Today we’d like to introduce you to Eva Redamonti.
Hi Eva, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’m an illustrator based in Brooklyn, NY. I got started making art as a little kid when my mom would put colored pencils or watercolors in front of me. I think my favorite activity into my teenage years was putting on music and just drawing what came to mind. My mom let us try everything: music, art, sports – and see what would stick. I’m very privileged to have a mother who believed in me and my artistic interests.
As I grew older, I decided to pursue music composition. I left home for Boston and graduated with a lot of new knowledge and life experiences under my belt. I was still totally figuring out what I wanted to do in life. After my shifts working in a day job as a barista, and found myself drawing more than music writing. Drawing has always felt comforting to me, and maybe after the pressures of needing to succeed in music, art felt like less pressure for me during this time. I drew a lot and posted all my artwork on social media pretty shamelessly, even though what I was making wasn’t always great. I was proud of it!
Eventually, this snowballed into getting some of my first commissions. I felt semi-comfortable doing work for others in the realm of illustration, but not always. I decided to move to New York and pursue a Masters in Illustration.
Upon moving to New York, I met a lot of new people and took on a part-time role in graphic design. I was able to learn a lot of new skills at my now Master’s Program at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology.) I did have a feeling, however, that I was too young for the program – and I knew I wasn’t getting as much out of it as I could maybe if I was older and had more experience. This led me to drop out of my master’s program and begin trying to freelance independently. I learned so much at my master’s program, but I don’t regret my decision. Shortly after that, the pandemic started.
Since then, I have been freelancing and learning what it’s like to have ups and downs in my career. I have experienced some trying times: a serious hand injury, periods of time where there was no jobs coming in, periods of time where I had way too much work and had to learn to say no, and the list goes on. I am still nowhere near where I’d like to be, but I’m really happy to say I can pay my bills doing things I love to do. I teach part-time at SVA, and I have private students to keep myself afloat when I have less freelance work. I like to think of my income as a big pie chart. There are all these little elements that keep my rent paid: workshops, editorial work, gallery work, teaching, my online shop….each is just as important as the other and they all keep me really busy. But I prefer this over a 9-5 job.
I am still living in my humble apartment in Brooklyn with my partner and my cat.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It definitely has not been a smooth road! One of the most challenging aspects for me was learning to take breaks. In 2020, I worked on a 24 ft. wall mural for a restaurant in the Lower East Side. It was massive. As a result of long-overworked hand strains and this project – I blew out my wrist and had to recover for two years. I didn’t fully recover until the end of the pandemic. It took so much willpower to learn not to push myself and to distinguish the different reasons why I wanted to work in the first place. Was it out of insecurity? Out of love? I needed to get back to making art for the right reasons. I still struggle with learning to rest, which sounds ironic – but I think a lot of freelancers struggle with this.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I started out drawing detailed pen and ink drawings. That is what I was most proud of. Now, I experiment with mediums like gouache, graphite, digital art, animation and more. Most of the commissions I receive are based around themes like futurism, empowerment, psychedelia, or mental health. I believe what sets my work apart is the compositional aspect of it – it’s very detailed but I try to create a balance in all the chaos.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I live in Brooklyn! I like how much there is to do. I am an introvert, and being in this city makes it easy to socialize. I don’t like the smell, the rats, the cockroaches……
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.evaredamonti.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evaredamonti_art/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artbyevaredamonti
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/redamonti
