gotten pretty good turnout so far. Yeah, that's awesome. So it's like an escape from the hell that has been 2020 on there, right?

I don't want to be that dramatic. But yeah, I just wanted to be something peaceful, something uplifting. It is all women. So definitely I'm interested in, you know, helping women feel empowered, helping women feel, you know, like, hey, you have a place in this community and you can do anything you want. And just, you know, I guess kind of self-acceptance too. Like not every single. artwork in there is, you know, perfect or, you know, the standard of beauty. So just kind of being body positive, saying affirmations, and hopefully when people go view it, they're going to feel a lot better than when they came in is the goal. Yeah, I'm sure. It's amazing because it starts with, it's like your transition. Yeah, I've been working pretty hard, well, not hard, but long. And, you know, the works themselves take, especially the paintings, they take hundreds of hours sometimes. So it's

nice to see them all together. Yeah, that's great. So where do you see, I guess, let's say the next year going? Well, I'm just going to keep going with TikTok. Hopefully everything there continues to be smooth sailing, because that's, you know, the majority of my revenue since I've done this full time. Really what I want to do if ideally is I could have art shows across the country. and kind of go, you know, from different region to different region

and do some showings that way and kind of spread. Because I would like to do more in-person stuff the next year and not so much digital over social media. But we'll see if... Really? Okay. That's cool. We'll see if the, you know, everything allows for that. Yeah, that's what's such a cool thing about these platforms.

It's like they're, one, it's like if you love something and you're good at it, you can monetize it, right? But two, the bigger picture, which you're spelling out perfectly here is that, you know, a lot of people ask, well, how much is YouTube paying you or how much is X, Y, or Z paying you? But it's like, it opens the door to all these other things you can do. It really does. That's what I've noticed is it just gives you more time to try new things to get even bigger, to grow, you know, the organization and the company, the idea even bigger.

So I like that. It's good. Yeah. Well, that's great. That's great. I think we'll end with a message for someone looking to do something creative, do something expressive, right? And they're looking at your work and they're seeing all the views and they're seeing everything you've done and how it's transformed your life. You know, one sentence for this young creator. Never give up and have fun along the way. I guess that's too. Love it. Yeah, you got to have fun along the way. You have to. There's no point. If you're not in love with it and love doing most of it, just, I don't know.

I wouldn't do it. Yeah. Fall in love with it. Fall in love with the process. Yes, definitely. Beautiful, beautiful. So where should we send people here? Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, everywhere.

Yeah, TikTok or Instagram at I Inspired. I is the E-Y-E. inspired. Yeah, I post there several times a day usually, so you can find me. Look forward to more amazing stuff to come. Thanks for chatting, Kelly. Thanks for having me.