Daily Inspiration: Meet Alexis McFate

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexis McFate.

Hi Alexis, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Many of my earliest memories are of drawing and coloring. I always felt peaceful and purposeful when doing this, so I always wanted to immerse myself in it. I feel at my best when I am doing something creative, even when I am not great at it. It is the act of creating that gives me that sense of fulfillment and purpose. I always knew I wanted to find a way to “be an artist” in some capacity, and I am very grateful that I have been successful in making this a reality. It was not easily won, I have worked very hard and pushed past my comfort zone over and over again, facing the gamut of heartbreak, stumbling, and picking myself up again and again. I am not where I aim to be yet. I am always striving to go farther and to feel within myself what comfort zone I can push to grow.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has been like a pathway through a forest; winding, uphill, downhill, bumpy, dark and then smoother with patches of warm sunlight here and there. There have been numerous challenges; one of the hardest has been my lifelong struggle with an anxiety disorder. Even when I believed in my ability, sometimes the fear would just win. I’ve done tons of work to get tools to get past so much of what I used to deal with, so in many ways I am a different person. What I have learned from this work is that it is truly up to you to try. There is no fairy godmother coming to save you, and it will be hard, but if you learn to tune into your inner self and listen, than you can find what part is ready to wiggle free. There is no one right answer, and you cannot make everyone happy. So, you have to fight for you, and when you start, you will find why that is worth doing.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a visual artist and tattoo artist. I specialize in black and grey surrealism with illustrative qualities. If that sounds confusing, it breaks down as my work is based in realism, but I take the liberty to add definitions with lines like an illustration when it feels right. The surrealism isn’t the strongest element of my work, but I like to use that term because I am not so focused on the scale of all elements being correct to nature and I like to think this infuses my designs with a thread of subconscious and dreams. I like to create detailed pieces with symbolism embedded by the way of flowers and animals. My favorite main subjects are female faces and skeletons, sometimes a full figure if it feels right. Recently, I have been hearing from clients that they chose me for a piece because of my ability to create softness and lightness with a dark undertone. This makes me so happy to hear because it is what I strive for, so finally this year, I feel more seen in this way. I aim to create more dream-like designs in this vein when I finish a few projects I am currently working on and always love when people find me for this. I truly hope more people do. My goal is to start doing more larger pieces and sleeves in the future and to paint more so I can have this to offer as well.

What matters most to you?
What matters most to me is to create the emotion that is right for the piece. This brings my clients closer to their artwork and helps them to express themselves. Self-expression, for myself and for my clients, is paramount and matters so, so much to me. When you know yourself and trust yourself, and there is a part of you that wants to share that with the world, it feels very empowering.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @alexis_mcfate_tattoo