December 21, 2018Nika SimoneNika Simone is a self-taught illustrator and digital artist originally from Long Island, New York Nika Simone is a self-taught illustrator and digital artist from Long Island, New York, who currently resides in Washington state with her two weird sphynx cats, Dr. Terence Englebert Crumplecorn and Sir Rupert Digby Von Beauregard. Digital illustration is her primary medium, but she also enjoys photography, and working with markers, encaustic paints, and watercolor. While she doesn’t have a degree from an illustrious institute of education, she did once study abroad for a year in England and got to meet Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan after a London show of Waiting for Godot, which was, in her own words “pretty rad”. Although she hasn’t had any gallery shows (yet!), she did once have her artwork shown at her local library for like, an entire month, and someone even wrote about it in a newspaper, so that’s practically the same thing. First of all, how does it feel to be our first ever FluevogCreative repeat winner?! It's totally crazy, I can't even find the words! I've participated a handful of times since last year for fun, and have been so happy with the pieces I've created. It's an absolute honor to have one win again! What have you been up to since your last FluevogCreative win for ‘Fauna’s Flora’? Last year's win was right at the start of my trying to focus on art again, rediscover my passions, and actively do something with them. It was one of the very first things I accomplished on the platform Twitch, where I had just begun live streaming my artwork. Now, a year and a half later, that stream has grown into an amazing community, full of phenomenal people that help encourage me to do and be more. I've created more in that time than I had for years prior, and that's made a huge impact on my life. The coming year is bursting with new projects and adventures, I'm just stupid excited right now! Which Fluevogs have you added to your collection since we last spoke? Omigosh, quite a few. When I won last year, I had just one pair, Alli boots, in brown. Since then I've picked up a pair of turquoise Guides, red Babylons, silver Malverns, blue Gears, and most recently, those super sparkly Donitas (I'm a sucker for cute boots!). What was the inspiration behind your piece,“Enjoy the Ride”? The Dorrities have a wild streak to them demands to be taken on the open road, but I didn't want to go with the traditional black leather motorcycle vibe. I ended up taking inspiration from bikes from the late 1940's to create a custom vintage-style design for something a little different, plus I included some subtle nods to my first entry- rose, heart, and snail stickers. I also opted to do the piece in marker, which I've practicing with a lot in this last year, instead of my usual digital work. I'd never drawn a motorcycle before, so that was probably a little ambitious, but I'm super pleased with the result! Most importantly, how are your two sphynx cats doing? SO WELL! Rupert Digby has just gotten his own camera during the art livestream, and it's absolutely gone to his head. He's become an insufferable diva making all kind of demands. His older brother Terence has never really had a taste for fame, so while he wanders by stream time and again to (loudly, repeatedly) say (scream) hello, he's really content to hang out off camera and simply survey (commentate) the proceedings. Both are just about the best companions a person could want and bring me no end of laughs every single day! Wander on over to Nika’s portfolio and instagram page to view more of her work and you can check her out streaming art live every week on twitch!
