Tara Killoran is a sophomore graphic design major with a very non-traditional viewpoint. She creates art for the sake of creating something real rather than to appeal to expectations she considers pretentious. Killoran finds inspiration from social media and has a lifelong dream of being friends with rapper T-Pain.

Q: How did you get started?

A: In preschool, we would do art projects like stick paintings where we had to draw our family. Pretty much everyone drew lines for the bodies, but I drew circles and that really struck my preschool as artistically innovative and so they just started giving me mad compliments and I feel like that ego boost made me feel like I was good at art which eventually led to me actually being good at art.

Q: What made you decide on a career in graphic design?

A: I saw the list of required classes to be a marketing major. That’s when I knew.

Q: What are some of your inspirations?

A: Instagram is probably my biggest inspiration. Instagram is sorta classified as social media but it can be a really great way to curate your interests and find other people’s work or just random images that inspire you. Patricia Piccinini, she is this crazy artist who 3-D models these really obscure flesh creatures and they make you feel things, and they make me feel inspired.

Q: What do you want to do after college?

A: Don’t ask me that…

Q: What is your dream job?

A: T-Pain’s best friend. You can put that in The Orion, he seems like such a cool guy.

Q: What is your favorite and least-favorite part of the artistic process?

A: I love the artistic process from start to finish. I love the process of creating. My least favorite part is when someone takes a personal (non-commissioned) piece and tries to add a deeper meaning that isn’t really there. I don’t want to sound like a d*** because I like when people talk about my art but I hate the pretentiousness.

Q: Do you have any advice for art beginners?

A: Art doesn’t make you cool, but swallowing a whole hot dog does.

Mitchell Krett can be reached at [email protected] or @theorion_arts on Twitter.