Meet Alex Kujawa | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alex Kujawa and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alex, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
Drawing has been my favorite activity for as long as I can remember, so pursuing a creative artistic career seemed like a natural path. Some parents may object to their kids going to an art school, considering it a frivolous idea and not a viable career. However, both of my parents were art school graduates themselves, so it was even in a way expected of me to go into a creative field, while simultaneously making it a harder path to pursue, owing to high expectations.

My mother designed clothing and made theater costumes. My father was a graphic designer, a painter, and an art teacher. She was a career-driven, hard-working businesswoman; he was more of a cool, starving artist type. They divorced and I ended up moving from Poland to USA to live with my mother, who immigrated here for better career opportunities. My mother wanted to ensure I did not become a starving artist type myself by choosing a fine arts degree, or anything that wouldn’t provide a good stable paycheck.

As a teenager I was into comics and really wanted to pursue illustration, but ended up choosing graphic design as my field of study. I found myself being attracted to the technical side and fell into graphics production, and later somehow into management, marketing, and spreadsheeting; anything but being creative in a creative field. However, creating art remained a side hobby that I continued to grow and pursue, and slowly started to monetize by selling prints and books of my artwork. Eventually the skills I gathered in my day job helped me turn my side hobby into my actual full-time business. To my mother’s horror, I gave up working for corporations and ended up choosing the non-stable paycheck path of a freelance designer and self-employed artist in the end.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am a Polish-born graphic designer and illustrator based in Northern Illinois. I favor folklore, fantasy and horror subjects blending creepy with beautiful, drawing a lot of dark forests and haunted gardens. Eternally fascinated by the supernatural, I began a series of illustrated folklore books in 2017, but have been drawing and researching strange creatures and stories basically my whole life. I usually work in ink with pen and marker on actual paper, scanning that in and adding digital color. I am currently experimenting with glow-in-the-dark prints.

The hardest decision for me as an artist was to give up a stable paycheck and become self-employed. I always intended to find a job in my field and stay with the company, growing with it and eventually retiring. Right after graduating with a degree in visual communications, I spent almost a decade with one company, advancing through their ranks, growing the graphics department, developing all their processes and building an excellent team. That company laid me off and outsourced my whole department overseas. I spent a few years with another place, building their graphics app system from scratch and managing all their graphics projects. I got laid off when the new management decided they didn’t like anyone working remotely (joke’s on them, the pandemic and lockdowns happened shortly after). Every job was like a marriage to me, and I was always the loyal, hard-working, dedicated one getting used and betrayed.

All that time I had been slowly growing my art business as a side hobby for years, selling artwork and starting a series of illustrated folklore books. Just as my art started gaining serious momentum, a full-time corporate job I had at the time turned into a soul-sucking monster, demanding all my time and murdering my drive to create art. This is where I realized I can no longer do both, I either sell my soul to some corporation for some supposedly stable paycheck, or for the first time ever, focus on my own projects full-time. It was my husband’s support and encouragement that eventually gave me the final push. That last job was the only job I ever quit on my own.

You can choose the path that’s expected of you by your family or peers. You can choose a conventional job with health insurance and a stable paycheck. You can work hard and give maximum effort, make promotions and move up your career. Yet you can still be let go from that job at any time. It really doesn’t matter how long, how hard, or how well you have been working for a company. So why do all this work to help grow someone else’s business, when instead you can invest your time and effort on growing something of your own? It’s not an easy path, but it is so much more satisfying. Give your pursued interest a try as a career. So what if you fail, because despite your best efforts, you can just as easily fail at doing what’s expected of you.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If you are looking for a beautiful place to relax within nature, I would highly recommend Cantigny Park in Wheaton. It’s a huge estate filled with well-maintained beautiful gardens. Great for an artist to get lost in. Bring some lunch and have a picnic or pick up something from their café inside. There’s also a museum on the grounds. For extra whimsy, they have a bunch of WWI tanks there.

If you like badass music, art, and beer I would definitely check out Soundgrowler Brewing in Tinley Park. They serve amazing tacos and host all kinds of fun events, such as monthly local artist art displays, art markets by the Streetz Artz Alliance, and metal band shows. This brewery has been an amazing place for hard music lovers, and all kinds of local artists and witches alike!

However, if I am to mention nature walks and breweries, I also need to recommend Imperial Oak Brewing in Willow Springs. The area is absolutely gorgeous, with huge forests and several lakes all around. The brewery itself has a great drink selection, great music, great views, chill vibes, and a really great eatery right next to it, Pizza 750. I’d start my day in a Willow Springs forest and end it with Pizza 750 and Imperial Oak.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are very many people that helped me achieve success throughout my artistic journey, but the most important person in my life and my number one fan has always been my amazing husband, Scott. He deserves the recognition of being the driving force towards my fulfillment as an artist thanks to his constant encouragement and unyielding support. Also my best friend, Amy, who inspired a lot of my art adventures and has always been there for me.

Website: https://www.alexkujawa.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wheejawa/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlexKujawa

Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/AlexKujawa

Image Credits
Alex Kujawa