About the Artist:Audra is from Baytown, TX and graduated from the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor with a degree in organismal biology. But her artist interests in collecting stationary led her to KawaiiChikkie instead! Ever since she was young, she loved to draw kawaii characters and made up worlds and stories for them.Hi Audra, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?KawaiiChikkie started as a way to provide the world with cute adorable products! I have been buying and collecting cute items my whole life. Since I was inspired at a young age to love kawaii and Sanrio. I was always drawn to silly doodles such as Tamagotchi and it took me until I was out of college to finally have an art style I was proud of. Having a vessel, such as Chikkie, helps me communicate those emotions easier. My motto is “Keep It Cheepie!” Which means to be silly, creative and motivated. With character building and immersion, I wanted a motto that people can relate to and be funny to say!Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?Getting to know the craft and the culture of kawaii was a bit intimidating. Starting off in any field, one needs to research it constantly, and it is a niche that only recently has become popular in America, there are not a lot of books on it. Finding the articles, videos, and actual research to know the history of kawaii and even the future of kawaii is hard until these last few years. Loaded with that knowledge helps to grow as a business and artist but It pains me to think of what I don’t actually know and what I can’t experience because it’s hard to get access to it.Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?I specialize in Kawaii minimalism art. I love the subtle attention to details in Sanrio design, and to learn more about it you can see how deceptively simple it is. Creating cute characters such as Chikkie or Hello Kitty can seem easy but keeping to the strict rules of kawaii and design, it can be hard to stay consistent. I work on adding value to something that seemingly has no value, ie. a cute character that might seem to have no importance because it is so childlike. I create with the idea of treasuring the short span of a chicken’s life, their baby stages, because as the artist I want to create ways for the viewer to treasure something that is so fleeting, such as time and friendships.
Listed skills include Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Creative Suite, Logo Design, and 44 others.
