Meet Kanika Blair | Digital Artist & Creative

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

Hi Kanika, why did you pursue a creative career?
Being an artist & creative is something that I flowed into naturally. I’ve always been interested in the arts since a child…lets just say its apart of me. As a child back at home in Chicago I was exposed to music, poetry, theatre, talent shows, beauty pageants. Growing up I also met a lot of other artists, entrepreneurs and creatives back at home which watered my interest and inspired my creativity. In college, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, I majored in Mass Communications & Journalism. I’ve been exposed to so much artistically & creatively. Its something that has been apart of me for so long.

Art is a special gem inside of me that I honestly had no idea I had. I realized art is something I desperately needed…a form of therapy. Through my art I created a world where I could see myself living in.

Basically, art saved me. It opens my mind, gives me peace, its my meditation and it heals me. I can’t say that art is something I was initially pursuing, it just happened. And that’s the beauty of it, it wasn’t something forced. It happened organically. The best way I can explain how I got into art is God awakened it in one of the most darkest moments in my life.

Which is why its so sacred to me.

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.
My art is made digitally, meaning I use a digital medium such as a laptop to create. Majority of my art is influenced by Religion, the Renaissance Era, Spirituality, Comic Books, Mythologies, & other moments in history that I find captivating as well as experiences that I’ve been through or observed. My art has surrealism elements along with dreamscapes, giving my art a more ethereal & heavenly feel. I’m into vintage aesthetics, this goes into my art and creativity as well. Basically every element in my art is something that I’ve been exposed to and studied.

In my art, I want others to feel as if their in a dream world. I want them to be able to tap into their divine selves by looking at what I’ve created. I want people to look at my art and see something that heals some part of them. That’s one of my many goals, to heal through my art.

Being an artist was something that came to me while I was in a very dark period of my life. In those moments art was my safe space and still is to this day. At that time I didn’t call what I was making, art. I simply didn’t see it like that in those early moments. I didn’t look at my art as art. I didn’t call myself an artist until last year.

With my art I’m simply creating my own world but healing myself at the same time. Through my art I’m connecting to God, my soul, my ancestors and my angels…and most importantly to you the people that resonates with it.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d like to thank God first and foremost. I’d love to give a heavenly shoutout to my grandfather Lorenzo Majors who was the spark & motivation to begin my art journey, I love and miss you. Shoutout to everyone who’s been there to support me and pour into me: my family, friends and everyone who has been there whether it was words of encouragement or an opportunity to show my art, and the beautiful souls that has purchased & taken an interest to my art. I’m beyond grateful. Of course I have got to shoutout these amazing 2: Victor Burnett & Spencer Tribble. They have been with me during my art journey since the beginning and they’ve advised, encouraged and motivated me.

Website: kandidart.com

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