Meet Kylie Popa | Illustrator & Storyteller

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

Hi Kylie, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
There was a point in time where all the popular artists on social media were preaching the need to be creating every single day and in copious amounts. Otherwise art — or music, or writing, or what have you — wasn’t your calling. And for a long time, I fed into that idea. I wouldn’t create every day, but I would try, fail, and feel guilty for having failed, all the time. This continued on into when I got into art school and felt like I had to be drawing or writing on weekends, otherwise I’d chosen the wrong career path.

But in school, three wonderful instructors broke me out of that mindset.

The first was Juan Garrido, who reminded us every week that, in art, “Good enough is good enough”. “Good enough” got people their first jobs, it kept people employed, and — most importantly — it kept the joy in the actual art. When you grind for the sake of productivity, people can feel it. And when you’re actually happy about the work your making and trying to find fun in the process, people can feel that, too.

The second instructor that helped me was Angie Duran, who placed a huge emphasis on nurturing our own strengths as artists so that, when we did start applying for jobs or getting out there in the industry, we knew which opportunities would be good fits and which ones just weren’t. And at first I worried that it went against other advice I’d heard — that you should say “yes” to every opportunity. But what Angie really meant was that, when you take jobs you aren’t well-fitted for — or aren’t prepared for — it becomes harder to build the strong reputation you deserve. It also leads to certain ill-advised practices like grinding extra work off the clock and constantly thinking about work when your brain and your soul need rest in order to continue making your best and most joyful work.

The last instructor that made all of these other lessons finally click for me was Noah Klocek. I’d registered for his class because I was a fan of how multifaceted he was: he was an artist and production designer at Pixar, he wrote and illustrated books, made high-quality video content and taught workshops, and — on top of it all — had kids. And every day I sat in his class, I tried piecing together how he did it. But after fourteen weeks of absorbing his lectures and asking tiny questions here and there, I finally asked him the big one that was really on my mind:

“How do you do all the things you do?”

Humbly, he laughed a little and told me — and the rest of my classmates, who were all probably wondering the same thing — that what helped him finish his projects and take on new ones was just setting aside a little pocket of time in the week to work on the endeavors that mattered to him at the moment. And he emphasized “little” — that it could be two hours on a Wednesday night after coming home from work where you turn off your phone, light a candle, and work on a drawing, or a story, or a film and just keep hacking away at it until it’s done. He mentioned that this even worked better than staying up until 2am every night while having to go to work the next morning (which he admitted he’d also done, earlier in his career).

And outside of that pocket of time, you still had a life to live — a garden to grow, people to cherish, and a world to explore.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I actually didn’t know a lot about the art world growing up. The only art in Hawaii at the time was the gallery and museum scene, and I didn’t know how I’d be able to move out of my mom’s house if that was all I could do. I’ve also never seen myself as a good talker — I like having time to think about what I want to say and find myself tripping over my words a lot in person. So the idea of making a living off of constantly talking to people and convicing them that my art was worth their hard-earned money made me really anxious for the future.

And I let that anxiety rule my choices and I pursued practically everything but art instead. I bounced between studying physics, mechanical engineering, and psychology before realizing I only liked science on a conceptual level — I didn’t want to actually work in those fields. And while I enjoyed learning all these different things, I was bad at running the numbers and writing the essays.

It wasn’t until I took a painting class for my GenEds that I realized art was the thing that made the most sense to me. Storytelling and color and plunging myself into other worlds made me the happiest. And finally having that piece of confirmation — that I was an artist — gave me the clarity I needed to start making moves. I got into my first gallery show just a year later, I got into art school, and I started making assets for short films and video games. And it wasn’t until after I started doing all the cool and scary things that I learned — it never really was all that scary in the first place.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
First off, I’d be a horrible tour guide! Even after living in the LA area for a few years now, there’s still so much I haven’t done yet. Then again, there’s so much of LA to experience in general. But I’m a creature of habit, and I like doing the same few things over and over and nurturing an intimate and personal connection with those places.

If a friend came to visit and they were really okay with following my lead, I’d first take them to The Getty Museum. The whole experience of being waved into a snail-slow tram and anticipating the day ahead makes every visit to the Getty feel magical. I mean, the food can get pricey if you’re there all day, but there are always so many exhibits to visit, and great views of the mountains and the sea. It’s a nice space to just exist in, really!

Prolece Tea in Pasadena is another place I’d probably take them (I take everyone there). There are a lot of great boba places in Pasadena, all within walking distance from each other and they’re all fantastic. But I keep coming back to Prolece because it was one of the first places I went to with friends after quarantine ended, and I’ve made a lot of happy memories there. So why not continue creating more happy memories?

The same night that I visited Prolece Tea for the first time, I was also introduced to Ramen Tatsunoya. The one thing that surprised me about LA was how hard it is to find Japanese food (it’s one of the main cuisines, back home), so I was really glad to find a good ramen place in my neighborhood. And since then, I’ve had a disproportionate amount of Tatsunoya’s spicy miso ramen and their gyoza — zero regrets.

But the thing I’d be most excited to show a friend visiting from out of town is the LA Metro system. We don’t have a rail system back in Hawaii, and the Metro trains blew my mind when I first moved here. They’re so fast! And they don’t get affected by other traffic — it’s genius! Aside from needing the Metro to get to work every day, I also sometimes enjoy just catching the A Line down to Union Station or Little Tokyo, enjoying the greenery of the residential areas and architecture of the city, and having a little adventure downtown. Of course, those stops are near some sketchier areas so I wouldn’t recommend going into it blind. But if you’re with a friend who knows the area, or you do a thorough-enough Google search about which streets to avoid beforehand, it’s a great way to get some real exploring done!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would’ve never pursued art if I’d never met my partner, Henry. While I was struggling through my first attempt at college in the sciences (a bit before we started dating), I felt like everyone else saw me as a failure. But when we were together, we didn’t compare grades with each other or talk about the future. We just talked about things we liked and bonded over music, video games, and whatever else came up. And when I talked about art and writing, he could tell how much I enjoyed it and he was probably one of the first people to see me as an artist instead of a failed STEM student doodling in her notebook. Because of him, I found the courage to apply to galleries, to go to art school, to pursue art with full force. He even moved to LA with me so he could pay the rent and I could focus on completing my BFA. He’s crazy for doing that, but I have so much gratitude for everything he’s done to keep me on track in my pursuit of my dream career.

Website: https://www.kylieapopa.com/

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

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylieapopa/