Today we’d like to introduce you to Alajie Jaiteh
Hi Alajie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I have always been passionate about art mainly drawing and painting since I was a kid, but I’ve always had interest in other art forms such as graphic designing and photography. Last January I was approached by my friends and now business partners The Weekend Projects (a creative group based in Minneapolis) to be their graphic designer and help make flyers and since I already had experience using a camera mainly for family events/holidays, I started being the photographer for the group alongside doing the graphic designs and from there as we continued to network and collaborate with other creatives such as Loveless Blvd I started to really tap into photography and try to take pictures at any opportunities I could get my hands on.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Some of the struggles were that I wasn’t as experienced as some of my peers around me so there was definitely times of doubt in myself but I never let that kill my desire to get better and I try my best to learn from those around me who has been doing it for much longer. The sheer amount of photographers around make it kind of hard to get opportunities especially since I’m still fairly new at this since I started taking photography more seriously in June 2024.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My main and go to form of art is always gonna be drawing and painting, it’s my first love and my main passion in art. For my drawings/painting I take a lot of inspiration from anime and graffiti and have even sold paintings to others before especially in St. Cloud where I go to school at and currently reside in. I have dabbled in other art forms as well such as photography and graphic design (mainly cover art). I’m always proud of my work cause I understand how much time and effort I put in but I’m also very critical of it as well because I want to continue to grow and do better than the last and raise that bar for myself. What sets me apart is that I m not just satisfied with where I’m at, I want to be better and I’m willing to learn from anyone in the same career path and even outside of it to take the right steps to grow. I also believe I use my inspirations as a strength to be more creative with my drawings, photos or edits and use the skills I’ve picked up over the years and apply it to my art regardless of media.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
My advice is to find what works for you, and apply whatever you learn to your work cause it’ll do more for you than you think. More importantly be as creative as possible, that’s what separates you from others, put your personality into it as well and make you art YOURS.
Pricing:
- Drawings: $30-$50
- Painting (varies by size): $50+
- Cover art: $30-45
- Photography (events):$100-$200
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Bumboart
- Other: [email protected]
